Letter Board Magic: Crafting a Custom Letter Board at Home

Are you looking for a last minute Christmas gift? Maybe you need a gift for yourself? Or maybe you have always wanted a letter board, but never got one. Well, now is your chance to MAKE ONE! I swear it’s so easy! You can even do this with NO tools. AND depending on how much time you have, this can easily be a one day project! Are you ready? Lets go!

First, run to the nearest Home Depot and grab these supplies. Or dig through your scrap pile and see if you have anything similar that will work. See if they will cut the wood for you at the store. Some stores will, some won’t. If they don’t you will need some kind of saw for this. Also check your local store. Some have precut wood, that would work perfect for this!

Letter Board Step 1:

Lay the 1×2 out about 5 inches shorter than the length of the poplar boards.

Step 2:

Place a bead of glue along the tops of both 1×2 and place the poplar boards across them, leaving about a 2.5 inch overhang on each side of the 1×2.

Letter Board Step 3:

Using your wood rectangles as spacers, glue the square trim pieces on. Make sure you can easily slide the rectangles between the trim pieces, so they are evenly spaced. If you want to add a couple nails here, you can, but that is totally optional. I did, because I have a nail gun, so why not?

Step 4:

Now you will take the other trim piece and glue it on top of the square trim, aligning the bottom so that there is a little lip on one top so the letter pieces do not fall off.

Step 5:

Ok, time to seal it all up. First apply wood conditioner to your board. Remember, wood conditioner is like primer for stain. It creates a clean, even surface for the stain to sit on. Then stain it whatever color you want. Finally, seal it with polycrylic or polyurethane. Either works great. I used Behr Stain+Poly. It worked great!

Letter Board LAST STEP:

While the letter board part dries up, we are going to start on the letters. I painted the wood rectangles white, using Behr Spray Paint! Once that was dry, I applied the vinyl letter stencils, and spray painted them black OR you can just get these vinyl stickers, that would probably be easier. 🙂 I suggest giving the letters a nice clear coat to seal it all up, arrange the words/letters on it however you want and you are all done!

What do you think? Is this something you would try? Would you make this letter board as a gift, or for yourself?

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