I had the most gracious host and hostess on a recent trip to Nantucket. The couple has been vacationing on Nantucket every year for as long as they both can remember and have now passed the tradition on to their 3 children, who have undoubtedly caught the ACK love bug. I mean, how can you not when you are surrounded by beauty like this:
How do you thank a couple who opens their vacation home to you and makes you feel like part of the family? I thought about how much they must miss Nantucket when the weeks-long vacation comes to an end each year. So, I picked up the paint brush! I hope that by giving them a small piece of the island’s charm, they can think about Nantucket in the dim, drab days of February.
In my haste to get the sign shipped to its new owners, I failed to take a proper photo so please excuse this iPhone stand-in:
I painted the silhouette of Nantucket on a piece of oak plywood, certainly nothing fancy but it was a nice thick piece so I knew it would do once I distressed/weathered it a bit. This is what it looked like after I gave it a good sanding:
I tried a new technique that I thought might help weather/age the wood a bit. I was striving for a darker, driftwood look so I applied a paste of baking soda and water and let it dry in the sun. After a day, I sanded off the first application, reapplied the paste and let the wood dry in the sun for another full day. This is what the board looked like with the paste:
Once it had dried, I sanded the excess baking soda off and then wiped the whole piece of wood with a damp cloth. I will try this method again in the future but in this case, it didn’t totally do what I wanted it to. The paste had aged the wood a bit but I wanted a darker look so I mixed black latex paint with water to create a thin black wash. I applied the wash over the front/edges of the board with a rag and wiped off any excess. Once dry, I applied off-white latex paint (also mixed with baking soda!), with a rag.
Once the paint had dried and I had sanded it to look distressed, I painted a silhouette of Nantucket with a small painter’s brush, using a map of the island as my guide. I painted Nantucket and its surrounding islands with 2 coats of black latex paint. Once dry, I applied a thin layer of Minwax paste finishing wax. The paste should be left to dry for about 15 minutes and then buffed off with a clean cloth.
Because I cannot wait until I return again, here are more pics from my Nantucket trip:
Returning from a late afternoon on Ladies Beach:
The hosts’ house:
