Man Cave Sign — Hangovers Last Only a Day | Carved Wood
Carved wood signs, cut one at a time in Bardstown, Kentucky. Nearly two hundred designs — kitchen, bathroom, bar, porch, faith, family and a long shelf of funny ones — all carved into pine and poplar rather than printed onto it.
How they are made
Each sign is CNC-carved from pine or poplar milled by an Amish sawyer a short drive from our shop, then hand-finished and stained. The letters are cut into the wood rather than printed on it, so the design has depth you can run a thumb over and nothing on the surface that can chip or peel.
Made to order in Bardstown, Kentucky, and shipped free in 2–7 business days.
Carved, not printed
This is the part that matters and the part most listings gloss over. A printed sign is a photograph of woodgrain on a flat board; the letters are ink. A carved sign has the letters cut down into the timber, so there is real shadow in every stroke and nothing on the surface that can chip, peel or fade off. Run a thumb across one and you can feel where the words are.
It also means the sign ages like furniture rather than like a poster. Ten years in a steamy kitchen will darken the stain. It will not lift the letters.
The wood
Pine and poplar, milled by an Amish sawyer a short drive from the shop. Pine takes a stain warm and shows its grain; poplar cuts cleaner and suits finer lettering. Which one a design gets depends on how much detail is in it.
Finding the right one
The kitchen and bathroom ranges are the biggest, because those are the two rooms where a sign gets read daily. The bar signs lean bourbon, which is what happens when you carve in Nelson County. Porch and entryway designs are sized for the wall beside a door, and the faith range is deliberately quiet rather than loud.
If you are buying for somebody else, the funny ones travel better than the sentimental ones — a joke about a loud house lands with almost any household, where a family-name sign has to be exactly right.
If you're wondering where to start, start here: Grandparents Sign — First 50 Years Are the Hardest, Camper Sign — This Is Our Happy Place, Be Nice or Leave Sign — Funny Carved Wood Entryway Rule, and Man Cave Sign — Hangovers Last Only a Day.