I’m just so so SO dang excited to show you my latest project!! I was going to wait until tomorrow to post it, but I just can’t wait another second.
Do you remember by Before and After post where I showed you my best survival knife Here’s a refresher.
Before – Plain ol’ basic knife block:
(Obviously it’s the item on the far right. ;))
After – I spray painted it gloss black. No prep work at all; just spray painted it:
Are you refreshed?
Okay, so I liked the knife block much better than the brown, but I didn’t LOVE the knife block. After staring at it for about a week I decided two things.
A) I should have puttied up the W/P on it.
I added some wood filler to cover up the logo, smeared it around with my finger, and then lightly scraped the excess off with a scraper.
Ah, much better.
And the 2nd thing I didn’t LOVE about my knife block…
B) I should have used flat paint, not gloss.
So I busted out the spray paint and added a new coat of flat black. After that I misted it lightly with some ORB spray paint.
I’m already loving it 100x better now. ORB is the best most awesomest spray paint ever.
So here’s the part where I’m just wetting my pants I’m so excited…
I ordered some vinyl lettering from Wonderfully Wordy last week and it finally came in the mail today!!!
One of the totally great things I ordered was a letter “H”, you know, for Hepworth?! Right. Okay, so I guess you can probably see where I’m going with this…
FABULOUS!!! I’m in LURVE with this knife block! I didn’t think it would be possible to actually love a knife block THIS. MUCH. For real.
OMG isn’t is just amazing?! And it was so flippin’ easy!!! Seriously, you can totally do this!! Here’s how to do it:
1. Putty up the logo on the front of the block using wood filler. Scrape away any access. Let dry.
2. Spray paint your knife block flat black. When it’s dry spray paint a light misting of Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint.
3. Apply the decal that you pre-ordered from Wonderfully Wordy. She’s easy to work with. I told her the biggest dimensions I needed and she made the letter fit my space.
Yup, that’s it! So so so easy!!!
Okay, so here’s how to actually apply the vinyl letter… (This is how I did it, but there are other ways as well).
From L to R: Remove staples. Trim off about a 1/4″ of the backing. Now it should look like this. Position your letter exactly where you want it. It should stick at the bottom where you removed a section of the backing (I do this with bumper stickers too. It helps to get it placed perfectly w/o bubbles).
From L to R: Get the vinyl positioned exactly where you want it. Slowly roll the backing off the sticker as you smooth the sticker onto your surface. Once it’s applied smooth it out really well with a scraper. Now Slowly peel off the top sticker layer revealing only the vinyl.
Afterward you should be left with only the vinyl! So easy!!!
Did I mention yet that I’m totally in lurve?!?!?!
Yes, I’m in love.
Wow – what a great idea! I love it!
Awesome transformation! very creative. I have one of these too…. hmmmm… time for an update inspired by you? I think maybe so in the future 🙂
thanks a ton for stopping by! Glad you liked my Goodwill humor… and just so you know, we really do call them that. Especially the Fancy Store. Our friends and family even say it now! haha! what a hoot 🙂
~ Emily N. from “too Blessed to Stress”
What a transformation – love the monogram on it the best!!!
Indeed, even better! I too love vinyl and order from Wendy.
Yes!!!!!!!!! It looks AWESOME!
I love it. SO creative and fun.
Vinyl is SO addicting! And now you know why. lol
It makes even a KNIFE block look ADORABLE> ha!
Thank you SO much for showing me how you used your vinyl!
Shelley
OH ya… I featured this on my Wonderfully Wordy blog too… hope that’s okay!
I wanted to let all my customers see how cute this was!
Shelley
i LOVE what you did with this knife block!!! I soooo need to do this to mine! It looks so much nicer! Great idea, and love the monogram too!
ashley
http://littlemissmomma.blogspot.com
sweet! great tutorial!
thanks so much for visiting my blog and leaving a comment…oh, AND following! AND recruiting others! hahah!
i’m following you now too!
michelle…xoxo
INGENIOUS! I have a blah oak one with this project all over it – thanks for the tutorial and the what worked/didn’t along the way.
