How To Make A Tree Stump Table – Guys, we made a table out of a tree stump, no joke! We mentioned tackling a DIY project we were really excited about last weekend – we finally finished it and here it is. Here’s the full (very long) story of how it happened and step-by-step instructions on how it happened if you want to fix your problem!
We start with the trunk – obviously. The funny thing about how it all happened is how we actually found the chest and brought it home. Marie walks Basil every morning through Fanca (our neighborhood) and most people follow the same path. On her daily walk, she crosses a tree stump on the side of the same road where trash and recyclables are located:
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She sat there day and night until she started seeing him, after about 2 weeks, she started telling me every evening how she wanted me to find her so we could tell her. At first I put it off thinking it would be picked, but I’ll tell you how flexible Mary is when she has an idea in mind. As you can imagine, for the third week in a row, this kurta ran to the point where we pulled it over late at night and picked it up off the road to take it home.
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The trunk was heavy when they left but I was able to safely get into the front seat of the car, buckle up and drive home (please don’t ask me why my shorts are pulled up in this photo, maybe My. My most embarrassing post ever):
When the chest got home, we put it in the garage to stay and let it dry for another week while we talked about what we wanted to do with it. We decided it would be cute to replace a side table with a red stool that we used in the family room dining table, so we did it!
Mary had her eye on some hairy legs, thinking we’d like to pick up our TV trunk, so we went ahead and bought these handmade pins from 3 Cream Store Street on Etsy. Not only are they very affordable, but they are made right here in Virginia – we sell.
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Since we know we want to turn the chest into an extra table between the 2 beds, we need a final result of about 24 inches. When we hung the stump in our garage, we were able to measure it and found it to be 10 inches tall. This is how we figure out the leg length we need to order. We figured a 14″ leg and 10″ tall stump would put us in good shape.
Last week, after being locked in the garage for about a week, we pulled the chest out of the driveway to go to work. I’m going to talk to a woodworking friend who gave me a hand planer and recommended a wood shop that I look at to protect and build tables.
We really like the overall look and feel of Crate, so we wanted to keep it as natural as possible while making sure to take it to the next level. Mary and I were hoping to leave the natural bark on the outside of the stump instead of pulling it out, but we’re not sure if that will happen because of the following cracks in the bark:
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The lumber store expert told us as long as there are no dark lines around the base of the tree where the bark is in contact with the wood, it should be fine. We were happy to hear that we could leave our bark on our trail for a more natural look.
After cleaning and wiping the trunk of all the extraneous debris and places that are certain to break, the planner actually gets out to work on it. I started running around the edge of the stem to remove the top bark and smooth the edges so they would form a table:
See how the inner layers are highlighted around the entire edge, create a purple ring around the stem and really flatten the top layer so it has more definition and dimension:
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This is when we both started getting so excited that we actually wanted to get off the “kitchen desk” completely. They then proceeded to design the flat top of the stump and create a plan to actually produce how long the top layer of wood had been exposed to the elements:
Surface planing is simple – all we needed was a steady hand and a bit of patience before we got the new veneer we were looking for. Then it’s time to get out the sander. Have I mentioned how much I love when a “DIY project” requires the use of one or more power tools?
We actually started with 80 grit sandpaper to rough out the countertop and erase the remaining lines where I had finished planing:
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All I have to say is, thank goodness for the electric sander. Mary and I are both a little obsessed with getting every last line and hole out of that top tree, so the sand part of this project is the longest. I sanded and sanded:
Then I rested and Mary started sanding! We sanded, sanded and then sanded a few more times until we finally started to see the lines disappear. Plus, who wouldn’t love to see a woman working on electrical equipment?
At one point I put my Full Sail LTD beer bottle on top of the crate while Mary was still in the sand – that’s when this little table started to come to life for me. I can imagine watching sports TV on weekends and drinking beer on the kurti table next to it… it’s only a matter of time.
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After removing every last edge of this top stump, I sandpapered it down a few more times to get everything really clean and tidy.
When we finished making sand, Mary said her hands felt like jelly. Then we looked at the table and saw how much it looked like an owl’s face:
We decided that we wanted this face to be on the top of the table because rings are the most popular on this facet. Looking at the two rings, we realized that the cut in the trunk was the body where the twins were about to emerge and leave.
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Once the sanding is done, it’s time for the wood to settle down a bit before flying this baby down to work.
. Honestly, we were sold on the name alone, not to mention the fact that it boasts resistance to testing, cracking and clanking.
I poured 2 layers of sap and scrubbed well, which was also interesting because the wood soaked right into the nooks and crannies, popping like a thirst.
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You can actually see the roughness of the wood at this point. Once the stabilizer is applied to our liking, we wrap it in plastic, as the manual requires, and rest. Oh!
Later that day, we turned around, rolled over a tree stump, and started something closer. Before doing this, here’s what the stump looks like after the stabilizer is fully absorbed:
After turning it over, I shaved around the bottom edge of the stem, then instead of shaving the top, I shaved directly onto the coarse sand. Since we knew this dice would be at the bottom of the table, we didn’t sweat too much to ensure perfect balance – we took it up a notch:
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You can see why we chose the other side of the countertop in the image above – we like how the two rings are larger and more prominent than the one on the left. You can also see what the cut of the stump will look like at the point where the trunk is viewed from up close.
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