How to Paint Farmhouse Signs
Do you want to DIY your own farmhouse sign without fancy tools or good handwriting? This is the easiest and cheapest way to paint farmhouse signs!
Want to make your own farmhouse sign? Here is the easiest and cheapest way to paint farmhouse signs! You don’t need any fancy or expensive tools (like a cricket or silhouette machine). You don’t need vinyl or a fancy computer program.
You probably already have all of the things you need to paint a farmhouse sign, already in your home.
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How to Paint Farmhouse Signs
Want to make your own farmhouse sign? Here is the easiest and cheapest way to paint farmhouse signs! You don’t need any fancy or expensive tools (like a cricket or silhouette machine). You don’t need vinyl or a fancy computer program.
Materials
- Free Sign Template
- Scotch Tape
- Pen or Pencil
- Graphite Paper
- Sharpie
Instructions
- Print out your free template. We have a whole bunch of our favorite designs right here.
- If it’s a large sign, tape the pieces of the template together. If it’s small, just tape the template to your sign (make sure to line it up first!)
- Put the graphite paper dark side down, in between the template and the sign.
- Trace the design onto the sign, moving the graphite paper as needed.
- Color in the design with a sharpie!
- Enjoy your new DIY painted farmhouse sign!
Tips for Painting Farmhouse Signs
How do you make a farmhouse sign?
Before you can paint a farmhouse sign, you need a sign, right? I put together this great step by step tutorial on how to make a wood sign here. It’s the same farmhouse style of sign like these ones.
You can also get premade blank signs, so you get to paint and not worry about making a sign.
- Blank Framed Sign
- Thick or Thin Framed Blank Sign
- Rustic Dark Walnut Blank Sign
- Blank Pallet Signs
- More options from Etsy
How do I put the large sign templates together?
If the template is bigger than one piece of paper, it will come in a pdf with multiple pages. It’s easy to put them together though!
First, remove the top and right side margins of each piece of paper.
Then line up the template, using the design and the guidelines to keep everything straight.
Put the cut off margins of one paper over the margin of the other papers to make everything fit together nicely. Don’t worry, it’s easy to transfer the design even in those areas where it’s two pages thick.
Then tape the pieces together on the blank spaces of the paper.
Make your own template!
If I don’t have a template that you want, you can make your own! A simple design in a word document will work for small signs.
You can create your own templates in photoshop, as well. Then you can follow the video in this tutorial to turn your design into a large template.
How do I use graphite paper to transfer the design?
Graphite paper is suuuuuper easy to use!
When you put pressure on the graphite paper, the graphite transfers onto the sign.
Make sure to place the dark side of the graphite paper facing down.
Since the template is much larger than the graphite paper in this case, I just work on one section at a time, and then move the graphite paper to the next section.
Also make sure your template is taped to the top of the sign, in multiple places, to make it easy to move the graphite paper around without messing up the template.
I use and reuse my graphite paper, so one package has lasted me years!
How can I trace the design without graphite paper?
If you don’t have graphite paper, and can’t run to the store for some, you can make your own version of graphite paper. Basically homemade graphite paper. haha
Just flip your design over, and color the backside of the design with a pencil.
You really only need to hit the places that you will be transferring, (the edge of the letters), so you don’t have to color the whole entire paper if you don’t want to.
Then flip the template back over, line it up, and trace around the design. The graphite from the pencil will transfer to your sign, just like the graphite paper does!
What sharpie is best for painting signs?
A regular old sharpie will work! But it’s not the absolute best!
I personally really like the sharpie paint pens.
They also come in white and fine point instead of a medium point.
I love using a sharpie or a paint pen because you have more control over coloring in the design than if you have paint and a paintbrush.
Unless you’re super amazing at using a small paintbrush! But that is not me.
The regular sharpie pens don’t color in very dark, and when you go over an area you just barely colored, it makes weird marks.
A chisel tip sharpie works better than a regular sharpie, but not as good as a sharpie paint pen.
When you’re using the paint pen, just be sure to use a scrap piece of paper when you push down on the pen to get more paint to come out. When the pen is really full, a lot of paint may come out, and if you’re working on a sign with thin details, you’ll be frustrated to find a little puddle on your sign.
Print one of our FREE sign templates here!
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