Stump Table

Boy, do I have a lot of catching up to do. The first piece of furniture we made was a Tree Stump table. We were only in our house for about a month when a giant Oak came crashing down on our little bungalow, causing a huge mess! One good thing that came out of it was a ton of stump options to make my table. (Ironically I wanted to make one of these before the tree incident) and I was inspired by something like this:

After much searching and chainsaw cutting I found the perfect section of tree trunk. First we had to let the trunk completely dry out to get rid of all the moisture and bugs. This took about 3 months under a covered area. After much waiting and anticipation the fun began.

I chipped off all the bark with an ax and hammer:

and then sanded it forever. Hand sanding the sides, starting with a lower grit and working up to a finer one. Then to get rid of the chainsaw marks on top, I used a hand sander.

After the sanding was done I wiped it down with a damp cloth to get rid of all the dust. Then comes the stain! I chose "All American" by Minwax. Two coats later it was ready to be finished off with a couple coats of poly-urethane. We chose Minwax in a semi-gloss. This took a while, because the polyurethane needs a couple days to dry between coats.  Then it was ready to bring in the house! and here's the finished table:

Add a cactus and a mason jar of sea shells and it's the perfect little table for our (in progress) reading corner.

 Voila! Total cost: $15 for stain and polyurethane