Make Your Own Farmhouse Wood Framed Signs for Under $15

Jessica
by Jessica
6 Materials
$15
2 Hours
Easy

I've always believed that the best home decor is something that is uniquely personal, something that can truly be molded into a piece that reflects who you are. I love the rustic, country-style decor in the home, which is why I had always wanted to create my own farmhouse signs DIY-style. Rather than spending big bucks buying a mass-produced farmhouse wood sign at one of the big furniture stores, I thought it would be much better and cheaper to create my own using cheap materials that can be found at any hardware or craft store.

This way, I was able to design, build, and assemble my own rustic farmhouse sign from scratch in just a few minutes, while spending less than $15! What's more, I chose to create signs that can easily be changed, with new messages, images, and motifs that can be added to them whenever I feel like it. This makes my farmhouse wood framed signs more versatile, allowing me to change them up for, say, the holiday season, at a moment's whim. If you want to find out exactly how I did it, read my Hometalker's guide to find out!

Tools & Materials

Compared to some of my other Hometalk projects, these farmhouse signs actually require a larger number of tools and materials to get right. If you're no stranger to DIY projects, then you will likely already have most of the tools already lying around in your house - at least I did! If not, most of the materials can be purchased from Home Depot or the Dollar Tree for just a few bucks. So, ere is everything you will need to create your own DIY farmhouse wood signs: 


  • Two 1x2x8 furring strips - I bought these from Home Depot for a couple of bucks apiece.
  • Two 2ftx2ft plywood project boards - I found mine in a materials bin in Home Depot, where they were selling for five dollars.
  • A large buzzsaw
  • Dark walnut Rustoleum Wood Stain.
  • Linen white Rustoleum Chalk Paint.
  • A box of small finishing nails (you will need at least 20 nails per board).
  • A nail gun (a hammer will also do the job just fine).
  • 2 peel-and-stick wall decals from the Dollar Tree.
DIY Wood Framed Sign

Step 1: Gather Your Materials

The first thing I did was make sure I had all of my materials in one place. This project can be completed in under an hour if you have everything to hand at once, so make sure to do this if you're going for efficiency. This is also messy work, involving lots of wood stain and chalk paint. With this in mind, I laid down a large sheet of cardboard on the floor and chose to do all of my work on top of it. The last thing you want is to get paint all over your kitchen floor. If you're making farmhouse kitchen signs, make sure you have plenty of space in your kitchen to do so. 

Gather Your Materials

Step 2: Cut to Size

Once I had all of my materials gathered together, I got straight to work with cutting my wooden boards down to size. I took my furring strips and made four cuts at 24 inches long, taking extra care to ensure that all of the boards were shaved down to an equal size. Then I took two of the boards and cut them down further to 21 inches in length. Make sure to take a pencil and mark where you will make your cuts with the buzzsaw beforehand, as this makes the whole thing a lot easier. You may also have to cut down your plywood board to ensure that the furring strips are the right size for the frame, but I just decided to use the original plywood board size and cut my furring strips accordingly. 

Cut to Size

Step 3: Check that the Frame Fits Your Board

I wanted to make sure everything was a perfect fit before I broke out the chalk paint and the nail gun. To do this, all I had to do was to lay out the furring strips along the sides of the plywood board to see if the frame fit. Note that this is a dry fitting, meaning that you shouldn't use any glue or paints during this stage of the process, since you're basically just double-checking that you've got your measurements right. As you can see, everything should fit snugly along the outside of the frame. Once you've gotten this right, you're ready to get building. 

Check that the Frame Fits Your Board

Step 4: Stain the Frame

You can't get rustic farmhouse bathroom signs without giving your wood some stain to make it look more authentic and aged. There are lots of ways you can do this, but I found that simply applying a coat of wood stain did the trick. I used the Dark Walnut colored Rustoleum Wood Stain, as this color fits with the fixtures in my home nicely, whilst also giving off a strong country-style vibe. I put some painting gloves on beforehand, as applying wood stain can be a very messy business. When painting my boards, I made sure to paint with the grain, in a back-and-forth motion, as this guarantees to smoothest and most even coating.

Stain the Frame

Step 5: Paint the Plywood

Once you have stained your frame, it's time to paint the plywood. Since plywood hardly gives off a rustic country chic vibe, I opted for Rustoleum linen white chalk paint to bring out the shaker style I was going for. I used a standard wall paintbrush that I have used a million times in the past to do this, painting the surface of the board in an up-and-down motion to ensure an even coating. Make sure to paint the edges around the sides of the board as well, as these will definitely show up on the finished product if you haven't painted them. 

Paint the Plywood

Step 6: Attach Frame to the Board

Once all of the paint on my plywood board and furring strips had completely dried, it was finally time to attach the frame. First off, I laid down all of the strips to make sure they were matched up. Then I placed the plywood on top of the frame. You might have to spend a couple of minutes making sure the plywood board is perfectly matched up with your frame formation, but this isn't too tricky. Once everything was aligned, I took my nail gun and nailed through the plywood into the frame on the other side, using about 20 nails overall. Since my nail gun wasn't working very well on the day I put this together, I had to go over each nail with a hammer at the end. Remember the check the all of your nails are equally spaced out across the frame. 

Attach Frame to the Board

Step 7: Add Wall Decals

Now for my favorite part! To finish up my farmhouse wood signs, I took some decals that I bought from the Dollar Tree for a couple of bucks. These decals are great because they come in a huge variety of styles and motifs, and all of them are peel and stick. This means that, should you get bored with your current display or want to change it up at some point, then you can simply peel them off and place a different one on the board. Once you have chosen your decals, line each part up carefully so that it looks complete and professional. Then you just need to flatten it out with your palm to ensure there are no creases or air bubbles. 

Add Wall Decals

Step 8: Hang and Enjoy!

Hang and Enjoy!

After that, all that was left was to hang up my rustic farmhouse signs. I love the way that the treated frame brings out of the chalk paint on the board, which in turn highlights the decals nicely. You can create all of this for less than $15 all-in, which is an awful lot less than you will pay for a ready-made farmhouse wood sign.


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