Wine Barrel Christmas Tree
Hi and welcome back! Here is a little story about how I made my new wine barrel Christmas tree.
A little secret about me is I’m petrified of Craigslist. I know it’s a little silly, and I feel like I’m missing out on lots of great stuff because I don’t have the habit of checking Craigslist. I think the idea of it’s great, but the actual “meeting of people I don’t know” part is petrifying.
So, my friend Aaron makes all these awesome things out of old wine barrels. Like beautiful rustic shelves, furniture and wine racks. It’s all beautiful, but I especaily love the shelves he makes. They have room for bottles, glasses and various knick knacks. Very cool. I wanted one, so he said if I could find a barrel, we’d make one. Here is a picture of my friend Misty’s barrel shelf.
Well, I found one on Craigslist and decided I wanted the barrel, so I thought “I’m going to do this. I’m going to get the barrel”. I emailed the lister and had him meet me at the fire station. I was so nervous I had my mom stay on the phone while I shoved the guy the cash and he put the barrel in the car. He was very nice, but my heart was pounding and I was all sweaty and ridiculous, so I basically sped off without even checking the barrel out.
Driving home, I peeked in the rearview mirror and thought the barrel seemed a little small. But, maybe it just looked that way because it was in the back and was a weird angle?
Nope, I got home and looked at the barrel and it was about a quarter of the size of the barrel I wanted. How in the world was I so nervous that I didn’t even notice how small this barrel was?!
After my friends made fun of me for a bit, we took the barrel apart, but I just felt it would be too small for a shelf. I needed to do something else with it, but I didn’t know what. So it sat in my garage for a few months. I looked at it a few times, but nothing came to me. Then a few days before Thanksgiving we were having dinner at Aaron’s house and I saw another thing he did with barrels. He made this cute wine barrel Christmas tree and I loved it!
I thought I would do a smaller version with my tiny barrel.
So I started by finding a dowel rod and drilling holes in the bottom and all the slats. The smallest ones were a bit tricky, haha.
I then cut the sides of the slats, free handing it. My son really wanted to build the tree, so I let him slide the slats onto the dowel rod.
However, since I had eyeballed it, it looked all wonkey, so I decided I was going to have to be a little more accurate. So I used a t-square to mark off the sides in a triangle, tree shape.
Once I had them all trimmed and the it was looking better, I sanded them down a bit and used leftover stains to stain the boards. Aaron’s tree was made from wine barrels, so they had a naturally beautiful purply color, but mine needed a little more depth.
I needed the dowel to stay in the base, but I wanted to be able to fold it up for storing, so I used my handy dandy Dorm Putty to hold it in place. Then, after Christmas I can take it off and lay it all flat.
Then I stacked up the slats.
And then added my little decorations, using the putty some more and that was it! My little wine barrel Christmas tree was complete!
And the only things I spent any money on was the dowel (about a dollar) and the decorations! Score!
So, after doing this I looked around and found some other examples on Pinterest by searching wine barrel Christmas tree. There are some cute ideas!
So, not what I thought I was going to do with the barrel, but I’m loving our new little tree, bringing the total number of trees up to 5! I’ll have them all pictured soon on my Christmas tour, but check out my other repurposed tree HERE.
Thanks so much for stopping by! Anyone else out there a nervous Craigslist disaster like me?
I’ve got more Christmas stuff coming soon, so make sure to stick around!
Thanks for stopping by!
April
This is too cute April!! Love it
Thanks Amy!!
Great tree!! I’m with you on Craigslist…scary, especially when you hear about things happening!!
I know, right?! Thanks for stopping by!
Love the tree April! I laughed when I read that you didn’t realize the size! You have to get into CL more. Half my house is furnished from there:). I never go alone I always have my hubby or a friend and I only go to “nice” neighborhoods I know! Pinning and thanks for sharing your tree @ Dream. Create. Inspire. Link. Have a wonderful weekend and take care, Tara
I know! My husband always says he’ll go with, then it comes time and it’s always a thing. So I thought “I got this, I got this”. I did not have it, haha. Thanks for stopping by!
So cute April!
I love the idea of an unconventional tree and I think this is my favorite so far! Thank you for sharing with us! I hope you have better luck next time on craigslist! I’m with Tara, 3/4 of the things in my home came from there or yardsales.
Cat
Thanks Cat! I really need to get better 🙂
I love the idea
Thanks so much!
Love the wine barrel tree! So clever. I also like your repurposed tree from a previous post. Thanks for sharing on our Inspired by You link party.
Thanks Susan, and thanks for hosting the party!
muy buenos trabajos…..
This is AWESOME!! I love it!! Thank you so much for sharing with us at our Inspired by you link party!
Thank you Fotini!
Holy cow this is absolutely AH-MAZING!! Gorgeous tree! Thank you so much for sharing with us at the Creative Circle link party 🙂
Thank you so much!!
Love love love this!! I totally want to make one! Pinned 🙂
Thanks so much Malia!
I love your wine barrel Christmas Tree so much I’m featuring it this weekend at the DIY Sunday Showcase Party. Merry Christmas!
Oh how exciting! Thanks so much Marie!!
I absolutely ADORE this! Praise the Craigslist gods that you found a barrel in such good condition! Thanks so much for sharing at Merry Monday, you’re going to be my feature this week! I’ll be sharing on all my social media on Sunday so I’d love it if you’d follow me! Hope to see you again for next week’s party! Now I’m off to find a wine barrel… 🙂
Wow, thanks so much, I’m so honored!!
I love the use of such an unconventional item to make a Christmas tree. It turned out beautifully! Thank you for sharing at Create • Share • Inspire! I hope to see you back tonight!
Alicia xo
Thank you !!
This is fantastic! Love the look of the curved barrel pieces.
Thanks so much! So glad you stopped by 🙂
Girl I am terrified of Craigslist too! A fire station is a great idea for a meeting place! I just may get the courage to start buying things! Lovin that cool tree!! Stopping by to let you know you are being featured on Friday’s P3 Party post! Have a great holiday! Thanks for pinning!
Best,
Kim
Wow, how exciting!! Thanks so much Kim!