TOM WILLS PRODUCTIONS: No. 377: The Bourbon Porch

"The Bourbon Porch" by Tom Wills, June 2017, acrylic on wood.

I'm open to collaboration -- and no one's idea is silly (even my own).
This little porch sign, "The Bourbon Porch," is on its way to a Florida beach community, where laid-back people relish their escapes from uptight types. It'll be hung on a porch where bourbon can and will be had. Simple as that.

What's on your barrel?

The sign started simply, but was not a simple project. Good northern neighbors of two southern bourbon babes wanted to gift them with a sign for their porch. They drew up a little example of how it could look and sent it to me. Here it is:

Original demo version

Their requirements were that it had to display a whiskey barrel, two glasses and a bottle of Woodford Reserve. We all got together at a greasy spoon eatery and I presented my sketch, which was:

My sketch, which basically became the sign.

Enthusiastically we unfurled the design in a parking lot and discussed the colors for the sign, and then off I went to buy wood and paints. A few days later they wanted some red pavers added to the sign, and that was no problem.

Ice!

The sign is small, 16'' x 20'' and not a size of wood normally carried by the relatively unfriendly and definitely not helpful people at two local lumber stores that were devoid of customers. Go figure. Luckily Menard's carries a huge assortment of woods in all sizes, for cheap, and had exactly what I needed in less than five minutes. I enlisted my brother to saw off a few spare inches, which took about 20 seconds, and then we spent the rest of a Saturday morning looking at garden boxes and motorcycles.

Hand-painted lettering.

The first step was to sand, prime and paint the wood with a dove gray, which took a few nights and a few coats. To make the sign appear rustic, I used the rougher side of the wood and rubbed it down with watered-down black acrylic paint -- and then rubbed it off. Instantly antiqued!

Rub on, rub off.

I then re-drew the sign design onto the wood and prepared for painting. We bought a very good set of acrylic paints and I blended some together to create the specified colors for the barrel and the bottles. I used a hint of blue for the ice cubes. The bricks were, at first, at an angle but looked terrible. So I wiped off that paint and went with a more geometric brick design -- a square.

Drew it twice!

All of the lettering was designed and drawn by hand. No technology was used in this fully analog design, which is both good and bad. The bad is that you don't get computer-crisp results that can be reproduced over and over, blah blah blah.

Working on the lettering.

The good is that you get something truly one-of-a-kind, only yours. A little royal blue script, and some big birch wood-looking letters, and all of their imperfections. Splendid!

Weathered look, though brand new.

I weathered the entire design again (using the same process as when I began), then coated the entire sign with some 20 coats of spar varnish, which is a special urethane that expands and contracts with the weather -- Florida heat and humidity -- and also protects from ultraviolet rays -- Florida sun.

Letters, before distressing them.

I'm happy with my folksy little sign, and the customers are too -- happy enough to order another one, with a palm tree, a little house, three dogs, a dolphin, birds and surf. And yes, they provided another little sketch for me. I've taped it above my art table, and we'll meet again in that greasy spoon parking lot sometime in July.