A Sign Scene Worthy Of Music City.
Nashville is opening new storefronts faster than almost any city in the South — and every one of them needs a sign. Our prepared DIY LED sign kits ship to Music City and its whole boomtown ring, cut to your size with LEDs mounted inside the frame.
In a town built on neon, a dark storefront is invisible. The DIY route gets you the glow without the boomtown markup: you assemble and hang the kit, and depending on the project you can save up to 60% versus full retail.
The Kit, And The Price Difference
Shipping To Nashville And Every Town Around It
Kits ship to Franklin, Murfreesboro, Hendersonville, Smyrna, Lebanon, Gallatin and up the corridor to Clarksville — and everywhere in between. If FedEx delivers there, your sign kit can too.
Nashville's most famous street is lit cabinet after lit cabinet. Yours doesn't need a record deal — just a welded aluminum frame, bright LED lighting, and a face that says your name. We build the first two; our DIY Graphics page can handle the third.
Every prepared kit includes: an aluminum frame cut to your size with welded corners, LEDs mounted inside, and a 12-volt power supply with wiring hardware as listed in your written quote. Sign faces and graphics are available separately through DIY Graphics.
How Your Kit Gets To Nashville
Getting it here is not the hard part. Roughly 95% of kits go FedEx Ground, in boxes, on the route that already serves your address — which in Nashville means no semi trying to sit on lower Broadway or squeeze into a Germantown alley at eleven in the morning.
What shows up. The kit arrives as long boxes: four welded frame sections with the LEDs already mounted inside, six if splice joints are needed on a bigger cabinet, cut so each package stays within ground shipping limits. The power supply and the mounting hardware are boxed in with the sections rather than shipped on their own.
Delivery day. In a city building out this fast, the thing to sort out is simply who signs for it. Plenty of Nashville suites are still under build-out when the sign gets ordered, and boxes at an empty storefront are a bad idea. Send them to your house or your contractor's shop and move them on install day — one person can.
Open the boxes the day they land. Look the sections over even if the cartons look perfect, and do it before install day rather than the morning of. Photograph anything crushed, torn or bent and keep the packaging exactly as it arrived — that is what a carrier claim is built on. Finding a problem the day a box shows up is a phone call; finding it with a crew standing on a ladder is a lost day.
Where to put it. Middle Tennessee heat and humidity do not touch the aluminum. The LEDs and power supply are in the same cartons though, so keep the boxes indoors rather than under a stairwell through an afternoon thunderstorm.
Measure Twice. Order Once.
Your kit is cut to a size, welded, and pre-lit before it ships, so the size has to be right the first time. In Nashville that means three phone calls before you order, not after.
1. Ask what you're allowed
Nashville and Davidson County are a consolidated government, so Metro Codes and Building Safety is the counter for most of the city — a genuine simplification compared with most metros. But Franklin, Murfreesboro, Hendersonville, Smyrna and Gallatin are separate cities with their own sign codes, and the boom ring is where most new storefronts are. Ask for the maximum sign area and height for your zoning district, whether your sign counts as wall-mounted or freestanding, and what setback applies. Sign area is usually tied to your building frontage, so the answer is specific to your address — not to the block or to the business next door.
2. Ask your landlord
If you're in a plaza or center, the landlord's sign criteria sit on top of the city code and are often stricter. Cabinet depth, face color, letter height and mounting method are all commonly spelled out. Get the criteria sheet in writing before you pick a size — it is cheaper than rebuilding a cabinet that the center won't approve.
3. Ask about engineering and wiring
Tennessee enforces a statewide building code locally, and a freestanding or pole sign commonly needs a footing design and drawings sealed by a Tennessee-licensed engineer. An illuminated sign generally needs an electrical permit alongside the sign permit. Historic and downtown overlay districts add design review on top of the size limits. Plan on a licensed electrician for the final hookup and inspection either way. We build the cabinet; the permit, the footing, the disconnect and the sign-off are local work done by local people.
Straight Answers For Nashville Businesses
My storefront is brand new construction — when should I order?
As soon as you know your sign size and your landlord's or city's rules. Kits are prepared to order, so getting the quote moving early keeps your opening date safe.
What comes in the kit?
A frame cut to your size with LEDs mounted inside, plus a 12-volt power supply and wiring hardware as listed in your written quote. Faces and graphics are separate.
Do I need a permit for a lighted sign in Nashville?
Assume yes. Inside Nashville-Davidson County, sign permits go through Metro Codes and Building Safety; in Franklin, Murfreesboro, Hendersonville or Smyrna you are dealing with a separate city with its own rules. Downtown and historic overlay districts can add design review on top of the size limit, so get your approved number in writing before the cabinet is cut.
Who should do the electrical hookup?
Leave it to a licensed electrician. An owner or a general contractor can handle the frame and the mounting without any trouble, and that is the DIY half of this. The hookup is licensed, inspected work and these kits are not UL listed, so the last connection is not a DIY step.
Ready to get your written quote?
Every kit is prepared to order. Tell us about your project and we'll answer with a straight, written quote.
Contact DIY Sign Guy