How to Make a Wood Sign with a Custom Quote and Wood Frame

It's easy to make your own wood signs with quotes or personalized messages. You can make the signs with wood frames with minimal tools - no fancy equipment needed!

Putting the finishing touches on our kitchen has been on my to-do list for the past three years.  We gutted the kitchen, installed new hardwood floors, cabinets, appliances and half of the wainscoting, and then I stopped.  Everything was livable and looked good enough, so I let it sit in a 90% finished state for way too long.  I’m finally finishing up the room, and I started with our eat-in dining area.

I’ve been wanting to try to make my own wood signs and love this verse from Acts, so it seemed like the perfect fit for above our table.  I’ll show you how to make a sign with a wood frame; you won’t believe easy it actually is and how few tools you actually need!

I’ve made signs with two different bases – 1/4″ plywood (cheaper, sold in smaller sizes from craft stores, and often pre-sanded, but you’ll need to reinforce the back with other pieces of wood) OR 1/2″ plywood (more expensive option, but you won’t need to reinforce it – it’s thick enough to nail the frame right to it)

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Supplies Needed to Make Wood Framed Lettered Sign

Option 1:

  • 1/4″ sanded plywood, cut down to the size you’d like to make your sign
  • 1″ x 2″ boards (see note below)

Option 2:

Other supplies:


Make the Base Panel of the Sign

You’ll start by making the base of your sign.  I know the employees at most home improvement stores will cut down pieces of plywood to the exact size you’d like, or they also sell smaller pieces (I’ve seen 24″ x 24″ or 48″ x 24″). Home improvement stores sell both 1/4″ and 1/2″ plywood.  Recently, I’ve noticed that craft stores are carrying 1/4″ plywood panels as well (however, I have not seen 1/2″ panels sold at craft stores).

how to build a wood sign with wood frame

Option 1:  In order to be able to nail the wood frame into the panel, you’ll need to add a little extra to the back.  Nailing into the thin sides of 1/4″ plywood is not easy, nor is it very sturdy.  I used two 1x2s that I cut down to the same length as the longer side of the plywood.  Again, the folks at your home improvement store can cut them down for you, or a simple saw will cut through them easily.  Then, nail (with 1″ nails) those two boards to the back of the panel, by nailing through the front of the plywood panel.  You can use wood filler to fill in the holes, if you’d like.

Option 2:  Because 1/2″ plywood is thicker, you don’t need to nail the 1×2 frame boards to the back.  So, for this step, just cut your piece of 1/2″ plywood to the size of your sign.

At this point it’s best to paint or stain the plywood.  If you want to paint your sign white, I’d recommend priming it first, so the knots from the wood don’t eventually bleed through.

Design Lettering for the Sign

While the paint is drying, you can set up the lettering or quote for your sign.  I used a free, online program called PicMonkey to design the verse.  PicMonkey has a lot of fonts that are free to use for personal use, so if you are planning on making a sign to hang in your home, have fun designing with all the fonts!  If you plan to sell any of your signs, you’ll need to purchase fonts with a commercial license.

This is the easiest way to design large lettered signs!Here is a complete tutorial on using PicMonkey to design lettering for signs!  This will give you all the information you need on how to design lettered graphics, or just use a pre-made graphic and transfer it to the wood in order to paint it.  Go check it out, and then come back for the rest of this sign building tutorial.

*Update – I created a graphics library with many of the images and lettering I’ve used in DIY project, including this verse!  You can click here to sign up and gain access to all of those files!

how to make a sign with a quote and wood frame

Make and Attach the Wood Frame

After the paint or stain dries and you paint on the lettering, you can attach the wood frame.  You’ll need four 1x2s cut to two different lengths.  I honestly just laid my plywood on the ground and then measured the height of the board.  I cut those two pieces, set them on the frame, and then measured the length I would need for the top and bottom boards.  Those boards will cover the top and bottom edges of the sides of the frame.

how to build a barnwood sign

Instead of using 1x2s for my frame, I just bought a cedar fence panel and ripped it down to 3/4″ inch thick pieces (the same thickness as a 1×2″ board).  I also chose to add a little color to my frame.  You could stain them in a color of your choice once they are cut.

how to weather wood with stain

I used Weatherwood Stain; an awesome product that naturally weathers wood.  It brought out the knots and veins in the wood just beautifully!

how to make a word sign with wood frame

Once the frame has dried, it’s time to attach it to your panel.

how to make a sign with wood frame

Basically, you will nail each of your frame boards into the 1x2s on the back of your plywood panel.  On the top, you’ll nail every few inches, but on the side boards, you’ll only nail into the end of the 1×2 on the top and the bottom.

If you use 1/2″ plywood for your sign base, just nail the frame right into the side of the plywood.

how to make a sign with a quote and wood frame

After it’s all put together, it’s ready to hang on the wall!  I used two saw tooth picture hangers on the back, but you could also use d-ring hangers on each end on the back as well.  This kit contains both d-ring hangers and sawtooth hangers!

how to make a wood sign with

If you wanted to forego the step of adding a 1×2 to the back of the panel, you could probably just buy 1/2″ plywood.  It should be thick enough to nail the wood frame into, but it will be quite a bit heavier.

