Scavenger Chic

Hand Painted DIY Subway Sign

• By Joan
• August 11, 2022
• 3 Comments

Hand Painted DIY Subway Sign

I have a great project for you today, a DIY subway sign, hand painted on wood, personalized for all your favorite places, created by you. What could be better?

All of mine were created  several years ago and when I dug up the pictures today I realized that I have never shared this project.

It may take a bit of time, but it should be no more difficult than a paint-by-number and the end result is so worth it.

You will need a piece of sanded, 1/2 inch plywood.  It normally comes in sheets 4 ft x 8 ft which is large enough to make 2- 3 signs depending on how tall you wish to make your  sign and how many destinations you wish to include.

If you can, get the folks at the lumber yard to cut your plywood in half vertically .  It’s so much easier to handle and it fits sooo much easier in a car.

Paint the board white.  Chalk paint, acrylic paint, flat wall paint,…they’ll all work

I laid this out on Microsoft Publisher with  the Roadway font found on Dafont.   On publisher you can specify the exact dimensions of your finished project.  This one was 24″x 60″.

If you don’t have publisher you could also type out your sign on your favorite word processing site and print it out at Block Posters. You’ll just have to know how many widths of paper you’ll need to make your sign.  A 24″ wide poster will be almost 3 sheets wide, play with the borders until you get the look you want.

Decide on your subway stops, or in this case, these are all Railroad stops on the B&O Railroad coming out of Baltimore.  

You could also do places you’ve visited or places you’ve lived…you get the idea.

Type each line and destination individually  varying the font size  so that it takes up most of the width of the sign.  Those destinations with more letters will have a smaller font size than those with fewer letters.  They do not have to match exactly, as a matter of fact, it will probably look better if there is a slight variation.  The typesize of the lettering on this sign ranged from 230 to 400.

Once you’ve typed in all your destinations and you like the spacing, print out your sign.  Of course this will print out on multiple sheets of paper so you’ll have to tape it back together.

Where there is lettering, scribble on the back with pencil  (I also like using pastel or charcoal), this will act as your transfer paper.

I use the same transfer method on most of my vintage style sign.

Tape the printed subway sign to your board and begin to transfer, just go over the outline of each letter pressing down hard with a pen.

The pencil outlines should have transferred to your board.

Now comes the time consuming part, with a small brush and black paint, paint around each of your letters.

You could create your diy subway sign the opposite way, painting the background black and then individually painting the letters white, but I find that it is easier to paint black over white rather than white over black which may need a second coat.

Once you’re all finished, give the entire piece a light sanding.  You want it to look like the subway sign has been out in the weather for a few years.

To seal in your paint, give the entire sign a light coat of clear wax.  Paint on the clear wax and wipe off the excess.  If you like, while the wax is still damp, add a few drops of antique wax and rub until it blends in with the clear, just to dirty up the sign and add to the aged look.

This is the subway sign I did for my oldest son and his wife.  These places designate stops on the DC metro line with 4 of the stops being places they’ve lived in. This one is 5 ft tall.

One more, another 5 footer.  This one was created for my middle son when he lived in Philadelphia.

This one is also 5 ft tall, it’s a sign I created for a friend that moved to Chicago.  If you know Chicago, you’d know that they are all  Chicago tourist spots. 

I created each of these DIY subway signs in a day.  Just take your time, if you can paint by number you can create a subway sign.

Until next time, stay inspired.

(They make great gifts too!)

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