This month for our Lowes project we were challenged to create Outdoor Art for our home. I love these challenges because they really make me get creative. And I’ve been working hard to get my yard fixed up this year, so this was a challenge I was ready to tackle!

One of my favorite projects I’ve made so far this year was the beadboard marquee heart . I love that project, but I wanted to try doing an outdoor version that was quick to make to add a little light and excitement to my patio area.

Here’s how I made this quick Outdoor Marquee Letter:

1. I chose a handy-sized piece of inexpensive plywood from Lowe’s. I wanted a rustic look, so I did not choose a premium grade (you certainly could!). The grade I chose would be the kind you’d use in construction, not in fine furniture.
2. I picked up a 10-light strand of outdoor globe lights, and, anticipating that I might want to change the colors, bought 3 4-packs of frosted, 25-watt, small candelabra-based globe bulbs. (They usually have a picture on them of them being used in a bathroom vanity light).
3. I laid the strand of lights along the board to get an idea of how big I could make the letter — an H in my case — and still use all of the 10 lights in a row without having to backtrack with the wires. Turns out I could make my letter about 36″ high and about 18″ wide, with the wire making kind of an “N” shape in the back.
4. We then cut a 36″ by 18″ rectangle from the larger board using a table saw. I hate table saws; they always scare me.
5. Overcoming my fear, we used the table saw a bit more to make the vertical cuts in the middle of the H. To make the horizontal cuts, you could use a jigsaw, but we had a RotoZip handy that we had from a previous project, so we used that. (We attached a straightedge guide board to the piece we were about to remove to help us make a straight(ish) cut.)
6. That left us with a big letter H! At this point, we stained and sprayed polyurethane on the board — but I recommend you don’t do it at this stage. Instead, now it’s time to mark the holes.
7. Lay out your lights along the letter again, first estimating their placement and then measuring their placement exactly. In my case, I knew that the holes would be centered horizontally, and then about 7.5″ inches apart on the vertical sides of the H, and centered along the cross bar. I marked these with a pencil.
8. Get out your drill bits and hold them up near your lights. Ideally, what you want is to create a tapered hole for each light, larger at the front and smaller at the back. If you are really tricky, you can leave only a thin piece of the plywood that’s big enough for the base of the bulb to pass through and still make electrical contact. From that smaller hole, the hole will have to widen enough to accommodate the bulb. Unlike the more complex way I did the fancier marquee earlier this year, the idea here is to let the bulb and the socket hold the bulb in place. I used a combination of Forstner drill bits and a chamfer bit I stole from my router set. It took some trial and error, and even then it was not perfect. But again, remember the bulb will cover most of the imperfections in your drilling!
9. Sand the wood to whatever degree of polish you prefer, stain and apply the spray polyurethane. Let it dry after each stage.
10. Attach the bulbs and sockets/wire to your letter, using a shallow staple in the back to hold the wire in place. I used a staple gun, but you can use anything you have handy, even duct tape! Be careful not to staple through the wire. At the end of the wire, use a small piece of electrical tape to cover over the plug holes to keep moisture out.
11. As a last step, you’ll want to make your marquee letter stand out from the wall or fence you hang it on, so grab some scrap wood – I grabbed some leftover 2×2 from a previous project – and attach it at strategic places on the back of your letter. In my case, it was easy to put a small, 4-inch piece on the top and bottom of each side of the H. I used both wood glue and screws to hold them in place.
12. On top of the top two back brace pieces, I attached picture hanging hooks so that I can easily hang the marquee letter on two nails. (yes, we used a level when we hung it!)
13. If you find your marquee letter is too bright, you can attach a dimmable extension cord!

(This is a RotoZip:)

I love the way it turned out! I think it would be fun to make a number too — maybe a 6? And I snapped a few pictures of my cute mom with Ella while she was out visiting this week. So fun!

I love the glow it gives my patio at night!

You can follow along with Lowe’s on Facebook for more great ideas and sign up for their FREE Creative Ideas Magazine with TONS of great DIY  ideas and instructions!!

Have a CREATIVE Day! 

xox

Thanks Lowes for the gift cards to make this project. 

Thanks to Lowe’s for the gift cards to make this project. 

The post Make a Quick Outdoor Wood Marquee Letter (DIY Tutorial)! appeared first on Tatertots and Jello.

I’ve been inspired by marquee letter projects, but many have been made from materials like foam core and poster board. I wanted to build something permanent that could be used as a permanent decorative element in a room. And I saw one that inspired me at the CHA show from Allison Krefts’s booth. That one had wood in the middle and I thought it would be fun to make a Heart Marquee Light with beadboard in the middle and metal on the inside and outside.

I also love how big this heart turned out. And it would make such a fun photography prop to shoot kids, engagement or wedding pictures or in a photo booth!

Note: When you try this, you may not want to do every single thing I did — that’s totally OK! I think we might have over-built this a bit.

Here’s how we made a lighted marquee letter heart:

1. buy “handy board” 2×2, lights, wainscoting (about 2×4), liquid nails, white spray paint, roll of roofing aluminum, leftover 2×2 or similar board, small nails, screws.