Great idea. Thank you so much for sharing!!
I laughed when I saw your post because check out mine:
http://hodgepodge-babselou.blogspot.com/2010/03/quick-update.html
Except I like your vinyl letter addition! Hmmm…
Love it!! Love all things Monogramed
I bought this same knife set at Sams Club and LOVE it…I will admit I felt the same about the color. I may have to get creative like you and revamp mine 🙂 Love it!
I have to say that I love this! I have a knife block that we keep out on the counter and you’ve got me thinking of doing this. I even love the monogram! I just know I’ll never hear the end of it with the “why are you painting everything black?” {I’ve painted 2 things black}. I do have some Oil Rubbed Bronze and I may just go with that.
I totally love this! You did a great job.
Thanks for joining Get Your Craft on Thursday. Please join me next week for another great party. Don’t forget to stop by and enter my giveaway. I’ll announce the winner at next week party!
What a sweet project. You are one clever and crafty girl. Have a happy spring!
you are very talented and creative.
Love that you painted your knife block! I’m an “H” too so it looks like it was made for me :). Great job.
That is great–I love how you changed a common, everyday item and changed it to fit your decor!
Oh yes – will definitely try this project with my knife block!
cute
Here from FF
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Wow, I really like this idea and had never thought about painting my knife block but it is going on my to do list right now.
What a really great idea. Love how it came out.
Felissa
http://www.twolittlecavaliers.blogspot.com
http://www.felissahadas.blogspot.com
It’s beautiful! I think I am in love with it as well! lol. I am stopping by fashionably late from Friday Follow.I am looking forward to seeing more awesome stuff! Hope you had a great weekend!
So pretty! You’ve inspired me! My knife block was that boring old brown so I spray painted it black. I only had satin finish and that worked nicely too. I tried monogramming it (I don’t have a cricut or vinyl letters) so I printed a letter on my computer and traced it onto the block…then I filled it in with a white paint pen. I looks okay – not perfect like the vinyl. I’m planning to get a cricut for my birthday next month so then I can fix it up right. Thanks for your inspiration!
That looks awesome. I love monogramed items.
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Thanks for posting to the party
Cheri
Oh I am in love too!! And I am sooooooooo doing this!!
Love it! That H is so fun, don’t you just love vinyl?
Coming over from Keeping it Simple. What a fabulous idea! I hate my knife holder and this has definitely given me some ideas on how to make it less ugly! Thanks for sharing!
What a great idea! It looks great, thanks for sharing!
Love it! Fantastic job!
What a simple way to dress up something otherwise so boring! Now I’ll have to watch for a knife block I can paint!
Now, THAT’s a cool idea! I love it!
I think I know what I will be doing soon to a certain block of wood sitting on my counter. Thanks for such a great idea.
You are so creative! Love this project. Be blessed. Cindy
It match with the soap bottle. So cool. But this one looks a lit bit complicated.
Such a great idea to turn something bland into something GRAND!!! Love it!!!
This post made me laugh because just this week I threw away my knife block and moments later took it out of the trash. I think I will be painting mine today, thanks for the inspiration. You did a great job.
Love it!! We keep our ugly old block in a cabinet. I might just have to redo it and show it off ON the counter.
Ooh, that’s pretty! I love the monogram!
Thank you for linking this to A Little Craft Therapy, as well!
Wow, you’ve been busy! I love that idea too! If you linked all these up at my blog your chances of winning the prize would be pretty high, lol.
Oooooo…Can I copy you….please??? 😀
LOVE THIS!!! I literally put my knife block in a cabinet last month because I didnt like looking at it. I will have to give your FABULOUS project a try. Hugs, Tara
Jumped over from somewhatsimple and I have to say I LOVE THIS! I am totally taking this inspiration and turning my knifeblock into something I love instead of the eyesore that it is. Great job!
