It's 2012 and we've been around long enough to witness several stumps turned side tables, but you know what? We're still not over it. This tutorial will leave you feeling confident in making your own stump side table while keeping the bark on, the shine high and the wood fully sealed.
In many previous stump to side table tutorials I've seen, I've always been wondering about the presence of bugs, or bark falling off. In theory you should dry wood for a longer period of time than it takes to drag home a stump from the street. Cured wood is best, but most of us don't have the patience. This tutorial gives you the tips you need to skip the waiting and get on to the making. Over at 17 Apart they share several great products to get your stumps sealed, and even tips on how to find new American-made hairpin legs to polish it off. Want to see how it's done?
Read More: How To: DIY Stump Table from 17 Apart
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Ummm...both the photos are labeled "after."
The bomb! I have been wanting to do this forever! I just have a toddler and no stump. I can dream...
Hm. I appreciate the artistry but would much rather see furniture repurpoused. "Dead" wood is not worthless throw away but instead vital to the forest's nutrient levels and soil integrity. Invertebrates use it for food and housing and dozens of bird and mammal species depend on those populations as food. Please leave coarse woody debris where it is.
My only question is how heavy is it?
PROUD OF YOU....the table is fantastic....we had numerous trees cut /hitting the electrical lines......I am trying to hold on to one stump.....! When I show this to my husband ,maybe he will understand. He is a woodcraft man..but likes to CUT and PAINT/stain .keep doing what your doing...and getting by with it.:) :) again LOVE IT!
PROUD OF YOU....the table is fantastic....we had numerous trees cut /hitting the electrical lines......I am trying to hold on to one stump.....! When I show this to my husband ,maybe he will understand. He is a woodcraft man..but likes to CUT and PAINT/stain .keep doing what your doing...and getting by with it.:) :) again LOVE IT!
Emmi, I agree in the case of forest growth but from the photo and description that seems to be urban wood. Not much "circle of life" on a curb in Brooklyn, they just save that hunk of wood from the garbage truck. Free-cycling at it's best.
I understand what you mean @Riovan, however urban areas do have green spaces (urban parks etc). The soil can always be improved there. In case this sounds over the top, be aware that urban saplings die within 5 years from pollutants and one report showed that there are almost no healthy forests left in the United States. Soil degredation is a huge cause underpinning this crisis.
And what in the world would a tree stump be doing in the garbage truck? That's obscene.
Very cool! I prefer the bark-free versions, but this more rustic one is very nice too.
@Emmi: if you took a break from your preaching and actually read the tutorial, you'd realize that they found the stump sitting on a sidewalk next to trash cans on trash day. It's in the second paragraph.
If anyone wants a free stump they can pick one up at my house, there's plenty of trees rotting away in my woods and my dirt doesn't need any more nurturing.
"seriously awesome" ?! it is a nice object but you are pushing it with these titles.
underwhelmed.
That is seriously awesome! Thank you for posting.
@Jess13 way to pass the buck, Jess. I'm not talking about individuals here, rather I'm bringing up an ecological issue. I consider it sharing information. Some might even call it free knowledge since I have a degree in this stuff. But hey, your generation is going to see the worst of climate change. So do whatever you like. Enjoy the storms!
this is a very creative idea! I love it!
Does 'seriously awesome' ever get out of the city? It's a slice, not a stump. I had a larger one as a table base for decades & even after completely drying out, they still aren't that much lighter.
Personally, I find little pieces of wood highly varnished/urethaned and turned into little tables or worse, clocks, cheesy. Admittedly, at the same time, I could probably love a massive tree slice made into an impressive, unaffordable dining table.
That stump, (er, slice) if in the dump, would still deteriorate a lot sooner than too much other crap.
Still have my tall hairpin legs waiting for a 'seriously awesome' use.
Really nice!
@Emmi, maybe alternative soil improvement suggestions suitable for urban environments would be more constructive than sarcasm??? Just a thought.
