How to Make a Wooden Sign Without a Stencil


Easy DIY wooden sign with free printable

Today, I made a wooden sign with a saying to hang over the baskets I hung on the pantry wall. This farmhouse style sign is just what I had in mind. It was so easy to make, and a very quick project! The best part? It requires no stencils or fancy handwriting skills! Post contains affiliate links. 

I made this simple wooden sign with just a few basic supplies!

How to Make a Wooden Sign:

Cut the wood: I used the circular saw and cut my piece to 9″x 12″. You can also have the hardware store cut it if you buy the wood, or purchase ready made wood for signs. You can use this same method to make a much larger sign as well!

Apply paint: I used paint and primer ceiling paint I had leftover from painting the kitchen. Any paint works!

Make a wooden sign, Painting the wood piece white

Create or Download Template: I made the size as large as the page would allow, and I printed it off as my template. If you want to save a step, you can download the page I used here. There is a fresh flower market sign from Magnolia Market I really like the look of, so I picked a similar font for my market fresh sign.

If you are making a larger sign, just print the letters  or words off as large as you want them on your sign. You can just cut and piece them onto the sign with tape.

Color in pencil over the entire backside of the letter area.

Shade pencil over the backside, where the letters are

Then, tape the sheet on the sign: Postion it how you want it, with the pencil shaded side facing the wood.

Tape font paper to sign with pencil facing down, and trace the letters

Trace the outline of the letters firmly with a pen: This will transfer the pencil outline onto the sign.

How to make a wooden sign, pencil outline of letters on sign from tracing

Fill in the outline carefully with a Sharpie Paint Pen. If you like, you can sand the letters lightly to get a distressed look once the paint pen dries. I liked mine with the crisp black letters, so I did not sand.

Wooden sign colored in with sharpie paint pen, it is ready to hang

Lastly, attach a hanger on the back…the sign is complete!

This has to be one of the easiest most affordable sign methods ever!

I only had to purchase the picture hangers to make the sign, since I had paint pens from other projects. Hooray for low budget decor projects!

I hung the sign above the wall fruit basket display; LOVE it!

Wooden sign above fruit basket display

Next, I need to stain the wood spice racks going on the pantry door!

Happy crafting! 🙂


Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

2 thoughts on “How to Make a Wooden Sign Without a Stencil