Easy DIY Wood Beach Sign Wall Art

If you’re looking for budget-friendly wall art, these DIY beach decor signs are a fun & easy way to get a coastal look without having to spend a bunch of time or money. Paint them with your favorite sea-inspired hues and display them with nautical decor to create your own beach-themed haven.

This DIY wall art project is a favorite because 1) it’s easy 2) the patterns are FREE and the supplies are inexpensive, and 3) you can create both signs in about an hour–that’s practically instant gratification.

No fancy equipment is needed for printing the quotes–the secret behind transferring the lettering to the boards is an orange essential oil based product,  Citra Solv.  

It takes only minutes to transfer an entire quote to a wood board using Citra Solv. And it smells amazing! Your entire work area will smell like fresh cut Valencia oranges when you’re finished creating these signs.

In addition to being a great transfer medium, Citra Solv is also an eco-friendly, concentrated essential oil-based cleaner.   An 8 ounce bottle can be mixed with water to make 11 gallons of household cleaner and degreaser. Whatever you have leftover from making your signs can be used to make a cost-effective, beautifully scented, take-the-drudgery-out-of-housework product!

Enjoy this project and all the fun DIY beach decor possibilities it creates!

supplies:

• Citra Solv
• small dish or container
• cotton balls
• spoon or other firm tool (a rounded edge is preferable as tools with sharp edges will tear the paper during the transfer process)
• rubber, latex or vinyl gloves
• Sea quote, printed using either a laser printer or printed at a place like Staples or Kinko’s on a toner based copy machine on normal copy paper (download the free transfer pattern here)
• Paradise quote, printed using the same recommendation as the sea quote above (download the free transfer pattern here)
• scissors
• tape
• your favorite colors of paint (flat paint works better than gloss)
• wood boards  (I used Primed Finger Joint Trim boards from The Home Depot.  These are very inexpensive boards that have a coat of white primer already painted on.   You’ll find them in the lumber section, and if you ask, Home Depot will cut them to whatever size you would like.   They are typically  8 feet long, so you can actually get several signs cut from  just one board.  Different widths are available. For the Sea quote, I used an 8 inch wide board (cut to a length of 27 inches), and for the Paradise quote, I used a 5 inch wide board (cut to a length of 20 inches).

step 1:  download & print the quote transfer patterns

The first step in making your set of DIY wood beach signs is to download the Sea quote and download the Paradise quote.  Print the quote patterns using either a laser printer that uses toner or using a toner-based copy machine at a place like Staples or Kinko’s. I used an HP laserjet printer.

Inkjet printers will not work for printing the patterns as they use liquid ink instead of powder-based toner. If you have an inkjet printer instead of laser–just download the files and then have the pages printed on a copy machine so that you can get good toner-based copies.

Print on normal copy paper.   Use a “normal” print setting instead of high quality. With a normal setting, the ink doesn’t adhere to the paper as well, so it’s easier to get it to release and transfer to the wood sign. You’ll also have better success if you work with copies that are freshly printed, rather than working with copies printed several days prior. The fresher the print, the better the transfer.

Don’t worry when you see the quotes printing out in reverse/backwards.   This is exactly how they need to print in order to transfer correctly.

TIP: Print an extra set of patterns to practice with. If this is your first time using Citra Solv to transfer a quote, you can practice on the back of the wood boards with a second set of patterns before you begin working on the actual front of the sign.

step 2:  set up your work area

Arrange your work space with the printed quotes, Citra Solv, cotton balls, spoon, scissors, tape, and painted wood  boards.

I used Sherwin Williams Sea Salt (SW 6204) to paint the board below. Flat paint works much better than paint with a semi-gloss or glossy sheen.  Flat (or matte) finishes are more absorbent which lessens the likelihood of any ink smearing during the transfer process.  A hair dryer is an excellent way to get the paint to dry faster so you can move ahead to transferring the quote.

step 3: assemble the patterns

For the first sign, I used the Sea quote and the board measuring 27 inches long and 8 inches tall. Tape the 3 pattern pages together to make one piece as shown below. Use scissors to trim away the excess paper from the top and bottom of the pattern. You may also need to trim away some of the paper along the sides so that the words fit together properly.

step 4: position the pattern

Flip the paper pattern over and position it on top of the wood board (see below). Though faint, the quote will be visible through the paper. Check the spacing on the sides, top and bottom to make sure that the lettering is centered and straight, not tilted.   You can eyeball it, but for best results, use a ruler to check the spacing.  Once everything is nicely lined up, tape the paper to the painted wood board to keep it in place.  I used blue painters tape designed for sensitive surfaces.   This type of tape works well on surfaces that have been freshly painted, and it is less likely to pull the paint off or damage the surface than masking tape.

step 5: transfer

Now it’s time for the magic!  Pour a teaspoon of Citra Solv into your dish or small container. Don those gloves and dip the tip of a cotton ball into the Citra Solv solution. The cotton ball should be damp, but not dripping. Too much Citra Solv will over-saturate the paper and cause the ink to bleed and smear.   You want just enough product on the cotton ball to dampen the paper.  

Apply the Citra Solv to one small section of the text at a time (see below). Then use the rounded tip of a spoon or other object to press and rub firmly over the letters several times.  The combination of the Citra Solv and the pressure of the spoon will transfer the ink from the paper to the board.

Don’t worry if some of the ink bleeds a bit. You can always use touch up paint and a small brush to cover over any smears or areas where the ink bleeds to much. Or, you can leave those smudges and smears and go for a distressed look.

As soon as the letters have all been rubbed on, pull back the tape and remove the paper. If there are any areas where the ink got a little crazy, just paint over those areas with a small paint brush and a little paint. No one will ever know!

step 6: second sign

Make the second sign using the same process as the first. For the second sign, paradise found, I used a board that was 5 inches wide and had it cut to a length of 20 inches.

Before transferring the letters, I painted the boards with Sherwin Williams wall paint (Copen Blue SW 0068), and then used a cheap 4 inch Chinese bristle chip brush and a 50/50 gray paint + water mix to give the sign a distressed look. Dip just the lower edge of the brush into the watered down paint and drag it lightly over the surface to create the look of weathered wood.

Ready to hang!

To hang, you can add saw tooth picture hangers to the back of your wood beach decor signs. Or you could also attach eyelet screws like these to the top edge (one on the left corner and one on the right) and then run ribbon or rope through the eyelet rings in order to hang the sign on the wall.

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