DIY Mini Wood Crate Tabletop Christmas Tree

12/6/2020

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I've found I like the challenge of creating different alternative Christmas trees and this year is no exception. I started the challenge by looking for suitable materials that I already had on hand.

I found a bunch of mini wood crates that I had gotten at a conference that would prove to be the perfect starting point along with some leftover wood dowels (from last year's tree) and a well aged tree branch!

Materials/Tools:

3/8 Wood dowel (Amazon)
(12) mini crates (Amazon)
2” thick straight dry/aged branch
Rust-Oleum Imagine Spray Paint, Shimmer Emerald (Rust-Oleum)
Behr Chalk Spray Paint, Tin White (Home Depot)
DecoArt Galaxy Glitter, Clear Ice Comet (Amazon)
Excel Blades Metal Mitre Box Set with Heavy Duty K5 Handle and Razor Pull Saw Blade, Small Mitre Box and Saw with 2 Cutting Angles for Wood and Soft Metal (Amazon)
Hot glue gun (Amazon)
Torch (Home Depot)
Surebonder Light Tacker (Amazon)
Ornaments (Home Depot)

The Bernzomatic torch will be used to torch the base tree pieces.

I'm using 12 mini crates, 3/8" square wood dowels, cut pieces of tree branch, a couple of paints and a torch, just because it's fun to torch things!

Torching the log pieces with a Bernzomatic torch.

I cut the branch, which is about two inches in diameter, into five inch sections. I'm using six pieces.

I set the pieces on top of a terra cotta pot for safety and torched away!

I wanted a rustic look to the painted crates and this Behr spray chalk paint was perfect.

I wanted a rustic look to the crates once painted, but didn't want full coverage, and this Behr spray chalk paint was perfect.

I'm using Surebonder light tacker staples from which an ornament will hang.

I wanted to add a way to hang an ornament in each crate. I decided to use a light tacker staple as it is not flat like regular staples. I made a quick paper pattern so I could easily mark the center point of the crate.

Using a Surebonder Christmas light tacker.

I centered the light tacker over the mark and added a staple.

A closeup of the Surebonder light tacker staple.

Here you can see the space between the wood and the staple. Perfect for an ornament hook or in this case an upcycled spring. These springs are upcycled from the metal mattress support of an old crib.

This is a Surebonder cord free mini hot glue gun.

Time to assemble the boxes! All the pieces are glued with hot glue. This is a Surebonder CL-195F Cordless Detail Tip Mini Glue Gun.

Each row was assembled and then glued to the previous row. After the crates were assembled, I spot sanded areas that needed additional sanding and gave everything another coat of paint.

All the wood dowel parts were cut with a Excel Blades Metal Mitre Box Set.

I wanted one more element to the tree and used the wood dowels to create a simple tree shape overlay. All the angle cuts were done with a tiny little manual saw. This was also assembled with hot glue.

The top of the tree overlay was hot glued.

Yes, I was pretty proud that I got these angles at the top of the tree to work. Once this was assembled I spray painted it green.

The tree frame was spray painted with Rust-Oleum Imagine paint.

The tree overlay was hot glued to the crates.

The wood logs were give a bit of shimmer with this DecoArt Galaxy Glitter paint.

The wood logs were given a bit of shimmer with this DecoArt Galaxy Glitter paint.

The mini logs shimmer with DecoArt Galaxy Glitter paint!

The last step was to put the little logs into place and add the hooks and ornaments!

All done, the 2020 alternative Christmas tree using only what I had on hand!

Please note: This is not a sponsored post.

FYI: We are not professionals, and we don't claim to be. This is what we found worked for our project. Yours may need a little different approach. Safety first!

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