For instance, no urban environment is likely to allow a tree to decay in place -- space and safety constraints... But if a tree falls or must be removed for some reason, bark mulch, compost, topsoil, saplings, etc. might be brought in from somewhere (Home Depot?) to substitute. In my suburban neighborhood, when storms bring trees down on or near streets, the public works department removes them and grinds them, often in place (so the debris is easier to move.) I'll bet they's be happy to dump a bunch of it in the driveway or somewhere for the homeowner to distribute as desired.
As for the table, it's a "meh" for me. The proportions are not aesthetically pleasing to me, and I'm not a fan of the rustic "lodge" look. A gorgeous honed slab of unvarnished cross sectioned wood handled in a Zen style, now... THAT would ring my chimes.
@Emmi: then you could have written something like "while in this instance they saved the wood from being thrown into the garbage, it is actually important to know that in nature/forest "dead wood" plays an important role and should be left there and not made into side tables." If you're not writing about the specific post then you have to mention that since you're writing a comment to this specific post! Also, you didn't clarify that in your second comment either. I am very concerned about environemental issues and I think offering new information is great, but it has to be done the right way otherwise it will only cause confusion.
Thanks moofle! Fixed.
Really? It's not exactly as if they found this in the forest. Had they left this wood on the street where it was found, it would have certainly not lasted there long. Someone would have just come along and thrown it away or used it themselves. I doubt any species would have made this piece of wood into a home, right on a busy street corner.
This is the funniest string of comments I've seen yet!!!
'The bomb' ....?! Sorry, but I feel a serious case of the emperor's new clothes coming on - this is one of the ugliest things I've seen on AT for a long time - & that's saying something ...!
The "not cool enough" and "let nature be nature" people are all poop-heads.
Reading the whole process on 17 Apart is awesome and enviable.
And human beings exist to shape nature to our liking. We aren't walking around sticking branches into termite hills, we're building shit. Yes, we absolutely should be responsible and sustainable as we do that. No, we don't disregard a slice of wood simply because the urban-forest organisms need food.
LOVE IT! I bought a slab of wood a few years ago and made it into a console table by just sanding it and putting on hairpin legs. Rustic isn't everyone's cup of tea (and said people seem compelled to chime in, stating as much), but I think it looks great, especially in your space.
It was sitting on a concrete sidewalk, not in the forest.
This table is gorgeous! How could anyone not like it? To each his own I guess...
It's beautiful.
really great job!
absolutely gorgeous! wish I had a large electric saw so I could do something like that.
Super duper fun!
Cute!
@Sherrybin I do think compost is a great way to build up the soil; as a rule cities are going to need vast more urban space to control pollution and in some cases you could even argue it should be left somewhere unobtrusive as CWD for invertebrates and help people realize it's not an eyesore, but rather something that belongs in an urban park; cut up by an ax preferably, not a machine.
@fulinlin True enough. I should write post-coffee, LOL
umm.
I appreciate all the effort and doing it the "right" way by asking wood experts for the best products, I just would have liked to see a lighter finished top, less dark brown. That's just my initial reaction. Enjoy your owl, it's a one of a kind!
You can also soak the log in a tub of bleach water for 12 hours or so to kill off any bugs etc. Then let dry.
nice job, but very labor intensive.
Love this! There were a few trees being cut in my neighborhood, so I asked the workers to let me have a few "disks." Mine are much thinner than yours, but I might attempt to make a few tables out of them nonetheless!
Your work is actually wonderful; you probably did a decent job. The table is incredibly lovely and excellent for its genre. I really like the means you style it. Did you study any course connected into this?
You seriously should have kept your 2 cents to yourself. Why can't people just take a few seconds to think about what they are saying? Obviously the tree was cut down for a reason. The fact that someone used it to make something interesting is better than letting it rot on the side of the road. Don't you own any furniture...made of wood? Lumber companies are planting new trees. Forests have debris from fallen trees, branches and leaves. The issue you are concerned with is being delt with. Possible it could be better, but a stump siting on the side of the road made into an end table is not adding to the problem.
and the tree lives on.