Hand Painted French Flower Market Glass Sign

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Make a sign out of old glass for a classic vintage hand painted sign feel like this French Flower Market glass sign

I dropped the kids at school one day and then this shiny thing caught my eye. I’m kind of like a cat chasing shiny things sometimes! It was a double pane piece of glass and at first I thought it was thick plastic. Turns out it was tempered glass. I knew it would be a gorgeous hand painted glass sign for my patio. My daughter and her sweet friend were looking for some chores (don’t you just love girls at this age?) so I let them get soapy and dirty as they cleaned up my latest find. One of the panes of glass broke, but they kept moving forward with the other one.

While they were busy cleaning up my latest treasure I worked on cutting out the perfect stencil for this little project. I wanted a vintage French feel so I used my Cricut to cut a stencil out of contact paper that said Marche Aux Fleurs, or French Flower Market. There is a famous farmer’s market in France with this name and I’d love to go someday. Until then…I have this sign!

This project was a great practice in working backwards. You have to layer paint on in a backward fashion when working on a glass piece that will show through the reverse side giving that classic old school sign feel. I started by painting a border on the frame because I wanted the sign to be mulit colored and layered.

Next I delicately layed my stencil out, this took longer than painting the letters! I made sure to press the edges firmly to avoid bleeding.Using Deco Art Chalk Paint I painted over all the letters ( I used this for the border too). MOST IMPORTANT TIP: Remove the stencil while the paint is still wet! If not the paint will rip off with the stencil. Don’t ask how I know 🙁 You may need to touch up the letters once the stencil is removed, but it is so easy. Paint just glides on glass and you can scrap off any mess ups!

I traced the outside of the letters with gold, free hand and slightly imperfect!

Once that was dry I painted the complete back with a white chalk paint. You want to be careful not to do multiple passes over dry paint with wet paint unless you want a distressed feel. If the dried paint gets wet again is will strip off a little bit when you paint over it. I like the look of chippy layered paint in this sign, but you may not. 

I worked on this project a little each night after the kids went to bed while watching tv with my husband. Once I was finally done I left it in the living room to dry. While working in the kitchen I heard a crash from the other room and cringed. My husband had tried to move the sign and broke it. Luckily only the corner was cracked and I was still able to use it! He was so upset, but accidents happen and since this project was basically free I wasn’t worried at all.  For this piece of glass I made my own frame with some thin wood, connected by pocket holes. I secured the glass sign to the frame using mirror hangers and added hanging hardware to the frame. I had to add some wood shims between the glass and mirror hanger attachments because the glass wasn’t as thick as mirror. Now it dresses up my porch and I can sit and dream of a fancy French market!

Have you ever painted on glass? This was my first time, but you could make small signs from old picture frames so easily…that might be next on my to do list! Let me know what you think and always, I’d so appreciate it if you’d share this project for others to enjoy. Thanks friendsHelpful Supplies for A Hand Painted Glass Sign:

This list contains affiliate links, so you can easily find the tools I use! Full disclosure here.

Cricut Cutting Machine

Decoart Chalk Paint

Exacto Knife Set

Kreg Jig for frame making