Painting Upcycle Tutorial: The House Rules

I’ve been seeing this saying everywhere lately. It’s called the “House Rules” and I adore it. I decided to take an old canvas painting of wine bottles that hangs in our kitchen and totally re-do it using this saying. I kind of love how it came out so I’m going to show you how easy and cheap it can be to make one yourself. I had a lot of the supplies on hand and I spent maybe $15 getting another paint color and more vinyl letters. Here’s the finished result:

This was the original canvas I used:

This one of several of the “House Rules” signs that I saw on Pinterest and drew inspiration from:

Source: etsy.com via Dawn on Pinterest

What You’ll Need:

Canvas. I upcycled one we had. I’m guess you could find one at a Goodwill or something like that and pick it up a lot cheaper than buying a new canvas.
Acrylic Paints in desired colors. You’ll need white (or whatever color you want your lettering to end up) if you’re painting over an old painting. I used black and a color called “Kiwi” by Apple Barrel.
Foam Brushes
Vinyl Stick-On Letters. I used 4″ for the top line, 2″ for the “WE DO” of each line, and 3″ for all other wording.

I’m obsessed with vinyl letters for stenciling projects. I use them on my t-shirt projects all the time. They peel off easily and are so much easier than cutting freezer paper by hand! Ok, so let’s get started. Paint a thick coat of white over your canvas. It doesn’t have to be perfect because we’re going to paint it again. Let it dry completely. I have a hard time being patient but you’re going to stick the letters on so it has to be totally dry so they’ll peel off easily. I let mine dry about 4 or 5 hours.AGH! It was a little scary starting to paint over it! I painted mine each time while it hung on the wall. It was easy and out of reach of little hands.

While it’s drying lay out your “House Rules” (or choosen wording). I used some lettering I had on-hand but had to buy more to get all the letters I needed, thus all the many colors below.

When it’s dry lay it out on your canvas. When you have it laid out how you like, start peeling and sticking, rubbing down lightly to get them on well. I didn’t want mine to be perfect. I felt things being a little funky went well with the gist of the “House Rules”.

Paint on a thin coat of your top color which was black for me.

Allow to dry completely. Then carefully peel of all the letters. A pin helps you get an edge up easily.

After you’re done, you’re painting will look something like this. The dark streaks are where mine’s a bit wet still. I got antsy and didn’t wait for it to dry totally. Do be like me. It makes a much cleaner line when you pull the letters off if it’s totally dry.

Now to add a bit of color. I painted the edges of the canvas in the Kiwi Green and also free-handed a heart on for a pop of color. I wanted to paint this so that I could easily change the pop of color if when I change our decor colors.