Blog
October 10, 2026
Stainless Steel Letters with an LED Back Glow for Bharat Furnishings, Pune
White steel letters, LEDs hidden inside, a 1.5 inch gap to the wall, and a bamboo tower to get them up there.
Case study · Bharat Furnishings
Steel letters that glow from behind
Bharat Furnishings sells home furnishings, from curtains and sofas to blinds and window shades, through stores in several cities. When its owner, Mr Paresh Makani, wanted his Pune store branded, he came down from Mumbai to see us.
His brief fit in one line: the name in stainless steel, and it had to glow at night.
Letters
Stainless steel, white PVD
Depth
1 inch welded side skirt
At night
LEDs hidden inside, back glow
Job price
About ₹1,50,000 + GST, all in
Before and after
From small red letters to a name you can’t miss
The old sign had small red letters on a pale glass fascia. From the road, they were easy to miss.
The new sign had three problems to solve: steel doesn't let light through, LEDs need somewhere to hide, and the spot for the name was high above the entrance, well out of reach of any ladder.
Before
Small red letters on a pale glass fascia, hard to read from the road.
After
White steel letters standing off the facade, readable from across the road.
Before photo: from the store’s Google Maps listing.
How we built it
Four steps to a glowing steel letter
Every letter was made in our own workshop before it went anywhere near the building.
1
Cut the face
Each letter’s face is cut from stainless steel.
2
Weld a 1 inch skirt
A strip of steel is welded at right angles all round the face, so from the side every letter is about an inch deep.
3
Coat it white
The letters get a white PVD coating, a thin, hard finish on the steel.
4
Fill it with LEDs
LEDs go inside each letter, behind the face. The side skirt hides them, so you see the glow and never the lights.
The clever bit
Why the letters float 1.5 inches off the wall
Fix a lit steel letter flat on the wall and the glow has nowhere to go: the metal face blocks it at the front, and the wall blocks it at the back.
So each letter stands about 1.5 inches off the wall, held on bolts with nuts. That small gap does two jobs.
By day: real depth
The letters stand clear of the facade, so the name reads in 3D from the street.
At night: a halo
The LEDs throw their light back onto the wall, and every letter gets a soft white outline.
Before it left the workshop
Lit and tested on our floor
We switched every letter on in the workshop first. See how the light spills out from behind each one onto the wall? That's the gap at work.
Day and night
Same letters, two looks
In daylight, the white steel stands out cleanly against the grey facade.
By day: white PVD steel letters standing off the facade above the entrance.
Installation night: every letter glowing from behind, with the bamboo scaffolding still up.
Installation day
First, we built a bamboo tower
No ladder reaches that high, so our team put up bamboo scaffolding across the front of the store.
From there we fixed each letter on its bolts, ran the wiring and powered the sign up. Our night photos were taken before the scaffolding came down.
The specs
What went into it
Letters
Stainless steel faces with a 1 inch welded steel side skirt
Finish
White PVD coating
Lighting
LEDs inside each letter, hidden by the side skirt; back glow onto the wall
Fixing
About 1.5 inches off the wall on bolts with nuts
Installation
On site in Pune from bamboo scaffolding, including wiring and electrification
Job price
About ₹1,50,000 + 18% GST, worked out at ₹1,600 per sq ft + GST (a lower rate for a very large board): fabrication in our workshop, transport, installation, wiring and electrification
Want letters like these?
What lit letters cost
Stainless steel letters don't have a list price yet: we quote each job from its size, the letter shapes and the site. This one worked out at about ₹1,600 per sq ft + GST, all in: a lower rate than usual, because the board is so large.
If acrylic works for you, our lit letters and boards start from these rates:
Backlit acrylic letters, fixed straight on the wall
₹2,000 per sq ft + GST
3D LED acrylic glow sign board
about ₹2,000 per sq ft + GST (indicative)
Installation in Pune
quoted for your site
Good to know
Minimum
The smallest lit sign we make is 3 sq ft, and the minimum order is ₹3,000 + GST.
Lead time
Fabricated signs typically take 1-15 days after you approve the proposal and pay, depending on the job.
Installation
In Pune our team installs, quoted after a site check. Outside Pune we ship the letters ready to fit, with a stencil, for your local team.
Your artwork
Send your logo ready to use (.AI or .CDR). We check and prepare it, but we don't design. Our favourite Pune designers can help.
Send us your logo, the wall size and a photo of the building, and we'll make a free proposal with a day-and-night render on your own photo.
Other options
The same glow, in acrylic
₹2,000 per sq ft + GST
Backlit acrylic letters on the wall
Acrylic letters lit from behind and fixed straight on the wall: the same halo look, in the colours of your logo.
See the shop page →about ₹2,000 per sq ft + GST
3D LED acrylic glow sign boards
Ten ways to build a lit shop board, from acrylic box letters to metal letters with a back glow.
See the sign boards page →Not sure which board suits your building? Try the board finder in our sign board guide.
The happy ending
Classy by day, glowing by night
The old sign was easy to miss. Now the Bharat Furnishings name stands off the facade in clean white steel, and after dark it glows.
Mr Makani came all the way from Mumbai for this one, and I'm glad he did. See every photo on the Bharat Furnishings job page.
More stories from our workshop
Our work
Brushed gold steel letters for Amayra Couture
Steel letters again, this time with no lights at all.
See the job →Case study
Suspended channel letter sign for Yashogandharva
No wall to fix it on, so we hung a building’s name from its ceiling.
Read the story →Your turn
Want your name in steel?
Send us your logo, the wall size and a photo of your building on WhatsApp. We'll make you a free proposal.
Looking for any specific product?
Drop us a line. Send us your query. And we’ll get back to you with solutions and answers.
Mitesh Sanghani
Mitesh lives, mostly for Saturdays.
But when forced to work, you’ll find him heading Orchid Digitals – a printing press in Pune.
If it’s an emergency, try looking for him in the hills behind his house. You’ll almost certainly find him… lazing under a tree, with a book in hand.
