After seeing the beautiful wood tables in Liz & Joe's House Tour and then thelog handrail post this morning, I'm feeling very woodsy! So, naturally (see what I did there?) I love the idea of turning old stumps into function furniture.
Alicia wrote about turning old stumps into rustic but modern tables on her blog, Thrifty and Chic, and now I am totally on the hunt for dried tree stumps! As Alicia warns in her post, it's very important to use dry stumps for this project. If there's any moisture in the wood you run the chance of encountering bugs and the paint may get mildew-y and gross.
Once Alicia found her seasoned tree stumps, she sanded them smooth before priming them. You could use either a spray primer or brush on primer. After the primer dried, Alicia gave the stumps a couple of coats of paint, followed by a coat of Polycrylic. After allowing for plenty of drying time, Alicia arranged the new stump tables in her living room as modern/natural coffee tables.
For a more natural look, you could skip the paint and apply the Polycrylic, or any other sealant, directly on the sanded tree stump.
Check out Alicia's full post on the project on her blog: Thrifty and Chic: Tree Stump Coffee Table.
Images: Thrifty and Chic
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Comments (17)
Smart idea! I'd definitely go for the poly coating because I like the rough wood look, but this is pretty cool too.
If the tree stump you find is not dried out, how long would you have to keep it around to wait for it to dry out?
Keep it natural, seal it and put legs on it.
http://www.modhomeec.com/2010/07/08/how-to-align-angled-atomic-legs/
I love this! I have a real thing about trees, and have quite a bit of tree related stuff in my home. I also love the coasters you can get made from thin off-cuts of branches... gorgeous.
I love this but, wouldn't they be ridiculously heavy?
I'd also like to know how long to keep it around for it to be completely dried out, if anyone has an idea. I love the way this looks, but not tryin to have any bugs up in my house.
I used dried stumps too:
www.kisstheprince.etsy.com
and it usually takes 6-9 months or so. Dry them in the hot sun if you can first, keep in a cool dry place. They become much lighter too! Hope this helps.
@house voyeur: in order to dry out a fresh cut stump, you have to be patient. To hasten the process, put a 3 month old stump in a pan with about an inch of Clorox, the bleach will soak upwards into the stump, and this will not only kill the insects and their eggs, but it will dry out the stump evenly. This process takes about a week. You may need to add a little bleach each day. You just want to cover the bottom of the stump so the clorox can wick upwards and do its job. Once you don't see critters crawling out of it anymore, you can put it on a towel for a day or two and then you're probably okay to sand and prime :)
@ Hazel, a dry stump isn't so heavy. A fresh one, however, is very heavy.
Where do you all find stumps? I called all the tree removal services in my area, and even posted on Craigslist, to no avail.
lindz990, dont call it stumps, call it trunks because maybe the tree removal services think you actually want the part with the roots and they dont actually dig up that part. Consider looking up firewood sellers instead too and they would have dried logs rather than the tree removal guys who just put everything into chipper.
oh yea, I'm super weak and I haul home driftwood logs to use as tables on my patio all the time. dried driftwood is even lighter than regular dried wood.
oh i love this! hmmmm.... i think i would do it in orange... no shocker there :) now... to find some stumps..
http://hilldalehouse.wordpress.com/
These would be incredible with some gold leaf, as well.
Those are awesome. I love both painted and natural - would be hard to decide. We actually bought a bunch of dried wood planks off craigslist over a year ago and have been accumulating ideas on what to do with them, but have yet to actually make a move. Maybe soon...
http://bradybunchremodel.com/2009/05/26/wood-and-lights/
I love this!!! I would do the top white and the bottom a pink with a not finished look!
http://www.prevailingetquette.com/
Thanks for the inspiration. My take on this project is a simple ottoman and side table pair. One natural, one in amber yellow with a thick coat of shellac: http://pinterest.com/pin/243423600/