Yard Plotted to scale, promise

make it yourself

Plywood Reindeer Silhouettes

Two flat reindeer off one half sheet, one grazing and one with its head up. Black silhouettes that read from the street the second any light hits them, for about thirty five dollars.

  • $34 ish
  • 4.5 hrs start to finish
  • confident beginner
  • 3' tall when done

grab this stuff

What you need

  • 1/2 in. exterior plywood, 4x4 ft half sheet $22
  • Exterior black paint, quart $9
  • 1x2 furring for the legs and braces $3
  • 12× 1-1/4 in. exterior screws you have these
  • All in $34

Tools, and that is it

  • Jigsaw
  • Drill
  • Chalk or a pencil
  • Sanding block

before the saw

How it comes off the sheet

Everything fits on 1/2 in. exterior plywood, 4 x 4 ft half sheet. Draw the whole layout before you cut the first piece.

Alert buck23" x 36"Grazing doe24" x 36"Braces and stakes47" x 9"48" wide48" tall
nesting

Turn the doe 90 degrees on the sheet so her length runs up it. Both deer and all the bracing come off one half sheet that way. Draw both outlines before you cut anything, because once the first one is out you cannot slide it over.

shapes

Stencils

Print these, cut them out, draw around them. Anything bigger than a sheet of paper prints as large as it fits with the scale written on it, so you can enlarge it at a copy store or copy it square by square.

Alert buck, 36 in. tall 23" × 36"
Grazing doe, 36 in. long 36" × 24"
Print the stencils (opens in a new tab)
printer gotcha

Set page scaling to 100 percent or "actual size", never "fit to page". Every sheet has a ruler on it. Measure it before you trust it.

Or buy a reusable one

Mylar stencils survive paint and last for years, which is worth it if you are making more than a couple. These are searches rather than specific listings, because the good sellers rotate.

here we go

How to make it

  1. Draw them big

    Chalk both outlines onto the sheet before you cut anything: 23 by 36 in. for the alert one, and the grazing one turned sideways so her length runs up the sheet. The legs come off the stencil at 1-7/8 in. at the hoof, which is as thin as anything on either animal gets.

    oops-proofing

    If you want them tougher than that, fatten every leg to 3 in. while it is still chalk, and fatten all eight so the pair still match. Thick legs read exactly the same from 40 ft away; thin realistic ones snap the first time somebody knocks one.

  2. Cut the outline

    Jigsaw around the chalk. Neither animal has an enclosed hole anywhere on it, so there is no starter hole to drill: the gap between the legs and the belly is open at the bottom, so cut up into it from the hoof end and back the blade out.

    oops-proofing

    The antlers branch, but only into fat rounded fingers, none under 1-1/4 in. Cut them the thickness they are drawn. Thinning them into realistic points in half inch plywood is what makes them firewood by January.

  3. Sand and paint matte black

    Round every edge. Two coats, all faces, all edges. Matte, not gloss.

    oops-proofing

    Gloss black turns into a mirror under a floodlight and the shape disappears entirely. Matte is the whole point.

  4. Brace the back

    Screw a furring strip vertically up the back of each deer, running past the bottom by 12 in. to make a stake. Add a second strip at an angle as a kickstand.

  5. Set them at angles

    Push them in facing different directions, one turned about 30 degrees toward the street and one nearly side on. Group them and leave space between.

    oops-proofing

    Both facing straight at the road makes them look like signage. Turned, they look like they wandered in.

one more thing

Flat and one-sided, so these want a yard with one main viewing direction. On a corner lot put them where only the front street sees them, or make a second pair for the other side.

where it goes

Layouts this one lives in

Same build, any yard shape. Here is where it lands.

  • → Reindeer Pen on a Wide Shallow, No Porch A herd rather than a decoration. A low white picket run, a buck, a doe with her head down and a fawn, arranged so it looks like they stopped in your yard on their own.
  • → Reindeer Pen on a Narrow Shallow with Porch A herd rather than a decoration. A low white picket run, a buck, a doe with her head down and a fawn, arranged so it looks like they stopped in your yard on their own.
  • → Reindeer Pen on a L-Shaped with Projecting Garage A herd rather than a decoration. A low white picket run, a buck, a doe with her head down and a fawn, arranged so it looks like they stopped in your yard on their own.
  • → Reindeer Pen on a Deep Narrow A herd rather than a decoration. A low white picket run, a buck, a doe with her head down and a fawn, arranged so it looks like they stopped in your yard on their own.
  • → Reindeer Pen on a Corner Lot A herd rather than a decoration. A low white picket run, a buck, a doe with her head down and a fawn, arranged so it looks like they stopped in your yard on their own.
  • → Reindeer Pen on a Split-Level or Raised Ranch A herd rather than a decoration. A low white picket run, a buck, a doe with her head down and a fawn, arranged so it looks like they stopped in your yard on their own.
  • → Reindeer Pen on a Sloped or Terraced A herd rather than a decoration. A low white picket run, a buck, a doe with her head down and a fawn, arranged so it looks like they stopped in your yard on their own.
  • → Reindeer Pen on a Small Urban Postage Stamp A herd rather than a decoration. A low white picket run, a buck, a doe with her head down and a fawn, arranged so it looks like they stopped in your yard on their own.
  • → Reindeer Pen on a Circular Driveway A herd rather than a decoration. A low white picket run, a buck, a doe with her head down and a fawn, arranged so it looks like they stopped in your yard on their own.
  • → Reindeer Pen on a Long Driveway, Rural Frontage A herd rather than a decoration. A low white picket run, a buck, a doe with her head down and a fawn, arranged so it looks like they stopped in your yard on their own.