How To Make A Wood Pallet Sign

This detailed tutorial on how to make large DIY pallet signs will walk you through building, painting, and sealing in a few clear steps. Using a few supplies from the home improvement store, you can have your own unique décor to display in your home!

When I envisioned my Christmas mantle display, I knew right away I wanted a DIY pallet sign that matched the rest of the vintage display. They are easy to make, inexpensive, and they only require some basic tools but the creative options are endless!

The best part of this project is that this sign is made from a few wonderfully cheap rough cut fence slats! I made this entire sign with materials I already had on hand, but it probably cost about $15 for materials.

DIY Pallet Sign Supplies

Links are provided to examples of the tools that I use often. There are a few ways to personalize this project for your DIY pallet sign idea, so I have included alternative methods.

Tools

• A Wood Cutting Tool – jigsaw, circular saw, or chop/mitre saw. Sometimes, you can have the wood cut at a home improvement store.
• Brad Nailer – Wood glue may also work if you don’t have a brad nailer.
• Paint brush
• Cricut Air or Explore Maker or Silhouette Cameo Design Cutting Tool  – I’ve outlined other options below if you don’t have one, yet. But I highly recommend getting one!

Materials

• Transfer material
• 2 or More Paint Colors – one for the background color and one for the letters
• ½ inch thick wood slats– I used pine dog eared fencing posts because they are super cheap.
• Contact Paper or Adhesive Vinyl – You can choose between permanent and removeable vinyl depending on whether you want to hand paint the stencil.
• Hanging Materials – wire/screws

Pallet Sign Step by Step Instructions

The full instructions are in the printable how-to card at the bottom of this post, but I include tips, reasoning, and things that I did specifically for this project.

Step 1: Make and Size Your Design

I started by making a stencil for the DIY pallet sign idea. I used the fonts Chopin Script and Mayonnaise Condensed on my Silhouette Cameo. I blew it up to the size of the sign. I highly recommend removable vinyl like this one and transfer paper for vinyl stencils.

I won’t get super technical here as there are a few different models of both the cricut and the silhouette cutting machine.

If you don’t have a Silhouette machine, There are definitely ways of wood sign making without a cutting machine.

• You can draw something free hand, if you’re good at that.
• You can also use a projector, like this one, and project the image in your board and trace, then paint.
• Or have an etsy shop (like this one) cut out a design for you with vinyl. Just make sure to ask that the vinyl is removeable without damage if you want to use it as a stencil.

Step 2: Cut the wood to size

I used leftover fencing flats from our fence project because they are cheap and rough cut. I cut them to size (26″ x 4″ each).

Step 3: Build the frame

The back of this frame is leftover wood slats from the fencing. Because the slats are so thin, rather than screwing them to the boards, I used a TON of wood glue. While screwing or brad nailing would be better, this sign has held together for 7 years of hanging without problem.

Step 4: Paint the background

This particular DIY pallet sign has a distressed look to it. First, I sanded the rougher surface fairly smooth, but not entirely.

To paint, I used a warm grey chalk paint. I painted with a natural bristle brush and got in all the grooves and sides of the wood. That coat dried for 2 hours.

I brushed a thin coat of the milky white chalk paint over the entire board, but I didn’t worry too much about getting in the grooves. While the white paint is tacky, but not dry, I took #2 steel wool and lightly brushed areas to reveal the grey color underneath and highlight the character of the wood until I was satisfied.

Step 5: Paint the stencil

If using a vinyl stencil, there are a few tips to get transferred correctly:

Remove the part of the stencil you want to paint from the backing paper and toss. Lay transfer material over the stencil. Peel back the top 2-3 inches of the backing and position the stencil where you want it.

Working a few inches at a time, carefully peel the backing material down and press the stencil into the board. Smooth any bubbles as you go. Remove the transfer material after the stencil is completely on the board.

You can see better photos of this techniques in our DIY wooden sign painting with vinyl stencils tutorial here.

For this particular sign, I wanted a perfectly imperfect hand painted look. Therefore, I cut the stencil in paper and traced the design on before hand painting with a brush. This makes the lines a little more uneven and the design isn’t perfectly opaque. It suits the distressed style.

How To Hang a DIY Pallet Sign

For this sign, I drilled holes through the slats on the back and tied a flexible wire around them. This helps it to hang flat.

You can also add two screws to the back of the frame and tied a wire around them. The pallet is quite heavy, so I recommend hanging it on a sturdy screw that is directly in a stud.

TIPS

• Either gently remove the vinyl while the design is still wet or when it is completely dry, not just tacky. The paint is more likely to pull away when it is tacky.
• If you desire, you can seal the paint with a poly made for painted surfaces that won’t yellow. Fusion Mineral Tough coat is one of my favorites that is guaranteed not to yellow, but I have also used Spray Polyurethane. This one from RustOleum is my favorite.
• Instead of painting the stencil on the background, you can permanently attach the vinyl.

I have several DIY sign tutorials, so you may want to check these out for more ideas:

• How To Make Outdoor Wood Signs
• How To Create DIY wood signs with plywood
• 20 Wall Decorations made from Scrap Wood
• DIY Welcome Sign for the Porch (reversible too!)

Links to Free Files

1. Silhouette Cut File (.studio) – a preview won’t load but you can download.

Making a sign is definitely much larger than 12×12. The file includes the original Jpeg I designed and it is traced for your convenience. However, in order to use it, you will have to resize it your desired size and then tile it for cutting. You can tile in the business version of silhouette or here is a great video about how to tile in the Silhouette Design Studio.

2. Merry and Bright Sign (SVG version)

This one you can use with a Cricut, a Silhouette cutting machine, and adobe Illustrator, as well as other design programs.

3. PDF 8×10 Printable with chalkboard background

This file is available to all newsletter subscribers as part of my free printable library! Sign up below to check out all the freebies and join our creative community!

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If you are looking for some more fabulous Christmas and Holiday Crafts, check these out!

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