DIY Scrap Wood Signs | A His & Hers Project

If there’s one thing about the two of us, it’s that we absolutely LOVE to use and create with things that would otherwise be tossed aside.

The room we are currently working on is our rec room. We decided to turn our attention there because it’s a place where we spend time together every single day and because it is the place we plan to spend most of the winter 🙂

Today’s project post is a ‘His & Hers’, ‘Beachy-Industrial’ inspired tutorial for DIY Scrap Wood Signs

Our friends over at Ryobi power tools were kind enough suggest we band together to do a wood working project – so this seemed like the perfect time. (Hey! And you can follow along all over social media with the hashtag #RyobiDays! ) AND – you can check out all these other bloggers and their projects too!

AKA Design
Fynes Designs
Satori Design For Living
Setting For Four
The Sweetest Digs

We raided our scrap wood and lumber pile in our shed and both pulled out pieces of wood we liked; some new, some old, some reclaimed, some painted – as well as little bits and bobs we thought we could use.

Erin’s Project: The Girly Beachy Sign!

So, of course, I was all over Instagram 🙂

The biggest board I wanted to use was 8 feet long by 12 inches wide – ideal for a giant chunky (and beachy sign) – but it needed to be cut.

The 18V ONE+ Ryobi tools are great for this type of thing. The interchangeable batteries hold a charge really well. These tools are definitely girl friendly and approved! *dances*

I was totally worried that I would be wobbly, but nope! There’s even a super neat laser on the circular saw to follow along as you cut to make sure your line stays straight.

Once the board was cut to size (it’s around 5 feet long now), it had to be sanded, given a rough coat with Minwax Wood Conditioner (it stinks! but it works! haha – so use it in a well ventilated area) and that was followed by another light coat of Minwax Pickling Whitewash stain.

As it was curing, I whipped up some giant vinyl letters using my Silhouette Cameo. I created the word BEACH. Then I used a mixture of grey chalk paint and water to go over the whole thing.

Once it was mostly dry, I pulled up my vinyl lettering. And I proceeded to nail down my gorgeous ‘triangle’ pieces! They were actually bits left from the old bookshelf in our house that we took down to make way for my closet. We ended up with a whole bunch of triangles after using some of the reclaimed wood to make frames for the mirrors in our upstairs hall. (Guys! So glad I kept them! I can’t get over how much I love them!!)

But let’s talk about this nail gun. It’s no ordinary nail gun. It’s an Air Striker Ryobi 18V ONE+ nail gun and it’s pretty much my favourite tool. In this case, I loaded the chamber with 2 inch brad nails (it can hold nails from 3/4″ to 2″). There’s a little blue light that tells you when it’s ready to fire. You press the tip down and then pull the trigger and out comes the nail. It makes the most satisfying sound. 🙂

Lastly, I used the Ryobi 18V ONE+ cordless drill to bore two ENORMOUS holes in my sign. I tied some chunky nautical rope through the holes for added texture and beachy-ness! *Wipes hands on shorts* All in a Saturday’s work 😛

Dan’s Project: The City Sign!

My task was to build a sign inspired by a city aesthetic. I took a similar approach to Erin and opted for a basic plank, and some spare scraps for embellishments. I wanted the sign to echo Erin’s beach sign in its weatherworn look, but also stand apart as something starker. All told, I too used Ryobi’s circular saw, drill and Air Striker nail gun, along with some carpenter’s glue and a kreg jig.

I used the circular saw for a simple straight cut, and for some more involved angled cuts. A straight cut brought my plank to the desired length, and the angled cuts were necessary for creating a chevron that serves as the sign’s arrow head. The guiding laser came in particularly handy and ensured I stayed true with my cuts.

I then paired the cordless drill with a kreg jig to join the two pieces that form the chevron. (and because everything was cordless, I was able to do so outside, on a beautiful sunny afternoon… ahhhhh)Speaking of outside – notice that our jungle-like backyard isn’t AS jungle like? That’s because we’ve also got a set of Ryobi lawn care tools to help us with that. We have the mower, trimmer and the leaf blower – all of them have the interchangeable battery system too. So if you’re in the market, definitely check them out.

I cheated a little bit next, and asked Erin to create a stencil for the lettering. I used a stain marker with the stencil to make the letters, and then coated everything with a quick pass of whitewash stain.

Lastly, we cut some scraps of leftover wood to create “skyscrapers” for the sign, painted them with some leftover paint (in convenient shades of city blues, whites and greys), and tacked them on with the nail gun. (Erin helped with this part. She’s better at paint than I am.) All told, this was easy as pie. Delicious, summery pie.And here is our finished product!

Eventually, these will hang under the window in the rec room and they will actually point in the right direction! This project was challenging only because it required us to use our creativity pretty much every step of the way. But because we used items we had on hand, and up-cycled what would otherwise have gone into the trash heap – they cost us next to nothing and pack a big design punch.