DIY Vintage Gas Station Façade
- sunnyslopefillingstation
- May 13
- 5 min read
Updated: May 16
How We Created an Americana Roadside Filling Station in Our Garage
This is one of those bigger projects that I have wanted to do for awhile that inspired me to start Sunnyslope Station.
Let me start at the beginning...the summer of 2022 my husband helped our friends with the massive project of clearing out and tearing down this 50+ year old barn in Grand County, Colorado.
Underneath the red building wrap was beautiful, well-preserved barn wood! So the morning the barn was coming down, he got there early and cut some out to use for an undetermined project down the road. This is just a portion of what he kept.
We even moved it all to Oklahoma in November 2023, my husband can count at least 7 times he has moved all this wood, so he was anxious to find a project we could use it on.
When I was thinking of adding a nostalgic space to our home, the garage was the perfect spot. We had a big empty wall just asking for something special!
If you've seen the rest of my site, www.sunnyslopestation.com, then you know my fascination with vintage gas stations and that's the look I wanted for this wall. I wanted it to look like an old Americana roadside filling station.
Here's my rough sketch:
I knew pretty early on that the old recycled barn wood had to be part of the walls — it carried the kind of worn-in character I love. To break it up a little, I added corrugated metal along the lower half for that old roadside service station feel (and eventually, I want to age it even more… so definitely follow along for that project 👀). From there, the vision just kept growing. I envisioned our deep freeze being a vintage-inspired Dr Pepper soda machine, started layering in old metal signs for that gas station vibe, and of course, there had to be a screen door — because every classic roadside stop seemed to have one. And no version of this dream space would feel complete without a little neon glow lighting it all up.
Now let's get to some videos of the process!! This first one is a time lapse of the screen door install, this was probably the most time consuming and complicated part.
TIP - I thought about building one from scratch, but for $65, it was easier to just buy this readymade version at Lowe's. We may stain it at a later date to make it look more worn in (watch for that future project!)
Hinges: https://amzn.to/4dinhbg
TIP - one of these hinges has the tension adjustment on it, they didn't realize this until they were all installed, ideally it would have been in the middle, but the holes are set differently than the other two, so they couldn't change ours and decided to leave it, so far so good.
Door handle: https://amzn.to/4nqDKij
Furring strips were also screwed into the studs along the wall to be lined with barn wood. This just gives a solid base for the boards to attach to the wall. Originally, the plan was to use our nail gun, this would've been a LOT quicker, but we ended up pre-drilling holes into the barn wood and using screws. We didn't want to split the planks!
If you aren't lucky enough to have a friend who needs their barn torn down or a handy person to install it, you could always do a faux wood/corrugated metal look.
Wood: https://amzn.to/4eHkMBC
Metal: https://amzn.to/3RkzLaR
It took about 12 hours to install the screen door and hang all the barn wood. Then it was finally time for the part I'd been planning for months, installing all the fun stuff!
So it's finally time, here are the before & after pics....
Here are all the products I used:
Dr Pepper soda cooler wrap: www.kudumagnets.com
I custom ordered the Dr Pepper deep freeze wrap from KUDU Magnets near Barcelona. Because I know you might ask, there were no additional tariffs charged to receive my package, everything went smoothly and Neta was amazing throughout the design process. This was a huge feature of my project, so I wanted to get it perfect, and she NAILED it! Use code "kudufriend10" for a discount.
Domed Texaco metal sign: https://amzn.to/3PDtE0R
Route 66 half oil can/bottle opener (future tutorial on this project coming soon!):
https://amzn.to/3R2vkBu (you can also find these at Hobby Lobby)
https://amzn.to/49GtOLA (mine was from Hobby Lobby, but this link takes you to a similar one)
Forky antlers: my 2nd mule deer harvested near Hot Sulphur Springs, Colorado several years ago
Barn light: https://amzn.to/4eCm14Y
TIP - mine was found in our prior years garage sale pile, we cut the cord and
ordered a rechargeable light bulb that is turned on by remote control. This was
the easiest option for us to not have to run any wiring. The link is to the other
barn lights we've installed around our home that I absolutely LOVE.
Rechargeable light bulb: https://amzn.to/42uagpX
Screen Door Push Bar: I searched high and low on Amazon to find something similar, but I came up short. Mine is from Hobby Lobby years ago (probably almost a decade!) and was in another part of our house until I finally had a screen door to use it on! I found several awesome push bars on Etsy though, I won't share the links, since typically vintage items are one off and will be sold by the time someone reads this blog, but search for "vintage screen door push bar" and you should find some!
Checkered rug: https://amzn.to/4d5UHLg
Texaco metal trash can: https://amzn.to/4fhaxnB
Dr Pepper metal cooler: this was my 1st project on this blog! You can check out the post here.
Texaco thermometer: https://www.hobbylobby.com/home-decor-frames/mirrors-wall-decor/quote-wall-art/texaco-embossed-metal-thermometer/p/80779095
Here are some other options:
Texaco round neon light: https://www.hobbylobby.com/spring-shop/spring-wall-decor/spring-quote-wall-art/texaco-gasoline-filing-station-led-neon-sign/p/81259815
I just bought this in-store at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago, but they sell out quickly, here are some other options:
https://amzn.to/4tu554k (Texaco)
https://amzn.to/3PgSHGY (route 66)
https://amzn.to/48Tao63 (moon eyes)
Gas .26 sign: I just recently bought this sign on Amazon as well and it appears to be sold out now, here's the link in case it returns to stock: https://amzn.to/4tAvAFs
Here's some more options:
https://amzn.to/3Pp2HOe (honestly I almost like the vintage look of this one better!)
https://amzn.to/4tuSVIo (I still might add this one to my wall, I loved it!)
Arrow shaped Fire Chief Texaco sign: I found this one at a Mo-Kan Drag Strip swap meet! It's reproduction, but I liked the worn in feel of it. You could use the one I mentioned above, https://amzn.to/4tuSVIo since it's also an arrow.
The final two signs are road signs my husband had before I met him, so we wanted to include them on this project! And they fit the vibe we're going for.
You can see the workbench he built previously, if I end up staining the screen door wood, then I'd stain the base of this bench to match. My 10 year old has claimed this for his slot car track and a remote Lego village:) You can also see the 4th panel of our Dr Pepper cooler on the stainless steel fridge You wouldn't be able to see if it I installed it on the deep freeze, so I put it here instead! But if we ever rearrange, then we'll be able to put it on that left side.
And that's how you DIY a vintage gas station facade. I hope it gives you some inspiration for your own project! Please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions or if you need help designing your own vintage filling station façade. I have more ideas to add to my filling station entryway and around the house/yard, so follow along by subscribing to my email list to ensure you don't miss out! Thanks for reading!
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