Farmhouse Sunflower Wooden Door Hanger

Hey guys! I’m so excited to start sharing some guest posts from some talented artists that I know you’ll love! Today Amanda from our Painter’s Clubhouse group is going to share how she painted this farmhouse-inspired Sunflower Wooden Door Hanger just in time for summer. And she included a really cool technique she uses to get faux wood grain on her wooden signs! If you love the look of the barrel head wooden signs but don’t know where to find them, here’s an easy way to fake it and get the same rustic effect!

Note: Affiliate links included within this post for your convenience. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. 

Here’s Amanda Bolding!

Hey, y’all! My name is Amanda Bolding and today I’m going to show you how I painted Tamara’s design, the Farmhouse Sunflower.  I run the Facebook Page and Blog So Southern by Amanda Bolding and you can also find me on Instagram. I would love to have you follow me for more door hanger ideas and painting fun! I have been a member of Tamara’s Southern A-DOOR-nments Painter’s Clubhouse since the beginning. It is an amazing place to be and I am so honored to share my painting techniques with you today! 

Supply List

1. Amanda’s Favorite Brushes 
2. Wood Grain Tool
3. Graphite Paper
4. Jute String
5.  “Farmhouse Sunflower” Door Hanger Blank
6. -OR- “Farmhouse Sunflower” Printable Template and Digital Cut File

And Colors of DecoArt Americana Matte Acrylic Paints:

1. Burnt Umber
2. Buttermilk
3. Black
4. White
5. Primary Yellow
6. Territorial Beige by Apple Barrel Paints

Note: Affiliate links from Amazon and others included within this post for your convenience.

Getting Started on our Farmhouse Sunflower Wooden Door Hanger

The first step is to choose your round and print the template. When you buy the template, it prints out at around 20 inches from Blockposter, but you can resize it if you choose. You can also order the wooden blanks from Tamara where you can choose either an etched or unetched blank in a variety of sizes. If you choose the etched blank, guess what? No tracing needed!

I chose to use a wood round. If your wood has a nice grain, you can stain it, but if it does not, or you are using MDF, there is an awesome tool I use to create a faux wood grain effect. It is so easy!

First, I painted on a layer of Apple Barrel territorial beige.

Next, I used a bowl to create a watered-down paint glaze. I mixed dark umber and gray with water until it was a soupy consistency. You will need to play around on a piece of scrap wood or paper to decide what shade works best for you. I found my perfect shade when I mixed approximately equal parts water and paint, with a 2:1 dark umber to gray ratio.

After the layer of territorial beige is dry, I add a layer or glaze. Add a thin layer, working in small sections so it doesn’t dry up. 

How to DIY Faux Wood Grain

Next we get to use the wood grain tools to achieve our faux wood grain effect! 

Again, practice on some scraps or paper to get a feel for both the tool and the effect you want to create. Using the tool is not difficult, but it can be a little awkward at first.

While your glaze is STILL WET, start at the top with the large curved tool and drag it down toward you, rocking the tool slowly up and down. You can also swivel your tool to one side as you drag to create some pattern.

Next, you’re going to use the triangular tool. Each side of the triangle has differently spaced teeth. I chose the medium side and dragged from top to bottom beside the stripe I had just made. Then I put another section of glaze down and repeated those two steps.

 

Let the glaze dry completely. You can go back and retouch the grain if needed.

Adding the Sunflower

Since my blank is not etched, I used graphite transfer paper to copy my design on to my round. If you bought an etched design you can skip this step. I taped my template down on one side only to create a door hinge effect, and was able to move my graphite paper around under the template until the pattern was completely transferred.

Next up is painting the sunflower. After all, our farmhouse style sunflower wooden door hanger wouldn’t be complete without a sunflower!

I went for a realistic look. Placing all my sunflower colors – buttermilk, yellow, browns and white – close together on my palette allowed me to mix and blend colors along the way.

First, I filled in all my petals with a layer of buttermilk mixed with a hint of yellow to ensure the dark background wouldn’t show through. Then I blended yellow with a little buttermilk and a little golden brown and painted the petals that appear to be in the back. Finally, I used yellow blended with a little buttermilk to create the lighter petals in front.

Creating the Perfect Sunflower

Now it’s important to pay attention to your brush strokes. Using the large round brush in this pack, I am able to shape my petals in just one stroke by start at the center, pressing down a little as I pull straight back, and lifting at the end!

For the center, I put down a layer of golden brown then used a stipple paint technique to apply small dots of burnt umber, black, white. You’re creating texture by painting on little dots.

Once the flower was dry, I used the the skinniest brush in this pack to add white highlights to my petals. Brings the petals to life!

I cleaned the white from the brush, and used the same skinny brush for my lettering. I chose to use black.

This font is a skinny, hand writing style. Go slowly, pick up your brush often, and adjust the pressure you go to make thick and thin areas in the letters.

And there you go!! I love this sunflower! I use this thick jute string to hang my rounds with and now all that’s left is to choose a bow!

I hope you enjoy making this as much as I enjoyed teaching it to you.

Please be sure to follow me for more fun painting projects and home decor!

Watch Amanda Paint this Farmhouse Sunflower Wooden Door Hanger:

If you already follow me on facebook, you might have already watched Amanda’s  Farmhouse Sunflower Wooden Door Hanger video tutorial when she did it live. If not, take a look to see each step as she painted it! 

About our guest: Amanda Bolding is a home decor and lifestyle blogger at So Southern By Amanda Bolding, where she teaches fun techniques and sells her designs. She lives in Raleigh, NC with her husband, two baby boys, and two fur babies. In her free time (haha), Amanda enjoys shopping, reading, cooking, and neglecting housework.

Thanks Amanda! I hope you give this sunflower wooden door hanger a try, too! Don’t forget – you can always find the painting supplies that you need in my online shop or Amazon door hanger supply storefront, and you can get started by grabbing the door hanger blanks or printable templates and digital cut files from my online store.

Pin This Post to Save It For Later: