How to Make a Rustic Railroad Crossing Sign

Train memorabilia is always popular. I know a lot of adults who love railroad stuff, but trains also tend to be popular with kids. My youngest two kids love trains. As a result, I am often tripping on wooden railroad tracks and stepping on tiny trains. To reflect his interest in trains, I wanted to include a vintage railroad sign in his bedroom. Unfortunately, finding real vintage signs can be time consuming and expensive. I didn't want a mass produced reproduction, so I decided to make my own sign instead. The end result looks even better than I had hoped, and the project was surprisingly simple.

Here's how to make your own rustic railroad crossing sign.

1. Get two pieces of wood. You can choose how big you want your sign to be; the wood pieces I used were a couple of feet long each. You can also choose how rustic you want your board to be. I used two pieces of pallet wood, which also had the advantage of being free. If you don't have a pallet, you can buy new wood at a hardware store or repurpose other wood pieces.

2. Prepare the wood. Cut the two pieces of wood to the same length. Then sand them. As this is a wall decoration and I wanted it to look like an old sign, I didn't worry about making it perfectly smooth. I just sanded it enough to make it generally even and splinter free.

3. Painting step one. Paint the fronts of both pieces white and let dry. If you want the rustic look, just paint it quickly and let there be some streaks. You may even want to lightly sand it after it dries to make it look aged.

4. Nail or screw the two pieces together in a big X shape. If you use pallet wood, it tends to be really hard, so you'll probably want an electric drill.

5. Paint the writing. The word crossing starts at the top left and ends at the bottom right; the word railroad starts at the bottom left and ends at the top right. If you are confident with your work, you can freehand it.

I recommend printing off a template on the computer (just type it in a word document and print it off in the size you want it) and using tracing paper to transfer the letters to the wood. Then you can just paint in the lines to get great looking writing. Use black paint for the writing.

6. When it dries, hang it. You could use all different types of hanging methods, but we went simple. We simply screwed straight through the sign into the wall. It is very secure, and the screws are not noticeable on the rustic sign.