I fell in love with neon signs at weddings after seeing them on Pinterest. I looked into them and was blown away by how expensive a custom neon sign cost. For the size I was wanting, I was looking at roughly $500. We decided to make our own version of a neon sign. Now this isn’t a true “neon” neon sign. But it is a good dupe for the real deal so I have to share.
Here are the supplies we used:
- 2 Sheets of plywood (2×4)
- neon rope light -we really liked these because you can pick the color and control it by remote
- rope light clips
- paint- your choice but I’d suggest outdoor paint!
- 2 4-foot sections of 2×4’s
- 1 2-foot sections of 2x4a
To start off, I used a pencil to trace an outline of “the felskes” on the plywood. I tried to space it out and imagine twisting the neon rope light. You can play around with the rope lights to determine what is possible with the spacing. Next, I identified where the holes would need to be. I will be basically “sewing the rope light from front to back of the plywood so I need to determine where the holes will be.
Cody starting by drilling a hole with the largest bit he had, then we used the jigsaw to make the hole a little wider and more rectangular to fit the neon rope light through.
At this point, I would paint the plywood. I didn’t do it here and painted it after adding my rope lights, and it was a little difficult. So going back, here is the best spot to paint. And while you’re at it, you can paint your 2×4’s as well.
Once you start weaving the neon rope light through the holes, you’ll find there are places where the rope light archs upward and doesn’t sit flat against the plywood. For these places, we used the clips to hold the rope light in place. It may seem very visible while you’re making the sign, but when the neon light is on, you can’t see the clips hardly at all.
From here we chose to build a box around ours neon sign to hide the lights that are “sewn” through the backside. We used 2×4’s to build the edges and then covered to back with another piece of plywood. We drilled a hole in the bottom left of the box to bring the plug through and to have a hole to use the remote to turn it on and off.
Overall, we’re super happy with how it turned out. It definitely looks better at night than in daylight, but same with real neon signs, right? We hung it over our bar at our wedding and everyone loved it!
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