How To Make DIY Wood Signs? A Simple And Easy Way To Improve Your Living Space
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As a homeowner who fancies woodworking activities, creating home decor from scratch probably already crossed your mind. After all, its a great idea to display your crafty skills by putting up DIY wood signs on your walls.
In this tutorial, our team will guide you through an easy step-by-step process on how to make rustic wooden signs for your home, room, or office to achieve your DIY project goals.
How To Make DIY Wood Signs
Before we enumerate the tools and materials youll need in this sign tutorial, we advise you to feel free to base your purchasing decisions on the aesthetic and technical aspects of the sign you want and love to create for your home.
For wood signs that you will love and last a lifetime, or your high school projectsubmission that will get you the A+, the materials you use for these DIY projects should be strong and compatible with the craft method you are using.
Tools And Materials You Need
You must first decide what type of painted wood sign you want for your home. You can find a variety of pre-cut lumber boards at local craft and home improvement shops that come in different styles, quality, and sizes.
Most hardware stores offer wood frames or lumber cutting. However, you will still need a table saw or a handheld circular saw to customize the size of your wood frame sign.
You also cant forget to include the paint or stain youll love to use for the background of your sign. Our experts recommend that you get any type of paint as long as it can be used to stain or paint the background of your sign. And of course, any sign painting activity would need a paint brush, or you can opt to use a small foam paint roller as others do in doing your DIY sign for your home.
Our team also suggests including an orbital sander in your tools list to make wooden signs smooth on the edges of the frame and prevent unintended splinters during the process of construction. But if you dont mind doing a bit of labor, you can sand down the rough edges manually with top-performing sandpapers for wood.
It is easier to create a stencil or printout ahead of time so that you can make a great DIY wooden farmhouse sign. You can also throw in some oil-based sharpie and pens, which will help make wood signs colorful and bright.
One should consider buying pine boards and stain paint, as these will be used for making and polishing the wood frames of the DIY sign for your home. In the final part of the woodworking process, you will also need a hammer as well as finishing nails.
Choose And Prepare Your Wood
Cut and Sand the Base
One of the most common boards you can buy from your local store is the birch plywood that comes in 5 cm x 5 cm and 5 cm x 10 cm sheets. If you want to make your wooden sign smaller than that, you can always opt to cut them yourself using a circular or table saw.
Although you can choose any kind of lumber when creating rustic wood signs, were firmly against the use of thin plywoods. One of our tests revealed that the thickness of the wood determines how easily you can attach the frame.
If you plan to decorate your wood sign, make sure you also cut two boards or plywood of a similar length. These will be attached to the back with a hammer nail.
Paint and Stain the Wood
White is definitely one of the most common bases used when making signs, but If you love and want to make your hand-painted lettering wood signs look fancier, you can use bright, rustic and lively colors.
Before you apply paint to your wooden signboard, sand it thoroughly. It should dry completely before you move on to the next step.
Aside from sign painting, you can also decorate it using wood stain. This process is not popular with many woodworkers due to the chemicals and fumes it produces. A water-based wood stain is the best option.
Other than the absence of toxic chemicals, water-based wood stains tend to hold color better and have better UV protection compared to oil-based products. When applying these onto the board, remember to brush the stain in the same direction as the lines.
There are many great tint colors you will love available in the market to suit the needs of your DIY wood sign project for your home, like walnut, grey, cascade, and many more. If you need the sign to dry quickly, you can either let it sit or blowdry it.
Prepare Desired Text Or Imagery
Next, add your design to the boards. These are four easy ways to lay the letters on rustic or smoothened lumber.
These are four easy ways to lay down letters on rustic or smoothened lumber.
Printed Design
If you want to have complete control over your boards overall look, in this tutorial you will know that its a great idea to print your design ahead. Through some photo editing software tutorial, you can find all kinds of fonts and patterns to make your board achieve the aesthetic element you want.
After printing, you can transfer it from paper to the board using a super easy pencil technique. Turn over the paper and rub the pencil lead on its back to pass on the letters and patterns on the wood signs surface.
