Spooky season is upon us which means it’s time for some more DIY Halloween decor projects! This year, I needed to spruce up the outside of my house to make it more spooky so I decided to do a super quick and fairly simple Halloween direction sign to put in my front yard. This project was fairly cheap, quick, and super easy! Let’s get started!
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WHAT YOU’LL NEED
These signs really don’t require very much, just a few things you can find at any local craft and home improvement store:
• 2x3x8 framing stud or post
• 3 fence slats
HOW TO MAKE YOU’RE HALLOWEEN DIRECTION SIGN
To start, I took a trip to Home Depot to get my wood. I ended up buying three fence slats and one long 2x3x8 framing stud post. The stud post will be used for the base of the sign and the fence slats will be cut down to make the direction signs.
I took two of the fence slats and cut them in half. The third fence slat I cut into thirds so I had different lengths to add dimension to my sign. From there, I used a scroll saw to cut each sign into unique shapes with one end being more pointed than the other.
Then I took a 2x3x8 framing stud and cut one end off so so it was about 6 1/2 feet long. Then I cut the bottom of the board into a point so it would easily go into the ground. You can do your main pole however long you want, I just did mine taller so I had some extra height so I could get all the slats on and have enough height to get it really stuck into the ground without having it tip over. This is what everything looked like once I got it cut.
After I got everything cut out my wood was extremely rough and I got about a billion slivers from it so I decided to sand each board down to give them a nice smooth finish. Not only to prevent slivers but to also make it easier to paint them. I used a palm sander to do this which I would definitely recommend, doing this by hand would be extremely time consuming. I used an orbital sander and it worked amazing and was super fast.
Once each piece was smoothed out, I covered them with white paint. I used Apple Barrel white paint which was just what I wanted. If you don’t want such a stark white, you could add a little bit of grey paint or even do an off-white paint to get whatever shade you like that matches your home. After it dried I noticed that some of the wood was still showing through so I did a second coat of paint on each board and on the post. If you want a more distressed look you could probably get away with one coat or you could use some sandpaper to go over the edges as well.
To do two coats of paint on each board and the post I ended up needing about 40 oz of paint, so keep that in mind as you are getting supplies for your post.
After the paint dries completely it’s time to get the words on your directional posts! As you’re laying out your post, make sure that they aren’t all pointing the same direction. Mix it up so they point both ways and stagger the lengths of your posts as well to give your sign more dimension. For mine, I decided to do well known locations from Halloween movies/books as well as some spooky Disney locations as well. I also wanted to do each in a way that looked like how the original name would appear in the movie, on a sign, etc. I wrote out my signs in pencil before going over them with these black paint pens.
Once your words are on each piece of wood, and dry if you used paint, it’s time to assemble your sign! Before you secure the sign, lay out your signs on your post to make sure you have them spaced how you want and organized in a way you like. When you’re ready to assemble, work from the top down. On the back of each directional sign, I applied a generous squeeze of liquid nails adhesive between the sign and the post and smooshed them together. Then using a staple gun I put two staples through each sign to really secure the sign to the post. If you don’t have a staple gun you could also use a nail gun or just a hammer and nails. If you do use nails, you may need to touch up your sign and paint over the nails to hide them.
Once each direction post has been glued and stapled/nailed to the post, allow it to sit and dry for a few hours to make sure the glue really sets. This step is optional, but since the post is going to be outside, you may want to cover it with a clear protectant coat to keep it from fading or getting worn down by the weather. If you do this, do it outside because the spray does have a strong smell. Once everything is dry on your sign, it’s time to get it out in your yard.
To get your post into the ground, you may need to dig a hold to get it in far enough. I put mine in a little dirt area in front of our porch so I just dug up a little dirt and packed the dirt down around it to get it to stay. If you want to do it in the grass of your yard you may need to be a little more careful when you dig your hole and piece the grass back down around it.
And there you have it! A simple but cute Halloween direction sign to display in your front yard and add a subtle touch of spooky season to your Halloween decor! Stay tuned for more spooky season tutorials coming later this week!