It's easy to make your own personalized wood signs by using a free online photo editing program and transferring the image to paint the letters perfectly. All you'll need is a computer and printer!!

Here is a little peek at our eat-in kitchen that is now 98% finished.  Unfortunately, I only finished the trim on the wainscoting in this area, so I still need to finish this in the rest of the kitchen.  It will get done, eventually.

It's easy to make your own wood signs with quotes or personalized messages. You can make the signs with wood frames with minimal tools - no fancy equipment needed!

I recently updated the entire dining room for $100, including a whole new dining table!  Here’s how it looks now, but you can see the entire room makeover here.

Room makeover completed for under $100 - including a new table and chairs! Vintage modern farmhouse dining room with plate gallery wall and DIY wood sign with quote.

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Jenny at Refresh Living (dev.refreshliving.com)

Post by Jenny Leads

Jenny is the voice behind Refresh Living. She has a passion for helping people to create a home they love without spending a lot of money.

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30 Comments

    1. Very nice … Do you fasten the sawtooth hangers to the 1×2 crosspiece on the back?

  1. Your sign is beautiful! Thanks for sharing how you framed it up to, because that really finished it perfectly.

    Thanks for linking up at Knick of Time – I’m pinning this to the Knick of Time party board, and giving you a shout-out on FB tomorrow! 🙂

  2. What a great sign and tutorial. One of my favorite verses! Thanks for sharing at the Talk of the Town party.

  3. This is awesome! Thanks so much for sharing the how-to with us at Brag About It! Your project will be featured at next weeks party and we hope to see you next Tuesday!

  4. Love this sign! Great for making something to fill a wall. I have a perfect wall to make this on!

    Thanks for linking up with Welcome Home Wednesdays!

    liz @ j for joiner

  5. Good Morning!! I wanted to stop by and let you know that your post has been selected as a Feature post for the Welcome Home Wednesdays Link Party!! Stop by this morning to see your post linked up and don’t forget to grab your Featured Button too! ~Lisa~

  6. After you designed your quote what did you do in order to paint it on? Did you print it off and just trace it or what?

    1. I used a d-ring glued to the plate with E-6000 glue. On two of the plates I used the plate hanger discs that stick to the back of the plate. I’ve only been able to find them at Hobby Lobby, though.

  7. What material do you use for the inside quote? Are you painting that on paper or is it something that printed out somewhere?

    1. Hi Elizabeth. Thanks for the question. This post should really help. I basically print an image onto multiple pages of paper, transfer it to the wood, and then write over it with a paint pen. The post I link will walk through the process, but if you still have questions, just let me know.

  8. I’m having a lot of trouble getting the size right for my wood. I followed your directions exactly and it ended up being too big. So I scaled it down and it made no difference. When I change the print setting in paint to span 2 pages, it is changing the font size to fit 2 pages, not simply allowing my words to use the 2 pages (if that makes sense). Help!

    1. Hi Danielle. Let me see if I can try to help. I know that sometimes I end up needing to adjust the page sizes in different ways until I’m able to get exactly the right size, and it can be finicky sometimes. I know in the post I described how to use the “Fit to:” button where you choose the number of pages it spans across. It sounds like it might be better for you to use the “Adjust to:” button instead. First, select landscape or portrait direction. Then, increase the percentage until it spans across the number of pages that should match your sign. You can click print preview to eyeball it and see if it should work for your sign size. I’ve found that using the percentages can give more of an exact match. In fact, I’m thinking I should add that option to the post, because it’s actually the way I prefer to do it now. Let me know if that doesn’t work or if you have any other questions. Have fun making your sign!

  9. Hi there! Quick question — I have been making a couple of these signs lately and with both the 1/4 inch plywood and the 1/2 inch plywood, it split some after cutting on the edges. Enough that it isn’t a flesh board there. Luckily it was just one side on the last one I did so I am just making that the back. Do you have experience with this? We are using a miter saw.

    1. Hi Alicia – sorry it took me so long to get back to you. So all saws with create a rough edge and a clean edge cut. For some, the clean side will actually be on the bottom of the wood. I think it has something to do with the direction the saw blade spins, but I can never remember which is which, so I always just do a test cut. I wonder if your saw gives the clean edge on the bottom? If both sides are splintering, your blade might be dull. Another trick is to sandwich your piece of plywood between two scraps of wood and cut through all of them. It keeps the cut cleaner as well. I hope that helps!

  10. I stumbled across this tutorial a dog my GOSH THANK YOU a million times over!!!! As a first-starter Wood sign DIY-er, this is exactly what I was needing to help me figure out how to not have to use thick wood, and still maintain a stable frame with enough stability; and not having to use wood glue!!!!! I don’t have many tools, so this is just perfect!!!!!! Thank you so much!!!!! Please please keep this around and if you can refresh or bump it, it should be shared some more lol!!!!! I’m sure there are newbies like me just getting started and trying to still learn that could really use this!!!! I am actually in the process of making two signs for family as we speak, so I came across it at just the right time, since I wanted to use the thinner wood….. now I can use less material and keep the cost down, and make it less heavy!!!!! 🙂