How to Paint a Vintage Christmas Truck Door Hanger

Here at Framed by Sarah we are gearing up for the Holidays! I know I know, Halloween isn’t even over yet. But we are in full swing Christmas prep mode and getting ready for a very fun Holiday Bazar that starts this weekend! Since I am feeling the spirit I thought why not help you all prepare and show you how to paint this Vintage Christmas Truck Door Hanger.

To help I have added a full video tutorial below just for you!

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Vintage Christmas Truck Door Hanger
Supply List

Wood Cut Out
Brushes, I used a 3/4in Flat and a 1/2in & 1/4in Angled on this project.
Small Sponge tip for dots, or a pencil eraser works!
Bow and twine
Vinyl decals for hitch and plate *optional
Vinyl hand applicator or a credit card
Bungalow 47 Lamp Post (black) and Front Door Red for the large portions.
Liquitex Basics Naphthol Crimson, Phthalocyanine Green, Deep Violet, Cadmium Yellow Light Hue, and Titanium White
Fan to speed dry time
Clear-Coat like Minwax Polycrylic or Rust-oleum Crystal Clear Spray Enamel

1. Paint the Entire Wood Cut Out Black

You only need one coat of Lamp Post all over as a base, with exception of two coats on the tires since they will be black.

2. Paint the Truck Red

Once that is dry, brush the darker Bungalow 47 Front Door Red first to cover the whole truck. Do not paint the mirrors or bumper, those will be gray. We will paint the Tree and Gifts fun colors soon so leave those black for now too.

Give the truck two coats of red allowing the paint to dry in between. Don’t worry too much about a little black showing through! These Vintage Christmas Truck Door Hangers will have a distressed look that we will add in a little bit.

I like to use a fan to help my paint dry. The tailgate needs to be very dry before you can add the vinyl to it.

3. Mix Gray to Paint the Bumper & Mirrors

Next, paint in the bumper and rear view mirrors gray. I just use black and white to mix a nice gray color. When mixing colors with white, put the white paint on your pallet first, then add small bits of color to it till you reach your desired color. We only need a little bit of gray so I start with about a nickel size dollop of white paint and then add a little bit of the black to it.

Once you have the color you like go ahead and fill in the mirrors and bumper. You only need one coat.

4. Dry Brush Tires

With the leftover gray paint on your brush (you may even want to dab a bit off) Dry brush the tires. Start on the outer edge and lightly pull in. Just to highlight the edge and add some movement to the tires.

5. Paint the License Plate

Once the bumper is dry use the little piece of vinyl that will go on the license plate and outline the outer edge with a little bit of white paint. Then you can fill the whole license plate with white paint. Do just a couple thin coats so that it will be completely dry when we add the vinyl later.

6. Add a Base Coat of Color to your Gift Boxes

My larger gift will be teal and the smaller a violet purple. But you can choose any colors that you like! Just remember you want them to pop against the red of the truck.

I make teal paint by mixing white with green, and then fill in the large box first. And then repeat with white and purple and paint my small box. I put two thin coats on my presents to cover the black base. You can find all the paints I used plus some of my other favorite supplies in my Amazon Store.

7. Time for Some Distressing

Before we move onto the tree it is time to distress the red and gray parts of the truck. Grab the tiniest bit of black paint with your flat brush. Make sure it’s pretty dry by blotting some off onto a paper towel first and start distressing by lightly dry brushing. You can always add more!!

8. Paint the Tree

For the tree I like to have a variation of green colors. Add a bit of green and yellow paint onto your plate side by side. Don’t mix them yet. I like to start at the bottom and fill in about 2 inches of just the green by itself. After that we will fill in the tree with downward short stokes to add texture and mimic branches. Overlap these strokes and pull in yellow here and there as you work you way up the tree. I like to make the tree lighter as I work my way up.

9. Make the Tail Lights and Gifts Pop

Fill in the tail lights with the orange red paint. Now that the gifts are dry we can add some details. I add a white lined pattern on the big teal gift box and white polka dots on the other. I used my small sponge stamp in the video tutorial, but I have used a pencil eraser before and it works just the same!

10. Apply Vinyl Decals

Next we have to add the vinyl decals to the tailgate and license plate. Don’t try to do this if your paint is still wet. Take a break, get a drink, let it dry really well before adding the decals.

Make sure the decal is sticking to the top layer of its paper by rub a hand applicator or credit card along it. Then pull away the bottom blue layer of paper, place your decal and press it down with your fingers and then rub the straight edge hand applicator back over it.

When you pull the paper off the decal, sometimes the letters want to lift up. Just perform vinyl surgery! 😉 Be patient and hold the vinyl to your truck with your fingers as you pull back the tape slowly.

11. Make it Snow!

Now we are going to splatter paint on as snow. Make sure you move everything out of the way when you do this, it WILL get everywhere.

Mix a little small amount of white paint with a tiny bit of water. You don’t want this too watery. Grab the tip of your brush with you fingers and flick the paint all over your Vintage Christmas Truck Door Hanger. Do not stand your truck up, it needs to lay flat until the thin white paint is dry or it will run.

12. Add a Clear Coat

Seal your Door hanger once everything is dry. I have used Minwax Satin Polycrylic or Rustolium Crystal Clear Spray Enamel. They both work great and will help your door hanger last for years!