STUMP END TABLES
I have been seriously lusting after these stump end tables at West Elm for forever. But you know $250 for an end table just isn't really how we're choosing to spend our money these days. So I had been stalking my local Buy Nothing Facebook group just waiting for someone to post free firewood. Every storm, SOMEONE ends up having to cut down/cut up a mature pine tree around here so it was just a matter of time. I think I was at that nice lady's house within 20 minutes of her posting her unwanted tree stumps. I also think she thought I was a little bit crazy when I tried to explain my plan to her while schlepping around my 1 month old and my toddler...
I was so excited to get these puppies in my house. So you can imagine my disappointment when I talked with a friend of mine (who works with tree stumps for his awesome handmade record players) and he told me that they would probably need to cure in my garage for at least 3 months. In fact they should probably cure in our house since the wood and bark will compress as it loses water. Well that stinks. These gross, wet, bug infested stumps were so not going in our house. So I stuck them in the corner of our garage and promptly forgot about them.
Then I was cleaning out the garage in pursuit of my new crack-pot idea: garage photo studio when I saw that the bark was basically falling off of the stumps. SUCCESS! This is the first step! So I set to peeling the bark off so that I could let them cure some more before sanding/leveling/staining. I'll update with more photos and steps once I get to that point! So excited!!!
The random place in the garage where I stashed the stumps while they cured.
Look how much they shrunk inside the bark!
It was so loose I was able to just lightly stick a screw driver in between the gaps and pull the bark off. I only had to kill 3 spiders and I only cursed like 20 times when I killed the big one.
Look at how easily that peels off!
Still a bit damp underneath that bark - should be good to let it air out some more.
The bark is so pretty against the concrete
All three stumps took me maybe 15 minutes to tear the bark off.
Sawed the little branch nubs off before I start sanding.
This one had a pretty rough cut that I needed to level before sanding the top
Time to sand.
Going to need to order more sand paper....
Well it only took me like a year to finish these. But here they are! I haven't sealed them yet, but at least they're not a splinter hazard anymore!! I love them so much! I stuck those little scuff protectors on the bottom of them too so now when my kids mess with them they won't scratch my floors. Huge success!
xoxo