Chalkboard Blue: How to Make a Arrow Marquee Light

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

How to Make a Arrow Marquee Light

I wanted to share with you how I built my Arrow Marquee Light!

When I built it, I had an idea in mind of what I wanted. But now that it is finished, I have been even more pleased with it! I have used it for some decor around the house and plan to use it for other occasions also!!!

I cut some Vinyl and placed it on the front of it
Such as a Kissing Booth sign Decor for Valentines Day!

At Christmas, it directed us to the North Pole…

This is how I made mine... I used 1/4 in. smooth finish plywood. I sketched my arrow out by hand. It is 27 in. long and 19 in. tall. I used my jigsaw and cut out the arrow. I painted my arrow a darker grey before I framed it, just to minimize taping off.

*****Note!!!! If you use the 1/4 in. plywood, then you will have to frame and nail on the underside around the edges with some thicker strips of plywood such as I have done here. This is necessary for when you frame the edges of the arrow so there will be something for the outside framing edges to be nailed to.

***** If you do not wish to frame the underside, then just use a thicker plywood to cut your arrow out of such as 1/2 in. thick plywood. I have made this arrow with that also and it works just as well.

Here is the 1/4 in. plywood with the framing around the bottom to give a base to nail the edges to.

I used some pine that I bought at Lowes and cut into strips 1 1/2 in. wide and painted white. I next turned the 1 1/2 in. wide up on its side and that is what fits up against the outside edge of the arrow. It does not lay flat, it is turned up on its side. These are used for the outside edge framing… I had to use an angle finder and miter saw to make my inverted cuts.

I followed all along the outside edge of the arrow to frame the entire sign. I will say this was one of the more time consuming parts of this project. The Angle finder saved me though. Some of these cuts were insanely crazy inverted and the angle finder saved me!!!

Once I cut and fit all of my outside trim, I used some 1 1/2 in brads to nail the edges of the trim into the plywood strips that I framed on the underside of the arrow with.

This is a shot once I have them all nailed together and have it painted a dark grey… Once the outside edges are nailed on, I sanded them down and ran some stain over the edges to give them a more worn look. The edges are raised up from the flat bottom of the arrow to give it a framed look. (Again you can see how the pine is standing up on its side and not laying flat to frame around the outside edge of the arrow.)

I next measured in how far I wanted the lights to go from the edge and marked with a pencil where I needed to drill. ***Big note! If you have the framing on the underside, plan for the space to make the hole so that it does not hit the underside framing. On some of mine, I ran into that issue. If you use 1/2in. plywood for your arrow, then you do not need to plan for this space.

I then used a 3/4 in. drill bit and drilled my holes… I did have to roll my bit around in each of the holes a little to allow for the lights to come through.

I have used a couple different type of lights for this sign. I have used the C7 Christmas lights, the Clear round patio style lights and the fogged round patio style. They each have a fun look to them!

Once your holes are drilled, hold the base of the lights around back and place the bulb through the front of the sign. Screw them into the housing of the light and it should hold. Some of my lights are not perfect, they even come through the front of the sign. It takes a little bit of trial and error to get the lights just right!

Here is a shot of the back side of the light to see how all of the wires and framing look.

Here is the sign once the lights are through and lit...

I cut and use Vinyl on my arrow so that it can be changed out for any season or occasion I may use the Arrow light for! I can't wait to use it in the summer too (Movie Night)!!!

Here is the North Pole Vinyl