Whimsical Way-finding Signs
You only have to think of the locations where your family lives to make a fun directional sign post for your garden. Personalize your garden and create a one of a kind sign to honor your family and friends or to delight your imagination in the garden. This is a garden craft that anyone can do!
Fantasy location sign posts
The idea is to attach several signs of different lengths and colors, each with the name of a city and the distance in miles. The locations need not be real, in fact, but can be imaginary or even places in your own garden or property, such as ‘Pond’ or ‘Secret Garden.’ You can make your sign post large or small…tiny even, for a fairy garden. As you pass by your sign post in the garden, you fondly remember your family members, or favorite dream locations.
Literary sign post by Jeni McClellan
Jeni McClellan wanted a cute signpost for her front yard and decided to use children’s books as her theme. Her husband broke the boards by hand to make the whimsical ragged edges and then stained the boards with dark walnut stain. To get the crackle effect, Jeni coated the boards with Elmer’s glue and immediately, painted each board with a different color. As the paint dries, it crackles.
They printed out different fonts for the wording and applied charcoal pencil to the backs of the letters. Rubbing on the front of the paper created an impression to act as a guide. They added cute pictures, trees, animals and fences, to the signs and sprayed them with Rustoleum Matte Clear. They screwed the signs to a 4″ round post and planted it in their front garden. Done!
Choose a theme, such as:
- Family’s cities of residence
- Places you want to visit
- Locations from a favorite movie or book
- Fairytale locations
- Garden ‘rooms’ at your place
- Exotic or romantic locations around the world
Display your favorite places to visit
When using real destinations, just look up the mileage for each one with a map program like Google Maps. Enter your home location, then click Directions and the city you’re looking for.
Kim Lubeck’s favorite destinations mounted on a old tree limb….
Lynn Paterson’s sign post
Lynn Paterson tells us, “Here’s my eight foot pole welcomes everyone to my home….all my favorite places with room for more additions!
Christine Wallet’s cool sign post, designed by her son
Making the signs
To make the signs, choose any type of scrap wood or whatever wood you choose.
- Cut points on one end of each sign board
- Sand all the sides
- Paint each one a different color or choose a color scheme
- Screw each to the post and aim it in the direction of the real locations
- Use your imagination for fantasy locations!
- Bury the post or anchor it in a concrete filled 5 gallon bucket
Cathy Cadd’s signpost
Cathy Cadd anchored her sign in a 5 gallon bucket, which can then be hidden in shrubbery or buried. She says, “Our niece is moving to Houston and so I made this sign post with the mileage distance and cities for the rest of the family to Houston.”
Phil Martyn used a clear coat on fine-grained wood
Phil Martyn says, ‘I put all my nieces and nephews on it so my son knew how far away they lived.”
Debbie McMurry’s sign names the flowers she loves best
Display your favorite places to ‘visit’
- Nanny McPhee’s Garden
- An arrow pointing up with the word “Heaven” on it
- The Secret Garden
- Mr.Magorium’s Wonder Emporium
- Eden
- Babylon
- Wonderland
- There be dragons
- Sherwood Forest
- Middle Earth
- OZ
- Wonderland
- The Willows
- The Saint Francis Garden
- Plumfield
- White Way of Delight
- Pern
- Don’t forget Grandma’s House! What location would you put on a sign? leave a comment with your choice…
