DIY Wood Beverage Coasters

Using tree scraps to make these DIY wood beverage coasters.  A great item to use or to give as a gift.

Quite a while ago, I had a “starter” blog and met a really awesome person, Kirstin.   Her blog, TroyersLovingLife, continued while I took a break.

Kirstin and I have only met in person a couple of times, but I feel like we’ve been friends forever (although it has been over 10 years now). She has a big heart, loves her family, loves God, and loves to cook.

Recently she let us feature this project…DIY Wood Beverage Coasters.

Kirstin: A little while back I saw some coasters on Pinterest that were made with round pieces of a tree limb. I remember thinking, “what a great idea”. A few weeks later a huge branch fell onto the driveway of the lady I work for. As I stood out there cutting it up (with a hand saw), I decided to save one of the thicker branches that seemed about the right size for a coaster.

This really is a great project to use a tree or branch so let’s upcycle.

COASTER SUPPLIES

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• Tree branch, if you don’t have a branch you can get wood slices here
• Hand saw
• Fine-grit sandpaper, a sanding sponge would be great for this
• Self-sticking stencils, and these…beautiful words, or letters (for a monogram), 
• Sponge brush, roller, or round sponge 
• Paint
• Old paintbrush for varnish
• Varnish

Kirstin: My hubby was nice enough to cut it with one of his saws (probably because it sat on our porch for so long since I hadn’t gotten around to cutting it myself) and brought me in a stack of 22 wood rounds. Now, I did mess up on one thing, in that I left them stacked in the house for several days, not thinking that maybe they were damp and might need to dry out. It was several days before I realized this, and I think they started to get spotty, but I decided to use them anyways. It took several days for them to dry out once I had laid them out over my heating vents.

I decided it would be kind of neat to stencil them as well as stain them. We had stencils, we had the paints and brushes, so all I needed to buy was a small can of clear varnish, which cost about $7.00 and sandpaper, which was another $7.00 but will last awhile. 

WOOD COASTER INSTRUCTIONS

 

1. Once I felt like they had dried out, I sanded them a bit with a coarse paper, then again with a fine-grit paper. DO NOT sand the sides. Mine had moss on them and I left it there for character.
2. Place stencil in the center of wood being sure it is well adhered to.
3. Using either a sponge brush, roller, or regular artist paintbrush lightly brush on your paint.
4. Allow to set for a few minutes before removing the stencil. I may not have let mine sit long enough because my edges of the words weren’t very “sharp”.
5. Once the stencils were done and dried, I applied the varnish.
6. Using a sponge brush or a regular paintbrush, apply one coat at a time, letting it dry completely in between. I let them dry a day in between each one.
7. Mine took 3-4 coats of varnish.  

TIPS & NOTES: 

• The stencils I had were self-sticking ones which were great since this kept the stencil from moving. 
• I wish the rings would have stood out more like the ones in the website picture. 
• I would have let the stencils sit a bit longer before removing them in hopes that the lines would have been cleaner.

|DID YOU SEE HOW TO USE A TREE BRANCH FOR GARDEN MARKERS?|

Kirstin- I’ll keep some for us and give some as gifts to others. What a fun way to recycle especially from nature. To me, homemade gifts are some of the best I can receive, and if they’re made using items from around the home or found at garage sales, even better.