Winter is Coming (Home)

VALLEY SIGN (ORTING, WA), which specializes in sandblasted wood signage, produced a Game of Thrones-themed wedding present from a father to his recently married son and daughter-in-law – both big fans of the popular TV series – for their home.

Gary Lyons, a designer at Valley Sign, designed, assembled and painted the sign, which features real, medieval-style metal swords inserted into red cedar wood. “Putting the swords in was pretty simple,” Lyons said. “I ran a crisscross dado on the backside and I cut the swords in the middle to extend them about six inches – they were a bit short – and fastened them in place. I laminated some cedar strips over them, then sanded flat.” Lyons applied a dark stain and airbrushed the sky behind the mountains. The lettering is hand-laid 23k gold leaf. “We added six rivets around the edges,” Lyons said, noting that they gilded them first before setting them in holes.

The sign features real, medieval-style metal swords inserted into red cedar wood.