DIY Beach-Inspired Welcome Sign

With Tommy Art, DIY is easy. The combination of texture with rich pigment color compliments so many decor styles. Today, we’ll show you how to use Tommy Art texture pastes and paints to compliment a modern beach or lake house decor.

Let's get started with what you'll need to make this fun sign project a success.

Supplies: 

Stencil Light Paste
Sand Paste
Jade Green Mineral Paint
Pale Blue Mineral Paint
Petroleum Mineral Paint
Turquoise Mineral Paint
Wheat Mineral Paint
Walnut Mineral Paint
Raw wood word art
Palette knife
Chip paint brushes - I use one for the blues and one for the browns

Step one: Waves texture layer one

Texture and dimension bring any project to life, and with Tommy Art the look is easy to achieve with a variety of texture pastes - fluid, fluid with medium texture, heavy with sand and a variety of colors to create a great base. 

Knowing I wanted a water-meets-sand vibe, I used the more fluid-but-firm texture for the water, I started with Stencil LIght Paste and frosted the top 2/3 of my letters, just like frosting on a cake. With a minimal amount of paste, use your palette knife to glide the paste over the letters, pulling away every so often to create lifts and hills. Allow to dry. 

Step two: Sand texture layer two

Once the Stencil Light Paste was dry, along the bottom of my welcome, I wanted to mimic the look and feel of wet sand, so I used a palette knife and Tommy Art Sand Paste and applied more sparingly, leaving the texture a bit rough. I did not cover the entire surface, but a smearing here and there for texture. Allow to dry. 

Step three: Painting the sand

Now it’s time to paint, and this is where it gets really fun! The colors in the Tommy Art system blend together beautifully, and I was able to add color to my texture to mimic the look of sand meeting the surf. 

A chippy brush is helpful for this technique because I wanted the paint colors to stay separated. I applied a generous swoosh of my lighter Wheat color base, then using the same brush without cleaning, tipped the bristles into darker Walnut and lightly dry-brushed into the wet Wheat color. 

The paint is rich and smooth, and you want a little bit of speckled texture, you really cannot mess this up. Allow 15 minutes or so to dry to touch so blues in the next step to muddy the color but “spray” over the top of the sand. 

Step four: Painting the waves

Follow the same process over the Stencil Light Paste waves with combinations of blues and greens. Keep the lightest hues toward the bottom ⅓ of the project where the waves meet the sand. Graduate to darker blues toward the top. 

Tip: This project used a very minimal amount of paint. I find it helpful to spoon out a small amount of each color onto a palette (aka paper plate) and set to work. This gives me room to blend and create new hues. Allow to dry. 

When the blue paints have dried, using your palette knife and minimal amounts of Sand Paste, dab small amounts of Sand Paste where the water and sand lines meet. Lift the knife to create texture. 

Can you feel the ocean breeze?