Can you come to my house? 🙂 I need someone to look at my stuff with new eyes.
Pamela
Great Post! Thank you for sharing!
Love this ~ thanks for the idea!!
Best knife block EVER!!! So Pretty! You are full of good links!
~Bridgette
….I love vinyl lettering on anything and everything! Never would have thought of this though. CUTE!
Fabulous tutorial and project! Here from Talented Tuesday!
I really like this on the knife block. What a great use of vinyl too. Thanks for sharing at Fun to Craft’s Spring has Sprung Party.
I loved this idea so much, I went out and bought flat black spray paint today and did it! Thanks for letting me copy you. BTW, great advise with the ORB spray, it makes it look awesome!
http://blakeandkristinjohnson.blogspot.com/2010/04/say-what.html
I am totally stealing this idea! I love it!!!
I just bought a new knife set & was so disappointed at the knife block! Thank you for your post~now I know I can change it with some spray paint!!
Love this! Could you tell me what ORB spray paint is? I’m repainting many old junky things and love learning new tips.
Wonderful blog!
ORB is Oil Rubbed Bronze. I buy mine at Home Depot by Rust-oleum.
I love your vinyl H. What font is it?
YES! this is exactly what i want mine to look like!!! and yes they look so much classier!! =)
Don’t know if I commented before, but I love this and have put it on my to do list!
Where are my Pampered Chef Scrapers? That would be perfect to use as a scraping tool for my cricut stuff till I fork out the money for the tool set.
Your knife block is gorgeous. I’m planning on covering my cat treat can and my dish washing soap container. lol
You’re inspring!!
This is brilliant! I have that exact crappy oak knife block! Judging from comments, so does everyone else in the world. Would never have thought to refresh it. Soooo much cuter!
Woohoo! It only took almost a year from the first time I saw your knife block, but I finally gave mine a make-over. I gave you a shout-out and linked back to you so others could check out your blog if they didn’t know about it already. Thanks for the inspiration!
http://craftykat-mycraftyplayground.blogspot.com/2011/03/new-old-and-improved-knife-block.html . 🙂 Kathryn
Beautiful! I love the MANY uses of vinyl! 😉
sorry to burst any bubbles, but instead of spelling out what that looks and offending like I’ll state this: those wolfgang puck knives are likely made in china garbage, obviously dull as my backhand by the void of any sharpening steel, and if I walked in to your place I’d surmise there was no man in the house.
cripes, get an oak knife block with some beautiful end grain showing. get a real set of knives, & especially a man handy enough to sharpen them. they will say perhaps solingen, sabatier, zwilling, be made in france, germany, or japan and be of carbon steel or a decent stainless. Looking at that knife set the only thing I’m expecting you to know how to cook is mac & cheese & if a husband is present would guess he is a video game aficionado.
sorry to burst any bubbles, but instead of spelling out what that looks and offending like I’ll state this: those wolfgang puck knives are likely made in china garbage, obviously dull as my backhand by the void of any sharpening steel, and if I walked in to your place I’d surmise there was no man in the house.
cripes, get an oak knife block with some beautiful end grain showing. get a real set of knives, & especially a man handy enough to sharpen them. they will say perhaps solingen, sabatier, zwilling, be made in france, germany, or japan and be of carbon steel or a decent stainless. Looking at that knife set the only thing I’m expecting you to know how to cook is mac & cheese & if a husband is present would guess he is a video game aficionado.
PS ok browsed the site a little, see that you are thrifty. that said, babygirl get on ebay & track down a cheap set of old knives back when quality was common & oak blocks were standard. I can’t help you with teaching that husband how to hone but there’s a start
Just discovered your blog. Where have you been all my life?! I love this blog already! Now, I’m wanting to do the knife block project, but my knives are not black, they are Chicago Cutlery brown wood. I’d love to have them match. Any suggestions on painting them, without painting the metal part? It’s the kind that shows the metal down the handle.
I got nuthin’. Maybe some wood stain?
This looks nice, you did a good job!