repurposed tiki signs

these signs appeared in my past two posts... one for each recent project.

do they look familiar to you? they should - you've seen them before!

  i shared them LAST YEAR as part of our Happy HULAdays theme - but they didn't look like this.

when i wanted signs to accompany recent tiki projects in our backyard,

i knew these pieces would work perfectly... and with a little paint, they did!

it's just one more way i can decorate using what i already have here at home.

if i can use summer tiki decor at Christmastime,

then i can re-purpose my Christmas decor as summer decor!

continue reading to see the before & after shots (and find out a secret about them)...

if you missed it, last December we decorated in a tropical theme that we called 

happy HULAdays (click for all of the posts)

and as part of that theme, i made some signs from salvaged wood elements...

for our front porch decor, i created the sign in the photo on the left.

along with some tikis painted on pine boards, it introduced our theme right at the front entry.

(because i learned from Mr. Disney that the approach to a door is valuable space

where you can begin to 'tell the story' ;) ) 

this smaller sign appeared in a vignette in our home's entry hallway.

but with a quick change, these two existing signs were ready for our new tropical summer decor!
first i flipped the signs UPSIDE DOWN so that the words i wanted to put on them would fit.
(there was a bit more room at the bottom than the top)

a new basecoat of brown paint covered the previous lettering, and i added new words.
the 'secret' is that those four wood squares that said 'HULA' for the holidays
are actually blanks that i've used to create my Giant Letter Tiles. been making those since 2011.
a quick faux wood finish paint job 'erased' the previous 'HULA' words
and then letters for the word 'TIKI' were added.

a final addition of some raw hemp twine adds a 3-D touch to the signs
and holds them to hidden wire stands behind them, to keep them from blowing over in the wind.

now they are the PERFECT finishing touch for two of my recent backyard projects!

the larger sign sits by our new backyard tiki bar - in a sandbox!
while the smaller sign sits beside our tipsy tiki totem
(which was actually created BEFORE the bar that we named after him -
read those linked posts to find out WHY we named them what we did!)

another bonus of re-styling / re-using previous projects?
they don't take up any storage room in the garage now!
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btw: i still have those pine boards with tiki faces painted on them...
and while i like them, most of the faces i chose for them are more 'winter-y' in feel
(Santa Tiki, Olaf the snowman, a deer). and those just weren't summery enough.

but i've just repainted them and created a new grouping at the front door for summer...
stay tuned for an upcoming post about those!