Make a DIY winter porch sign with a painted penguin to greet your visitors at the door from Christmas until spring!

This chilly penguin is the perfect front porch decor for wintertime. Keri from One Mama’s Daily Drama here! I love decorating for Christmas, but when the holiday season is over I want to do a little winter decorating to get us through to spring.

DIY winter porch sign made from a board painted to resemble a penguin wearing a real hat and scarf.

There’s no shortage of cute Christmas crafts on the internet. Every year I save more ideas to my Pinterest account than I could possibly make.

But when Christmas is over and all the decorations are put away, my house can look surprisingly empty. Do you know what I mean?

So I decided that this year I’m going to make a few winter crafts that I can display until February when I start decorating for Valentine’s Day.

I absolutely love penguins – and so does Kenarry Chief Crafter Carrie. (If your name is some variation on Carrie/Keri and you love penguins too, leave us a comment!)

To make this winter porch sign, I grabbed some of my favorite paint and a blank porch sign from JoAnn. Then I hit my favorite thrift shops to find a hat and scarf that matched!

A sketch of the penguin sign design beside the real wood with the design drawn in pencil.

How to Make a Winter Porch Sign

Apart from the black and white, you can use whatever colors match your home decor.

What you need:

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Craft/DIY Tools:

pencil and eraser
sponge paint brushes

Supplies:

unfinished wood porch sign (You can also get a similar one on Amazon here)
craft paint – black, white, orange, and blue
winter hat and scarf

Winter Porch Sign Painting Tips:

What kind of paint is best for porch signs?

It’s important to use outdoor paint for your sign so that it’s protected from sun and weather. My favorite is an indoor/outdoor paint from DecoArt. I also used AppleBarrel paint for this craft.

A white penguin face and body painted on wood.

How to you weatherproof outdoor porch signs?

The best way to extend the life of your crafts is to use outdoor paint and bring your sign indoors during extreme weather. You can also seal your signs using outdoor Mod Podge. (I did not seal this penguin sign.)

A winter porch sign that resembles a penguin in winter hat and scarf and BRR down its front.

How do you draw smooth lines?

Trace shapes for cleaner lines. If you’re having trouble drawing the shapes, you can use a ruler or round paint bottles as a guide. Grab a big pink eraser with your supplies. Draw in pencil very lightly and erase to fix your lines if you need to. (If you look closely, my penguin isn’t symmetrical!)

An orange beak and feet on a painted penguin sign.

What is the easiest way to paint letters on a sign?

Closeup of hand-lettered BRR painted on a winter porch sign.

How do you avoid marks when painting?

Use just a small amount of paint and even pressure. Apply paint to your winter porch sign from lightest to darkest. Start with the white, then the orange. Finish with the blue and black paint. This makes it easy to cover mistakes and get straighter looking edges.

Adorable painted penguin porch decoration.

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