Grillin and Chillin Cafe Cable Spool Art

When I asked Hubs if he could find an industrial cable spool, he couldn’t believe I asked. Turns out there were two industrial cable spools left at hubs work site.   This backyard sign is one of the backyard projects I am making from these spools.

Prepare the Spool Background

The wood spool is held together with large bolts.  They can be a bit of a challenge to take off, but ours came off with some effort and a couple of wrenches.  Once you remove the bolts the two round ends slide off.

As the sign is for outdoors I used exterior paint.  You can buy exterior paint in sample sizes at Lowe’s.  The sample size gives you more than enough paint for this little project.

Give the spool a rough sanding to remove any splinters or icky substances that may be on it.  Then give it a wash.  Let it dry well before applying paint.

Apply two coats of background paint in whatever colour you like.  Make sure to paint in the wholes left in the middle.   Let the paint dry well between coats, according to the instructions on the can.

Create the Stencil

This stencil was made with a Silhouette.  Grillin font is Monotype Corsica font size 600.  The & sign is Bromtello font size 600.  The Chillin, Cafe is Arial Unicode MS size 500.  Of course, you don’t need a Silhouette for this, but that is the method I used.

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The stencil was designed in one and cut out on 8.5 by 11 inch card stock.  The singular design was moved so different portions were on the page and then cut.

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Tape the center cutouts of the &, a,e to the rest of the stencil to keep them in place.  In the picture above the second letter L in chillin, had an overlap.  Remove it with scissors.

Stencil the Sign

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To place the stencils at the correct angle, hang the painted spool to the fence or wall first. The spools are very heavy so make sure you attach them securely.  For this spool, we used fenced staples for the back of the sign and large screw eyes on the privacy wall supports.  Stainless steel wire was used to suspend the sign.
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Place the stencil pieces on the sign and start to pencil them in lightly.  Starting with the word Grillin,  mark the outline of the G and the N.  Remove the stencil and make sure it is placed like you want.  Adjust the stencil placement if needed, re-pencil in the letters and erase any excess pencil marks.
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As the Chillin and Cafe stencils are curved, place the word Chillin where you like and fold it over the edge to mark the distance from the edge.  Take the stencil for Cafe and put the C from cafe over the C in chillin and mark the folded end.  Slide the cafe stencil over to the other side of the circle.  Use the folder edge to guide the placement and outline the letters with a pencil.
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Filling the letters in with paint is very easy.  For the first coat use a very small artist.  Make the edges of the letters as neatly as possible.  For the second coat use a larger artist brush; fill in the letters in the same direction as you would if you were painting the letters freehand.

Back Deck Makeover

We are fixing up our back deck.  So far the deck is stripped and both the deck and privacy wall (we built four years ago) have a fresh coat of paint.  I am currently working on the sling back chair refresh.  These ombre chairs were worn and black a few days ago. Hope you like what you have seen so far.

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So thankful it’s finally nice outside.   In one more week or so the backyard will be done and all I have to do is chillax and enjoy it.

Do you have any outstanding projects for your yard?