I’ve been wanting a branded sign for a while now, but I’ve lacked the inspiration. So when I found these metal letters on clearance at Hobby Lobby I was super excited! How cool would they be for a sign!

I can’t wait to share with you my DIY Metal Letter Sign. I think it turned out awesome and you would never know we used makeshift letters.

We got most of our supplies are from Lowe’s, with the exception of the letters. Here’s our project list:

Supplies:

• • • 1″ x 8″ untreated lumber cut to size (we used 4 for this project)
    • 1″ x 2″ untreated lumber cut to size (we used 5 for this project)
    • Gorilla Wood Glue (any kind of wood glue will work)
    • Metal Brackets
    • Wood Screws
    • Fine Grit Sandpaper
    • Clamps
    • Clear Gorilla Glue (for wood, metal, etc.) 
    • Stain
    • Metal Letters – Hobby Lobby
    • Planer – we didn’t use one, but I would suggest it if you have one

 

As great as my find was some of the letters were missing. There weren’t any E’s.

I bought L’s, H’s, and Y’s to make into E’s. My plan was to try to cut the H’s and Y’s and use the smaller pieces with the L’s and H’s to make E’s. Yikes, I hope this works!

To cut the letters I bought a metal attachment for the Dremel. Totally winging it here!

It’s a good thing I bought a few extras….just in case we screw up.

The Dremel bit worked like a champ. Once the letters were cut we tweaked the ends to get our cut lines as straight as we could.

Well, they turned out pretty darn close, don’t you think?

While we were at the store grabbing the supplies I took advantage of having the lumber precut to save an extra step. To ensure the boards stay tight we added brackets to the back. Before screwing in the brackets we predrilled the holes. Once we had all our holes drilled we used a clamp to keep the boards snug as we screwed each bracket in place.

For the frame we measured and precut each piece to fit. I left the corners square, but you could definitely angle cut them, if you want.

Whenever I buy lumber there are usually issues with the wood being warped, no matter how picky I am. So, of course this is the challenge we ran into. Since we didn’t have a planer (*which I highly recommend) we tried every way possible to make the boards flat and snug. As an extra means to keep them tight, we took the leftover 1″ x 2″ scraps and cut them a little smaller than the inside vertical dimensions of the board.

Again, we pre-drilled the holes and secured them to the back of the sign with wood screws.

Once the base of the sign was done I lightly sanded it with a fine girt sandpaper to remove any dirt and imperfections. Normally, I probably wouldn’t have done this, but since a wet rag didn’t do the trick this was the next best option.

Ok, so for the frame the plan was to stain it black. Stain allows some of the wood grain to pop through giving it a different look versus paint, which is exactly what I was going for.

So, for whatever reason it didn’t cover as expected. So I ended up mixing a little black paint with the stain and that did wonders.

After the stain was dry we used wood glue and clamps to attach the frame to the sign. This project is almost done!

The final touch, the letters. I wanted to glue them on with something heavy duty, but it needed to dry clear. I used clear Gorilla glue and it worked great.

The letters, oh my! I’m in love!

Well, what do you think? Not too bad for makeshift letters and a clearance find! Now we just need to find a good spot to hang this beauty.

I would love to hear about your next project. Send me a note or tell me one you would like to see and I will give it a try.

Thanks for stopping by the blog today and always. I am so glad you are here!