Tree Stump Side Table

Ya’ll know I love a quick and easy DIY, if I can get a project done in a day (or even two) I’m game for it. But this project, a tree stump side table, is not for the impatient folk.

This project took 5 months. Yeah, tell me about it. Of course, some of that was me piddling around with other projects after I started this one and forgetting about it, but still, I’m surprised I followed through with it given my track record of impatient-ness. 😉

I made this stump for Cyle’s office and we are finally starting to get some projects done for his office. I think I am more excited than he is to get his TV off of his plastic storage bins (no I am sadly not kidding about this) and get some REAL furniture in there!

All of the tutorials I’ve found online say that once you find the perfect stump (if your lucky you have a friend who is cutting down some trees and needs someone to take the stumps away) you have to let it dry for a few months. This is crucial. If your stump won’t dry out it will end up rotting, and who wants a rotting stump in their house?

When you’re on the hunt for a stump try to find a stump that is drier and not super wet or fresh cut. The best thing to do is to elevate the stump on a few bricks so air can flow through it better during the drying process.

After 3 months of drying in my garage I brought out the stump from its slumber and grabbed a chisel and hammer and chiseled at the bark. This took a good hour or so of my time but was oddly therapeutic, haha.

After I chiseled away the bark I let the stump dry another week to get out any more moisture hidden under the bark. After that I totally forgot about the stump but it worked out for the best because by then it was dry as a bone!

Your stump will likely end up cracking a lot while it dries (mine really did!) and be sure to fill any large ones with wood filler. I grabbed my handy sander and sanded the entire stump until smooth. My stump had little nubs all around it from when it was growing some more little branches so I just sanded those down to be smooth and not stick out enough for anything to get caught on them.

I was also quite worried about little creepy crawlies living in the stump from the drying process so I soaked the stump in my peppermint pest spray and let it soak for a day then moved on with the project.

After the sanding process was done I, meaning Cyle, flipped it upside down and screwed on the caster wheels from Lowe’s. Be sure to predrill the holes for the wheels and space them all evenly apart and an inch or two from the edge. If your stump is uneven you could even it out by either planing the top or try to add a washer under the screws of the wheel that is on the side that is too low. We didn’t do this since it wasn’t too uneven and would be used for a lamp and knick nacks.

I’ve seen a lot of painted tree stumps and really loved them, but I also wanted to keep the natural look of the stump so I was torn. I really really wanted to do a color block of half white and half stained but Cyle said no, and since he was the one lugging this bad boy in the house and it would be in his office, I left it just stained, but don’t be surprised if you hear about me color blocking it in the future 😉

So I finished off the stump with two thick coats of a homemade stain. I have this odd fascination with taking any cans of stain that have just a tad bit of stain left in them and combining them to see what color I get. Anyone else do that?

The stump soaked up a LOT of stain so to darken it up more once dried I did a coat of Americana Antiquing Wax in brown to seal everything and to darken the stain. Although I  couldn’t get the difference to show up much in the pictures I took, it really made a difference!

PS- Isn’t the branch stub part (does that description make sense?) gorgeous? 

My friend gave us another stump and some big chunks that I am going to try to make into more tables or crafts, but for now I’ll be envying Cyle for getting to have this pretty tree stump side table in his office and not mine.