I have seen many versions of delightful storybook and literary sign posts floating around Pinterest for years and have of course wanted to make my own for ages. But really our place is done, there is not an inch to spare. But when I took on the challenge of turning a portable at my daughter’s school into a fun and inviting multi purpose space, I knew I finally had just the excuse I needed!!

A Home Fit For A Literary Sign Post

Now, my ideas started pouring in, as the ideas always do… things floated around in my brain (perhaps waking me up in the middle the night, refusing to be ignored…. with something absolutely crucial, like more ‘locale’ locations to add to the list)! But then the flu hit our house. As I am pretty sure that is what winter break is for, right?! With snow and runny noses as far as I could see I knew I was not getting to the store for actual wood as I had envisioned for my sign post extraordinaire. So when the hubsters new pyjama pants arrived in a lovely cardboard box, I thought why the heck not?!

Sanity Saving Project

We needed a sanity saving ‘project’ for the day to keep us occupied inside. So this project may or may not owe a shout out to the very large hole in someone’s pyjama pants, and their attempting to soldier on unbothered until they nearly fell off on boxing day (forcing their hand to look into some online sales and order some new ones)! But obviously we would never discuss it if that was actually the case.

So thanks to illness and being housebound this project got shaped with the supplies I had on hand. We covered the kitchen floor in newspaper and got to work. I cut that box completely up and surprisingly got all of my ‘signs’ from it. I hummed and hawed over which locations would make the grade. Thinking up the different locales from favourite and timeless stories was probably the most fun part!

Simplicity is Best

 

I didn’t have to wonder and over think which paint colours would look best as I only had a handful to choose from anyway! And because I wanted an old weathered look, imperfection was the key and made this project so much more carefree.

I was very pleased with how this project turned out in just one short afternoon with a couple hours of work. I hope I get a chance to do another one of these in my future because I think it would be great to try out other sign post themes like a fairytales only or classic literature or one aimed at really young kids (the possibilities might just keep me awake at night…)!

What this Literary Sign Post Project took to complete:

Cardboard
Hot glue gun and glue sticks
Scissors
Pencil
Paint (in desired hues)
Foam paint brushes
Fine detail paintbrush
Stencils (the more variety the better – I used and combined 3)
Black permeant markers – fine and wide tip
5’ of wood for post – I used 3 1/2” trim that we had left over from around our door frames

Shape and Cutting Directions

Step 1:

Find some inspiration for your shapes, I found mine by scouring Pinterest and working with what I had. There are many versions of this idea floating around!

Step 2:

Cut out the different shapes and sizes of signs from cardboard. Most shapes I cut out free hand with the exception of a couple. Keeping in mind you really are going for rustic and imperfect.

 

 

Step 3:

For any set shape or those with more detail, I drew the desired shape on one side and cut it out, then used the cutout as a template to mirror it onto the other side, in order to get an even shape on both sides.

 

Step 4:

Continue cutting until you have an amount of signs you are happy with.

Painting

Step 5:

Begin painting the signs. In order to get a worn, aged look, I used a foam brush and small amounts of paint so as to get a more rough, dry, pattern of strokes.

Step 6:

Next I roughly traced the edges with the sides of the cardboard with a foam brush with black.

Step 7:

In order to get a wood grain look on a few pieces I used brush strokes to imitate grain and combined colours for definition. I just played around until I got the effect I was looking for.

Step 8:

Allow to dry completely.

Writing

Step 9:

Using stencils or free hand draw your literary locations onto the signs. I used a combination of three different stencils and a ruler as well as some freehand cursive with black paint and a paintbrush and thick and thin tip permanent markers in black for different effects. I can not stress enough to have fun with it and let imperfection be your friend (my favs ended up being the ones I thought I had screwed up)!

Step 10:

After the signs have completely dried, try playing around with layout options.

Glueing

Step 11:

Take a length of wood for your sign post, I used a piece of leftover trim that was about 5 feet tall because that is what I had on hand at the time. Lay out the different signs until you are happy with their placement and looks the way you want.

 

Step 12:

Next I used hot glue to glue the signs in place one by one.

And here we are – All done!

Next I waited for us to all get well and the snow and ice to ease and marched this right up to the school for their soon to be reading corner.