Rental House Entry Revamp on a Budget: DIY Framed Wooden Last Name Sign & Shelf

For those that are new around here, let me start this post by sharing a little about our lifestyle. We are a military family, as my husband is an active duty Marine. We love the military community and way of life, but this also means we tend to move more often than most and usually end up renting a home rather than buying one just because we don’t know how long we will be in any one duty station. With that said, Rich and I are big advocates for making a house a home that appeals to our tastes and feels welcoming regardless of whether we own it or not. This can be a challenge! Not only do we have a compilation of furniture we have collected for each space we’ve lived in that we have to try and piece together in a new living space, we also have certain areas of the houses we live in that we would change if we owned the home. Over the next few months, I’m going to share some affordable updates we’re making to our rental home to try and update the esthetic, without doing anything permanent or making a big investment in a space we know is probably temporary. This week, I’m starting with the front entry!

In our current rental house, you walk in the front door and are immediately in our dining room with our living room directly in front of you. This is usually where our kids sit down to put their shoes on, so I have an old church pew I got while we lived in Virginia against the wall as you come in. With that said, this area had also turned into a dumping ground for all the kids shoes, coats, and anything else they didn’t feel like putting away at the time, and it made me crazy! I also had thrown up an old (not so cute) mirror I had just to fill the space above the bench, but had never loved how it looked. So, call it nesting, but the second Christmas was over this year, I went on a rampage of trying to declutter our home, make it more functional for four (soon to be five) kids, and decorate in a style that made me feel happy and want to stay home and hang out! I browsed Pinterest for inspiration and LOVE the look of a mudroom, like this beautiful one from Tara Thueson, but quickly realized that between the space and the cost, that just wasn’t practical in a rental. So, we came up with a solution of adding cubbies to our toy room (more on that in a later post) for all the kids’ clutter and revamping our front entry to be functional and cute.

The first thing I knew I wanted was a wooden sign with our name on it. After searching Etsy, I quickly realized that for the size and color of sign I wanted, it would be upwards of $300 to have made. I also knew I could do the majority of it myself for much less! I have made several wooden signs for around the house, so knew I could make the background and the frame, but found a shop that could cut our last name out of wood in the exact size and font I needed for around $50 shipped, so I ordered that aspect from House of Rounds. From there, I went to Lowes (did you know they offer a generous military discount?) and purchased a piece of .7 inch thick wood that was 4 feet by 3 feet ($13) and had them make one cut in it to be the backdrop for my sign (I saved the extra bit for another project). I then bought two 6-foot pieces of trim ($2.50 each) to frame the backdrop with. I also knew I wanted a shelf above the sign but the one I loved at World Market was $120 with the brackets, so I grabbed a 4 foot long by 10 inch wide piece of wood ($6) and some basic black brackets ($4 each) to make the shelf myself. I also snagged a sample size of white paint for the backdrop wood ($4), some sand paper ($3), and a Minwax wood stain in ebony ($8) for the frame and shelf. Total cost of the shelf and materials to make the sign (minus the $50 for the wooden last name cutout) was $36 (with the military discount).

Once home, I immediately sanded the shelf and stained it with a dark walnut Minwax stain I had on hand. For the long frame wood I used the ebony stain I’d picked up, as I wanted a darker black color that still looked natural. I then lightly sanded the backdrop and painted it solid white. At this point the shelf was done, so we measured out the size of the sign above the bench and Rich mounted the shelf so we could focus on the sign.

The next step for the sign was for Rich to cut four pieces of the trim wood I’d stained and attach them to the painted white backdrop. He used a circular saw to cut the pieces at the correct angle and then attached them to the backdrop with a nail gun. I had him attach the frame so that it rose above the edge of the backdrop rather than laying flush with it to add dimension. I also thought this would look nice since the wooden lettering would be jutting out from the backdrop, as well. At this point, our lettering had arrived and was ready to be painted. I used my favorite Rustoleum spray paint in matte black to paint the letters. It took a couple of coats to ensure I got all of the nicks and crannies between the script, but once it dried, the matte black looked uniform and like it had been airbrushed.

To attach the wood lettering to the sign, we got REALLY professional. Rich used Gorilla Wood Glue on the back of the letters and then added weights on top of the lettering to give it some pressure while we let it dry overnight. We thought we might have to nail the letters on, as well, but when we checked the next day, the wood lettering had adhered perfectly and was not coming off at all, so we knew the glue was enough to hold it. The last thing we did was add hardware to the back of the sign for hanging. It’s a pretty heavy sign, so we opted for two hangars drilled into the dry wall rather than one. Overall the entire sign project took us about three hours broken out over 4 days, and saved us around $225. Well worth it in my books!

With both the sign and shelf hung, I went ahead and ordered a couple decor items to finish the entryway look I wanted. I bought the gold picture frame and ceramic pot (similar) at Michaels, ordered the stack of personalized books (with one blank for baby coming in July) from Sword and Co on Etsy, and ordered the metal number 7 from GaugeNYC on Etsy, as well, to represent our 7 family members. Lastly, after scouring Home Goods and Target (my usual go-to’s), I found the wooden beaded tray on Amazon for a great price and added my favorite Capri Blu Volcano candle to finish it all off. And if you’re ever looking for shelf styling tips from an expert, I highly recommend following my friend Beth Light from 111 Light Lane, as she has taught me so much about how to change things up and add dimension to shelves!

In total, we spent about $200 on everything for this front entry update and I feel like it has made a HUGE difference. I’m so happy with how it turned out and even happier with the fact that it didn’t require a huge investment into a home that isn’t our forever home. The other aspect I love is that everything we did can be taken with us when we move, with very little damage to fix other than filling a couple holes in the wall.

What are some ways you’ve taken a rental or an area of your home and made it your own? I love hearing about your DIY rental projects!