Vintage Sled Door Hanger Tutorial

I’ve put together a step by step tutorial for my newest Winter Door Hanger. In fact, it’s so new you get to see me paint it for the first time!! I was inspired by those old antique snow sleds when I designed the Vintage Sled Door Hanger. The sight of them fill me with all the warm fuzzies of the season.

Bonus: a Vintage Sled Door Hanger is the perfect backdrop
for personalization!!

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Vintage Sled Door Hanger
Supply List

3 brushes, 2″, 1″, 3/4″ water container for your brushes, paper plate, and paper towels.
Wood Cutouts
Paint (see list below)
small fan for drying (optional)
E6000 glue
Rustoleum Crystal Clear Enamel or Minwax Polycrylic to seal and make it glossy (optional)
Bow & Twine for hanging

Paint used for this project:

Bungalow 47 Paint colors: Fire Pit, Front Door Red
Acrylic Paint: Titanium White, Mars Black

First let’s start with the wood slats of the sled. I chose a nice taupe paint, Bungalow 47 Fire Pit, for the wood tones in this DIY Door Hanger.

Paint the top cross bar to match. The Bungalow 47 paint covers so well you only need one coat!

While these dry, move on to the letter and rails. I want red accents so I choose Front Door Red. I paint the edges of my pieces first, then cover the front. You do not have to paint the back of the letter because it will be on top of the sled. I like a nice rich red so I suggest two thin coats of paint.

Take the time to paint it ALL. This will give your door hanger a finished look. Again two thin coats is best for red paints.

While the second coat of red is still wet, add a little bit of black paint around the edges of the rails and your letter. Dab the brush off before you apply the paint! You want a pretty dry brush. This is a used antique sled! You want it dark, dirty and distressed.

Now it’s time to add some snow! I do this with the dry brush technique also. With just a little bit of white paint on your brush, catch the top edge and drag the brush down. On the sled you want to do the same at the bottom pulling up.

See how I paint all the pieces of the
Vintage Sled Door Hanger!

Now both of your taupe painted pieces have white snow, and the two red pieces have black distressing. Once dry you can stack them up now and see if the distressing is balanced and if anything needs tweaked.

To seal it, I use Rustoleum Crystal Clear Enamel. I spray each piece separately and let them dry for 30-45 min each. You want to do this outside or in a well ventilated area.

Sadly, my camera died and I wasn’t able to get a video of the assembly!! Don’t worry though, it’s pretty simple.

Attach the top of the sled and cross bar with the screws from your kit. Don’t use the screws too close to the edge to avoid splitting the wood.

The Bow

To make this bow I used 3 different ribbons. A 4″ and two 1″ ribbons.

First, I cut them to the length of the scissors, no fancy measurements here!

I cut 1 of the large ribbon, 2 pieces of the burlap ribbon, and 1 plaid. Then I stacked them in that order.

I tied them together with twine making sure to leave some twine hanging so I could tie it onto the sled.

Once it is all together, I used E6000 glue to add the letter on the top of the sled. This glue takes at least an hour to adhere, so leave it laying flat as long as you can stand it!