Joy | Christmas Painted Wooden porch Sign

Get creative with this easy DIY Wooden Porch Sign guide! Perfect for holiday enthusiasts looking to add a hand-painted, festive touch to their outdoor decor.

Ready to spruce up your porch for the holidays? I’ve got a super fun DIY project for you – a hand-painted ‘JOY’ wooden sign. It’s easy, I promise, and a great way to add a personal touch to your holiday decor. I’ll walk you through it step by step, so grab your paintbrush and let’s get started. Let’s turn that plain wood into something joyful!

One of my most signature ways to decorate my home for any holiday is to add a wooden porch sitter sign outside of my front door along with a wreath. Outdoor wooden signs and wreaths go together like peanut butter and jelly!

I love that these tall, vertical signs can be made to custom dimensions and hand-painted with any phrase or design. They truly make your home feel more warm and inviting.

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For today’s tutorial, I’ll teach you how to make a vertical JOY porch sign. I originally shared this porch sign when I posted about creating a winter porch theme for our home during House Fire Update #8.

Check out: Before & After Projects Using Dixie Belle Chalk Paint

Supplies

First things first, let’s get all of supplies together!

• 2 x 1×4 @ 4 feet (I buy one piece and cut it in half to get two pieces)
• 1×2 @ 8 feet long furring strips
• 1/2″ wood screws, flat head
• Dixie Belle Chalk Paint, Barn Red color
• Dixie Belle Chalk Paint, Drop Cloth color
• Paint brush
• Silhouette Cameo (and all the necessary supplies with it)
• Vinyl, glossy

Build Sign

Once you have all of your boards cut to the proper sizes, it’s time to build the sign. On a flat surface, place the 1×4 boards next to each other. Evenly space the furring strips off the bottom and top – about 4-6″. Using 1/2″ wood screws, screw the furring strips into the 1×4 boards.

The furring strips act at the braces to hold the 1×4 boards together. You can either have these furring strips be the front of the sign for a more rustic look, or you can have the furring strips be on the back for a more sleek, clean look. This is option that I chose for this JOY sign.

Now would be the time to paint or stain the sign in your desired colors. I love using Dixie Belle Chalk Paint! For this sign I painted the side that did not show the furring strips.

Create & Cut Your Design

I created my design in Silhouette Studio. I adjusted my page size to the size of my board.

I then cut my design on glossy vinyl using my Silhouette Cameo. If you’re new to using a Silhouette to cut designs, I would check out my post for How To Make A Wood Sign – Farmhouse Style| From Start to Finish. In this tutorial I show you the behind the scenes of making a design for a sign.

Paint The Design

Once you’ve designed, cut out and weeded your design on vinyl, it’s time to transfer it to the 1×4 boards and paint. Using transfer tape or transparent shelf liner, transfer the cut design to boards and make sure it’s securely adhered.

Paint the stenciled designs in any color(s) you choose!

Seal Your Sign

Once your design is complete and the paint is dry, you may choose to seal your sign. A great product for this is Dixie Belle Gator Hide. I personally don’t seal my outdoor signs because my porch is covered so my signs aren’t really exposed to the elements.

Here is my sign on my front porch decorated for Christmas…

And here it is again on my front porch with more of a winter themed decor…this was before we painted the house a green/blue. Which way do you like it styled best?

Check out these 17 Easy To Make Christmas Decor Projects for more Christmas inspiration!

More Porch Signs

Craving more creative ideas? Dive into my collection of unique hand-painted vertical porch sitter signs, perfect for adding a personal and stylish touch to your outdoor space.

Floral Welcome Porch Sign

Hello Fall Porch Sign

Fall Porch Sign

Stained Welcome Porch Sign

Chicago Bears Porch Sign

Stay Home Porch Sign