Pottery Barn Inspired DIY Fall Signs (with Free Printables)

Our Pottery Barn inspired DIY fall signs will bring some vintage farmhouse charm to your house this autumn without breaking the bank!

Decorating for fall used to be a simple thing. You’d go outside and collect some dried leaves and dead grass – maybe a corn stalk or two – and throw ’em on your front porch with a couple of pumpkins and a few gourds.

When mums started to bloom, maybe you threw a couple of them into the mix, too.

But then the internet happened.

And then Pinterest happened.

And your dead grass and shiny gourds were no longer good enough, were they?

No, you not only had to decorate your front porch, but you had to start decorating inside your house!

And now, there’s not a room in your beloved home that the All-Judging Eye of Pinterest has spared from seasonal decor.

From bedrooms to bathrooms, kitchens to closets, every room must conform to the current year’s Law of Style as commanded by Goddess Pinterest.

Failure to comply will result in shame and embarrassment and feelings of unworthiness.

There was a time, not too long ago, that you’d need to fork out over $100 for a really cool fall sign for your walls. Pottery Barn still carries these awesome vintage “pick-your-own” autumn signs mounted in a simple wooden frame. But, man alive! $103 each! Who can afford to decorate like that, season after season?

What’s a homemaker on a budget to do?

Well, take a big slug of your Pumpkin Spice Latte, sister, because Handan and I have your back!

Wouldn’t it be great if you could, I don’t know, what’s the phrase?

Oh yeah!

Wouldn’t it be great if you could DIY  those fall signs and save yourself a boatload of cash?

Well, I already showed you how to make simple, awesome, rustic, farmhousey frames!

And now, Handan has put a “Navage Patch twist” on those Pottery Barn autumn signs and made some awesome free printables for you!

So let’s get on with it and see how it’s done.

I assume you’ve gone back and read the Simple DIY Picture Frame post, right madam? Good. Let’s carry on.

Handan designed our Pottery Barn inspired Fall Signs and then printed them on our Canon printer. This printer has been a great investment for us (and at less than $200, it wasn’t much of an investment). We like to do a LOT of printables around here, and this little workhorse has saved us a ton of money and time versus getting them printed professionally. We still use Staples and Amazon for larger printables, but for anything up to 13×19, we print them on our Canon, and the results are just as good as a print shop. And for photographs, this machine is just awesome! But that’s another story, so let’s get back to the fall printables.

Handan wanted our fall signs to be double-sided: chalkboard on one side and ivory on the other, so she printed out two sets on 11×17 size 90lb card stock paper.

Once we had the printouts, we needed to fix the ink, as these printables would not be protected by glass. I took them outside and prepared to seal the ink onto the paper with a matte fixative. I used Rustoleum’s clear topcoat.

To fix the ink on paper, I gave a few very light passes with the topcoat.

Back and forth, back and forth…

And then Handan started to make fun of my RBF (Resting Bitch Face).

The nerve of that woman! She puts me to work and runs me like a malamute in the Idotarod, and then makes fun of me while I toil!

I replied with a four-finger British salute.

When the fixative clear coat had dried (it only take a few minutes), it was time to stick the printables to the wood backing. I used 1/4 inch plywood for the wood backing, cut to the dimensions of the recess I had routed in the back of the frame.

And since she wanted more smiles on her monkey boy while he sprayed adhesive on the wood, her monkey boy obliged.

You’d think that after that performance, my work would have been concluded for the evening. My martini beckoned from its perch next to the sofa.

But oh, no! There was more!

Next, she wanted me to put the printables onto the glue-sprayed wood! Would this madness ever end? I pounded my fist in defiance, and in the process, I affixed the printables nicely to the wood backing.

By the way, we used spray adhesive, as I wanted to be done with the project quickly, but if you don’t mind your torture project taking 5 minutes longer, you can use Mod Podge or any other white glue to adhere your free printable sign.

Next, I mounted the printables in the frames using a Logan Dual point driver.

And with that, our Pottery Barn inspired DIY fall signs were done and ready for display!

Handan loves these double-sided fall signs, since she can quickly change the display when she wants.

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Now here is some information on today’s printables: we designed these free printable Pottery Barn inspired fall signs in several colors and four sizes: 8.5×11 inch, 11×17 inch, 16×20 inch and 24×36 inch. The sizes 11×17 inch, 16×20 inch and 24×36 inch are prepared as jpeg, so you can scale them up or down as necessary. 24×36 inch scales down easily to 20×30 / 16×24 / 12×18 / 8×12 / 4×6 inches, and 16×20 inch scales down to 12×15 / 8×10 / 4×5 inches with no problems. If you need help with scaling down these printables so you can print them using your home printer, then make sure you check out Handan’s “How To Easily Resize Pictures” post.

Now it’s time to click on the button below to download today’s free printable Pottery barn inspired fall signs – they are in the Fall section of The VIP Patch.

If you’re not a Navage Patch VIP, you won’t be able to access our Freebies Library. But that can be easily fixed! Subscribe for free on the form below and become a Navage Patch VIP. Once you subscribe, a password will be sent to you in our Welcome email, and that will give you access to The VIP Patch [Freebies Library].