DIY | Rustic winter wooden pallet sign

Last week we were in Huntsville to check the new home construction progress. During our stay, much of the Tennessee valley received the most beautiful blanket of snow. It was unfortunate timing for us seeing as how it occurred on our travel day and we were left with no choice but to drive two hours through the ice and snow. Believe me when I tell you that my children would much rather have been playing in it than watching it fall outside the car window. Poor deprived little Arizona desert kids. Those of you in other parts of the country have probably already experienced your fair share of snow days, but I suspect old man winter isn’t through yet. If you’ve had your fill of hot cocoa and hearty soups and you’re looking for a way to pass the time on the next snow day, might I suggest DIY’ing a rustic winter pallet sign?

How cute is this project? Creating it lifted my spirits so much. I’ve been admittedly down and not feeling the least bit domestic lately all because I’m sick. and. tired. of living in transition. Ever since we decided to put our house on the market last February in preparation for our move, we’ve been living out of boxes. Almost all of my cute decor is stashed away and I’ve grown weary of looking at the same old boring white walls. Enter: this amazingly simple DIY sign project.

Sometimes you just need a good snow day, right? Given that we live in the desert, snow days are few and far between, but I can relate to the feeling of restlessness that I imagine might go hand in hand with being confined by winter weather. And so I dreamed up this super easy rustic winter pallet sign to add a bit of festivity to the snowy season. Better yet? This sign is as cheap to make as it is easy.

You’ll need a couple of fence pickets from the hardware store. We picked up two at a whopping 98 cents each.

Once we had these at home, my handsome and handy husband cut them down to size using an ordinary saw. Alternatively, we could have asked the guys at the hardware store to do it and they would have done it for free. Using two pickets, my husband yielded three pieces of wood for my sign, each measuring between 34.5″ and 35″ long. Because this sign is rustic, you don’t need to worry about being exact with your cuts.  Next, he cut two pieces of scrap wood from the pickets and used them on the back of the sign as a brace. Using a hammer and nails, he nailed each of the longer pieces of wood into the three smaller pieces.

In the photo below, you can see that one of the pickets split when he drove the nail in. It’s no biggie because, again, we’re going for a rustic look here.

With the sign assembled, the fun part came in.

We started by whitewashing the wood with white paint. We used some leftover interior satin paint from a sample I had on hand, but any variety will do. To achieve the washed out look like is pictured here, you simply wet the two outer boards and leave the middle board dry before painting. The paint will naturally result in a rustic finish. While you wait for your base paint to dry, you’ll need to print and cut out the letters for the sign. When everything has been cut, arrange the letters on your sign. I didn’t do a very good job of photographing the sign with straight letters, but I straightened them before I traced!

Using a pencil, trace the letters onto your sign and then fill them in with acrylic craft paint in the colors of your choice. Your finished product should look a little something like this.

Isn’t it festive? I like that it can be used as seasonal decor long after the Christmas decorations come down and get hauled to the attic.

You can crank the festivity up a notch by styling your sign with other seasonal props, like a simple plaid fabric scrap and potted faux plant.

See how the split wood adds to the rustic feel?

In any case, I hope this project will inspire you to make a sign of your own on your next snow day.

---

 You might also like:

Farmhouse style kitchen inspiration & ideas

Free printable bathroom art