Birthdate Number Plates

Pinterest is such a great source of inspiration for me, I have been addicted to it from the moment I was invited by a friend to join (remember those days?). Before Pinterest came along I would rip pages out of magazines and glue them into scrapbooks, over the years I accumulated lots of scrapbooks and looking back at them now I just cringe at the things I liked! Needless to say, my taste has changed quite drastically! Now, when I want to make design decisions my first source of inspiration is Pinterest and this little project I am sharing with came from hours of Pinterest scrolling! It all started with this image……

In particular the number plates…..I looked at looked at them and thought about what I could do to take this idea and make it into something personal. So I decided to create Birthdate Number Plates using theses European Plates as inspiration. The layout I decided on was as follows: B 1 0 0 3 1 9 7 9 G (“b” for birthdate, then the day, month and year of our birth and our initial) I figured this looked close enough to the plates as I could get and while we knew what they stood for they wouldn’t be immediately obvious to people who visited. I like to keep people guessing when they visit! Makes for interesting expressions on our guests 😉

The wood I used was just pine boards 90mm wide (3.54 inches) and I cut them 900mm long (35.43 inches). I cut three at this length, one for each member of my family. I then used the mug to mark curves on the ends.

I cut the curves with a jigsaw and sanded the edges smooth.

I painted the boards with the white paint, I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Pure White.

To get even spacing with my stencil I used the stencils right next to each other lined up like below.

I used masking tape to mark the top of each board so I knew where to place the first stencil on each board.

I drew the outline of each stencil onto the boards.

I filled the outline in with paint, I used MMSMP in Typewriter.

I lightly distressed the boards and then attached the d-rings on with the screws on the back of the board.

Finally, I hung mine at different heights!

I am really pleased with how these look, when my daughter came home from school and saw them I actually got an “OH Wow!” so that means I pretty much nailed it! Now all I need to do is create the art for the remainder of the wall above our sofa and our living room will start to feel complete.

You may find me linking up to:

House of Hipsters | Classy Clutter | Live Laugh Rowe

 Sparkles of Sunshine | Making it in the Mountains |  The DIY Mommy

Snap Creativity | The DIY Dreamer | Home Stories A to Z | Miss Mustard Seed

AKA Design & Life | Sand & Sisal | Mum Takes Five | DIY Showoff

Funky Junk Interiors | Dwell Beautiful | Anderson + Grant