2. Sketch the shape on the board, or on a piece of paper of the same size. use a ruler and dishes of appropriate size. We wanted a heart that was about 4″ wide. Cut the wainscoting to about 2×2 and transfer your shape to the front of the wainscoting with pencil. Guess roughly at light placement to make sure you have enough. run liquid nails around the edge of where you will need to glue the wainscoting to the particle board — why? Because it’s going to be a pain to try to cut through liquid nails instead of wood — so if you can avoid it, do. Let the adhesive dry.

3. Use a scroll saw if you have one, a band saw if you don’t and a jigsaw as last resort to cut the shape. Take your time; the beadboard will be more difficult to cut than the particle board. I used a RotoZip to get the cuts just right.

4. Estimate how many lights you will need. We knew that we had 24-light strings, so we didn’t want many more than those. We also noticed that the bulbs took up about 1 1/4″ each, so to leave enough room on each side we knew the holes needed to be at least 3″ apart. Mark the center of the holes on your heart — in our case, we simply centered them from side to side on the heart and tried to put them as close to 3″ apart as we could. We also started with one light at the very bottom so the sides would be symmetrical. (You could have marked the light holes on the paper, too, if you’re more of a planning type. But we wrote in pencil, so it was easy to change the holes as needed.)

5. We used a small drill bit and then a Forstner bit that was the same size as the light receptacles. We recommend you drill each light hole first with the small (i.e. 3/16″ or so) drill bit and then come back and drill with the Forstner bit. Use the biggest, strongest drill you have. It will create a lot of sawdust and take some time (in fact, this step took the longest of any!). (If you really want to be particular, you can come back with another large drill bit and taper the sides a bit so the lights fit even better in the holes.

6. Next, we put the lights in the holes. You could do this quickly if you drill each hole large enough to accommodate the entire light receptacle. Drop a bit of liquid nails in the back of each hole to hold the light in place.

[Optional: If you feel up to it, you can do like we did and actually rewire the light string. We pried the back off of each light receptacle. It was pretty easy: they just snap in and small metal pieces pierce the wire to make the electrical connection. If you do so, we recommend that you pry each light off, marking the location with a small piece of electrical tape (so you don’t later leave any exposed wire). Use a large pair of snips or pliers to snip the gutter/shingle clips from the lights. Glue each light receptacle in place, making sure you make the wire channel go in the right direction so the wire will go smoothly from one light to the next. After the glue (Liquid Nails) dries, go back with your cord and receptacle backs and snap the cord in place for each receptacle. You can then cut off the end plug from the wire along with any leftover receptacles; cap and tape the wire ends. (We had four extra receptacles.) We also then cut the plug end and spliced on a longer, white extension cord. You don’t have to do this — we just thought it made for a neater project.]

7. Then, cut about 10 or so small pieces (1 1/2″ to 2″) of 2×2 pine we had left over from another project to make supports to go in the back. These supports help take the weight of the project and can also be used for mounting. We just screwed them into the back of the particle board at strategic locations using wood screws.

8. Now, stuff a small piece of newspaper in each receptacle, making sure you cover the gold electrical contacts. Spray paint the heart whatever color you like (we used a glossy white) — and make sure that if you have green wires/receptacles like we did that you cover those with white paint too. Give it plenty of time to dry.

9. While you’re waiting for it to dry, estimate the length of aluminum you’ll need for both the inside and outside frames. We bought approximately 7″-wide aluminum, so we had to trim it to size. We chose about 4 1/2″ for our desired width — enough to protect the bulbs in the front and also provide a cavity in the back for the wiring and supports. We needed about 80″ on the outside and 60″ on the inside. We used a paper cutter to make nice straight cuts.

10. Once the paint is dry, you can attach the aluminum to the inside and outside. (It’s good to have two people if you can.) Remember to put the smoothest side in the front (probably the side you didn’t cut). Bend 4″ to 6″ around the bottom of the heart and use a ruler or other hard object to make a nice 90″ bend in your aluminum. Bend the aluminum as tightly as you can around the outside of the heart, nailing every 4″ or so as you go. We used a nail gun with small brads, but you could use a hammer and nails as well. (Tip: make a little template to make sure you’re getting your nails far enough in from the front (and not too much). It’s not the end of the world, but it’s easy to accidentally go too far back and make more holes in the aluminum than you want. We used a bit of liquid nails on the ends to keep the ends flat.

11. Screw in the lightbulbs and be festive!

More tips: Depending on how you’re planning to hang it, you might want to put hangers in the supports, or, like we did, just use some strong picture wire and eye hooks. Of course, you can test the bulbs as you go to make sure you didn’t goof anything up. You may also want to attach a dimmer extension cord to your project!

Thanks to Lowes for the gift card they sent me to make this project.

You can follow along with Lowe’s on Facebook for more great ideas and sign up for their FREE Creative Ideas Magazine with TONS of great DIY  ideas and instructions!!

Have a Creative Day!! 

xox

The post Make a DIY Lighted Marquee Letter Heart! #LowesCreator appeared first on Tatertots and Jello.