Cocoa's and Eclair's

Or maybe I should have called these American Eateries in Paris.  I had great plans to name these signs something very French sounding, but the doors were so narrow, I had to get very creative with the names.  At any rate, I purchased these television armoir doors from a fellow dealer and knew I wanted to create a pair of vintage looking signs with them.

 The doors were just modern wood doors with some nice detail in the molding.  I always look for detail when looking for sign material.  My husband painted both of these a dark chocolate brown base coat.

 I painted them with American Accents Ivory Silk.   It's a great color for making things look like "Old French."  It is a true ivory.  The only problem is it only comes in spray and I haven't gotten around to color matching the color yet.  I purchased two appliques from The Bella Cottage.  These are about 7 inches wide and tall.  The Bella Cottage has an eBay store and a website.  If you want to give something a romantic feel, these will do the trick.  Although these panels look beautiful right at this point, I like things to have an aged patina and I wanted these to be signs since they are not attached to a furniture piece any longer.

 I used lots of painter's tape to keep each line of text level and to match one door up to the other one.  I always map out my stencil lettering on scrap paper so I know how to space the lettering on the piece.

 I wanted the signs to look authentically old.  I did the letters in Pewter Gray craft paint.  Then I came back in and shadowed with Rub and Buff Gold.  This can be purchased at an art store.  It was easy to shade it with the liner brush.  No worries that it got a little crooked.  This will all be sanded and anyplace that is not
perfect will get a little extra sanding.

 I came back and did the molding with the gold Rub and Buff to add a little more interest and show off the detail of the panel.

After the painting was all done, I gave the panels a good hand sanding.  This time I did not use my Mouse Sander because I wanted a little more control.  When that was all done and they were shabbied to my satisfaction, I rubbed Minwax Jacobean stain over the front and back sides.  Now a word of caution.  If you are going to attempt to stain over these appliques, be prepared to spend a bit of time.  I went in with stain on a sponge applicator and still had to use Q-tips to get in the little nooks and crannies.  Then when it was all colored over, I used Q-tips to soak up some of the wet stain out of the flowers on the appliques.  It can get tedious, but it's worth it.  When you are finished, spray it with your favorite clear coat.  I like Deft lacquer spray in the satin finish.  Here is the finished product.