How to Frame a Wood Sign

Hey, Friends! As promised, I'm back to spill all the details on how we framed our DIY lettered wood sign! If you missed the tutorial for making the sign, check it out here!

We designed our frame to have a groove inside for the sign to fit into. This allowed us to be able to frame and hang our sign without putting any nails into our sign. Here's how we did it!

Step One- Measure and cut a 1x2" board to the length of each side of your sign, adding 2-3 extra inches per side to allow for adjustments or mistakes. If you try to get a precise measurement before cutting your grooves, your measurements will be off. You'll trim the boards to exact length in Step 4.

Step Two- Next, make a groove in the wood for your sign to slide into. To accomplish this, lower the saw blade so that it is only sticking up about 1/3". Then, place your wood, broad side down, so that one edge of the wood extends about 1/4" past where the saw blade will hit. Place your saw guide along the other side to hold the wood straight, then make your cut all the way down the length of the board. 

After you've made your first groove, you'll repeat the process 2-3 more times on the same board, moving your wood over less than the width of the saw blade each time. As you do this, your groove will gradually get wider and wider. The goal is to get your groove wide enough for your sign to slide into. You want a good, snug fit. We ended up doing 4 passes over the table saw to get the perfect sized groove, but it may take you more or fewer passes depending on your sign width. After each pass over the table saw, do a check to see if your wood will slide over the sign. 

See how the groove gets a little wider with each pass? 

Step Three- Now that you have your grooves finished, dry fit your wood by sliding your two side boards onto the sign. Once your boards are in place, measure the width of your sign inside the side frames. This will give you a precise measurement for the top and bottom boards. Trim your top and bottom boards to your precise measurement. 

Step Four- Dry fit all sides of your frame, squaring up the corners. Both side boards will be too long, so mark and trim off any excess wood. The boards should be in the order below. 

Step Five- Paint or stain your boards. I only bothered painting the sides that would be exposed. Hey, ya gotta save time where you can, right?

Step Six- When the paint or stain is completely dry, assemble your frame and secure it with a nail on each corner. We used a nail gun for this and it made it so easy! You can go back around and fill the groove and nail holes on each corner and touch up your paint, but I found that it wasn't even noticeable on my frame once on the wall, so I didn't need to. Your choice!

Step Seven- Screw two short screws onto both of the back sides of your frame, leaving them sticking out about a quarter of an inch. Make sure not to screw them in too far or they will come out the side of the frame and that would be sad. ;) Wrap and string a wire from the screws to hang your sign. Done!!!

Both the sign and the frame ended up being so much more simple than I anticipated! Can you believe that I had figured out my plans and purchased the supplies months and months ago, then procrastinated because I was intimidated and thought would be hard?! Seriously, if you love these signs, try this method out! It's so simple!

Click here to see the simple and foolproof tutorial for how I made the lettered wood sign!

Linking up with Savvy Southern Style, Remodelaholic, and many other awesome blogs!