If your wood sign is very dark, you can use white chalk paint to cover it. Also, make sure that the letters are straight and centered. This is something that can often be overlooked when DIY sign-making begins. To prevent paper from moving, use painters tape.
Our experts also advise using light pressure when youre tracing the design from the paper to the board so that you can avoid undesirable dabs on your wood sign. Lastly, you can add color to your traced outline with markers, sharpies, or paint.
Stencil
This tutorial will show you how to create a stencil for any craft. It allows you artistic freedom as well as saves time. Some stencil packages already come with great saying and a set of letters, so you dont have to worry about doing it yourself.
You can use many types of stencils for this DIY woodworking project, like vinyl, reusable, and SVG file stencils.
Among the three, our team would recommend using vinyl stencils. It is inexpensive and easy to use. All you have to do to make the stencils is to spray adhesive it on to the board and then paint it over.
It is not necessary to use a brush when you are adding paint. Foam might be an even better alternative to get the stencil effect you desire. Like the previous method, lightly dab the paint to transfer the design from paper to the board.
Let the wood signs dry entirely before pulling out the stencil paper from the decorated lumber. You will notice stencil marks in the background of your design after this step. Our advice is to touch up spots missed during the process using a paint-dipped toothpick.
Vinyl Cutting Machine
One of the easiest ways to get designs on your wood signs is through the use of vinyl cutting machines like Silhouette or Cricuit. These sign-cutting methods using Silhouette or Circuit are quite similar to the stencil process.
Silhouette or Circuit cuts patterns and letters out of adhesive vinyl sheets, which makes a more straightforward sign-making process. Wood frame signs can be decorated by you or in the way that you prefer, or you can purchase a pre-made layout online.
Hand-lettering
This method is best for people who have excellent handwriting in doing wooden sign painting. You can add artistic flair to your wooden sign painting by using your unique penmanship. Before you paint, draw the letters or print the font with a pencil to guide you and avoid making mistakes.
You can add color to your penciled plans with a paint pen to get the precise, easy results you desire. If youre tracing the print with a black sharpie, you can make your sign stand-out by adding some white paint on its edges. su
Build And Attach The Frame
The final stage of this tutorial involves making the frame of your board. If the frame is stained with wood, a well-made DIY signboard will look finished.
Cut two to four pieces of wood roughly the same size as your sign. Next, apply your tint to your layout. Once dry, glue them to your rustic wood board.
Make sure to attach a sawtooth picture holder at the back of the DIY sign. This will allow you to easily place it on the wall for decor.
Hang Your Sign
It doesn’t matter where your wooden signs are placed, it is important to not hang them higher than the eye level. This can make them less visible. If you intend to hang these signs at your home, our experts suggest to put them where they can be seen, like in the living room, dining room, door, or above the bed board.
FAQ
What kind of wood do you use to make a sign?
The kind of wood you can use to make a sign are pine and plywood. These options can be quickly brought to your local craft stores. These plywood can be used in many other projects, besides wood sign-making. No matter what wood you choose, thick boards are best to attach frames easily.
How do you make a wood sign without a Cricut?
A Cricut machine is not required to make wood signs. You can stencil your design onto the board, and then use paint to transfer it to the lumber. Aside from that, you can also opt to hand-paint lettering and patterns on the board if you have excellent penmanship.
What is the best way to make wood signs money?
The amount of money you can make with wood signs depends on how creative and diligent you are in creating these rustic painting wooden crafts. These rustic signs are expensive, but they are well worth the investment. Wood signs can be sold by people who have a woodworking shop and bought complete equipment.
Conclusion
It is not easy to do something the first time. However, if you follow these steps and plan your design carefully, you will be able to create well-crafted DIY wood signs for your home.
Once you are familiar with the process, you can just continue to practice your craft and learn new things. As mentioned, always consider the quality and brands of materials and tools to be used as these will be your foundation for a successful woodworking project.
