Tree Table DIY

Finally I get to post about my tree table! I got the idea from this post on Design Sponge and have been in love with the thought of it ever since. I have always loved this kind of natural wood furniture but it will cost you a pretty penny if you buy it from a store (see this example from Amazon). There is no reason you can't make this yourself, it's actually super easy (if I can do it so can you!). I started by selecting the perfect log, this was not too difficult because if there's one thing we have a lot of in this neighborhood it's trees. Lucky for me my parents had recently had a tree cut down and had a whole stack of beautiful logs in their back yard from which they let me take my pick. A word of caution about starting this project, these logs are heavy!! Be careful trying to move something like this, you can kill your back. Fortunately I have a big burly husband who carries my heavy things for me and he picked it up like it was a rag doll and hauled it back to our house for me. After I had it in the garage I knocked all the bark off of it and sanded it smooth. I didn't go overboard on the sanding because I personally like having some texture to the wood but you can sand it as much or as little as you like. After the sanding I cleaned off all the dust and coated it with several layers of polyurethane. Here are some pictures of the finished product.

this is replacing our $7 Ikea end table :-)

I love that you can see the insect paths on this thing.

The stump was not quite level so I used some of these to help it stand a little straighter. 

So that's what I've been working on this week. I must say I am pretty darn proud of it. It has really inspired me to take on some of my other DIY projects that I have been putting off forever.