Wooden Sign Post Tutorial
- By Joan
- September 10, 2014
- 17 Comments
I love signposts. With just a name they can bring you hundreds, if not thousands of miles away. While they should be at a crossroads, to let you know whether to go to Emerald City or Munchkin Land, sometimes they are just placed randomly, so you know that if you walk 1700 miles in a particular direction you should eventually trip over a lake ….more or less.
The first signpost above was on the beach at a restaurant in Boca Grande, Florida where my youngest brother was married. This time the whole signpost reminds me of an event.
The second , which I haven’t been to, is located at the signpost forest in Alaska. With 65,000+ signs , it may be too many signs to try to recreate.
The third one is located in Key West, Florida. You would think that all the signs would be pointing north…
So, with all those signposts in mind, I thought it would be fun to make my own signpost with places that our family has vacationed to or places that have some special meaning in our lives.
First thing I had to do was to gather my wood. I needed a nice assortment of weathered wood, thick and thin, so of course I had to use my stash of pallet wood. The only problem with my pallet wood is that it is currently buried in my garage. Behind this…
That is not my stuff. This is what happens when your son is between houses, all of his stuff somehow makes it back home. My pallet wood, when I last saw it, was behind the mattress on the ground.
A. I can finally see my stash of pallet wood
B. Picked out about a dozen pieces of random width pieces
C. Used a mitre saw or chop saw to cut the pointy ends of my arrows. Used a handheld jigsaw to cut a fish shape and the indented part of the arrow
D. Cut pieces quickly add up
E. For specific pictures or lettering I penciled in my shape first to make sure it fit
F. For variety, I painted a background color on a couple of my arrows. The crab was for Ocean City MD. Before using the ones with the painted backgrounds, I took my palm sander to them to make them look a little aged.
After calculating the distance from my house to my cities or places, I was ready to paint.
All finished painting and lined up on the floor. These might make a pretty cool wall decoration…but not this time, they are going on my signpost.
Still needed something to attach my signs to, so a quick trip to Home Depot, I picked up a 4x4x8 ft post. The signs were predrilled with a couple of holes and attached with exterior decking screws.
Before I was looking at other signposts , I never realized what a nice arrow shape that fish have.
I know, that whenever I look at my signpost, I will be reminded of some fantastic vacations and time spent with my family. Some of the places are specific to our family.
While I could have just put San Francisco, we stayed in a beautiful hotel overlooking Alcatraz, we were able to take the Alcatraz tour and that night the hotel lent us a copy of the movie, “Escape from Alcatraz” .
Boston reminds me of the two times my husband, Brian, qualified and ran the Boston Marathon.
There is still plenty of room for more memories.
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This is really cute! Nice work!!
Joan, this is the coolest way to remember family travels EVER! Adore it! Featured this upcoming weekend on Party Junk. 🙂
[…] noted all my choices… they ALL involved salvaged old signs… my fav topic of all. Reclaimed wood directional signs / Scavenger […]
Great idea – I’m pinning this!
Thanks Kim, This was one of my favorite projects to make. It comes together really fast.
such a great idea! I loove the fish idea:) Come link up at our link party http://www.carissamiss.com/2014/10/minnie-mouse-spatacular-slumber-party.html
Would love to, linking up right now. Thanks for stopping by.
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What a fabulous and original idea. Love it ?
Good information. Lucky me I discovered your website by chance (stumbleupon).
I’ve saved it for later!
Just curious about the kind of paint you used – to weather the outdoors?
I just used the little jars of acrylics I had on hand. I’m sure there are better paints but I always believe in using what you have. It’s been 5 years and there has been fading and a few could be touched up but I think that would happen with any paint outdoors in the weather.
How did you install the post? Is it directly in the ground with cement or did you put it in something?
Sorry for the late response, we were away for the fourth and by the time we got back emails were buried. My post is just set directly in the dirt about 2 feet down. If you use cement you wouldn’t have to dig quite as deep a hole but it would have to be wider but it would be more permanent. So my answer is, the choice is yours.
I love this! For the lettering did you freehand or use stencils of some sort? Thanks!
Had the same idea and then found this website. Will have to buy some wood but am going to use a round post so I can put the arrow in the right direction. There is a website which will give you the correct direction from wherever you are standing.
Im including the post in my front garden together with planting flowers,shrubs etc that represent the places and countries I’ve visited.
That’s a great idea. I used a gps to figure out the mileage but I gave it up on the actual direction. Since I’m on the east coast, all my arrows would probably point the same way. Have fun with your project.