DIY Silhouette Chair Signs

image via Etsy shop SignsToLiveBy

Alternate title: Silhouette, Gentille Silhouette

Chair signs are all over Pinterest, and I knew that it was a project that I could very easily DIY so I bought two wooden plaques at the Dollar Store and forgot about them for a long time. 

There are three main kinds of chair signs.

There are Mr. & Mrs. signs:

Bride and Groom signs:

image via Etsy shop OurHobbyToYourHome

And finally, silhouette signs:

image via 100 Layer Cake/ photography by Olivia Leigh

I decided to go with the Silhouettes even though I figured they would be much harder to make than the other two, but I also liked that they were different and fun. 

I started off by painting the plaques with some white acrylic paint. To achieve better coverage, I gave the wood a few coats using a pouncer instead of a brush, to avoid rough brush strokes. 

Now, I’m not crazy enough to do actual silhouettes of me and Mr. Waterfall, though if you wanted to, there are a million tutorials on how to do it. Instead, I simply searched for silhouette clipart online and tried to choose two that looked most like us. One thing I really wanted was for my silhouette to have her hair down because I never wear my hair in a chignon. 

After I found two silhouettes that I liked, I saved them on my computer and played around with their sizing until I was happy with them. I printed the pictures out on my printer and using an HB pencil, blackened their back sides and taped them down where I wanted them: 

Once I had the picture taped down, I traced my way around with a pencil, once I removed the taped picture, I had an outline on the wood.  At that point, I was able to start working my way around with a fine tip sharpie.

 

After this point, I filled in the rest with a thicker sharpie, making sure to work in small, even strokes.

I repeated the steps for the second silhouette, finished it off with a coat of clear varnish and Voila!

I just have to attach some ribbon, but these babies are good to go! I'm so pleased with them! Total cost: 2$!
Have you been pleasantly surprised with how a DIY project turned out?