super easy front porch welcome sign

Super Easy Welcome Sign

Are you looking for a quick project with a lot of impact on your front porch design? This sign is so EASY and has a lot of potential for variations! Here’s how to make your own.

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super easy fence picket welcome sign

Cut your Panels

When we finished building our fence we had a few leftover panels that I immediately claimed for these signs. I started by ripping the fence panels into smaller panels of 3-4 fence pickets. The large panels are attached by 3 horizontal pieces of wood, so it’s just a couple quick cuts to make them smaller. I used a circular saw.

If you don’t have fence panels, you can build this for cheap using fencing boards. You can usually find single pine or cedar fencing boards at your local home improvement store. The type of boards are available to you will depend on where you live. After you purchase your fencing boards, use scrap wood and wood screws on the back to join them into a small panel.

Paint the Background

Next I roughly sanded the panel a bit so that it would be easier to paint. This isn’t necessary, but it does make a little easier on your paint brushes. I used a dry brush painting method on the white signs that give the paint a worn look.

To dry brush, you dip the tip of your paint brush into your paint and use varied strokes in the same direction until your brush is too dry. Then you start again. By layering your dry brushing you can get more paint coverage while keeping the worn look.

dry brushing to create rustic finish for fence picket welcome signs

You could also use wood stain for your background. Or layer wood stain and paint. Or just leave it natural. The purple sign is actually a dark cherry stain with black and white paint dry brushed on top followed by a little sanding. You should always test your stain on a scrap or the back of your project before diving in and staining the whole thing. I didn’t and was pretty surprised the purple!

purple fence pickets

DIY Stencil

You don’t need fancy stencils for your lettering. My go to method for stenciling is to print my wording in the size and font I want on regular paper. I then cut out the letters and trace them onto the wood. For these sign I traced them using paint because the surface of the fence panels is a bit rough for using a pencil.

painting welcome sign with diy stencil
diy fence picket welcome sign

You’re Done!

And that’s it! A super easy project to spruce up your front porch. I’ve made several of these, giving them as gifts and even selling a few in my local area.

variations of a diy fence picket welcome sign

I want to hear from you!

Let me know what you think in the comments below!