Painted Tree Stump in 7 Easy steps

Thanks to all of you who emailed, texted, commented, and called your condolences over losing our Hershey-Girl. She was a sweet and loving member of our family and will forever be missed!! We've never had to deal with losing a pet like this yet, so new territory for us, and will take a while to "get over", if it's at all possible. 

Now, I need to focus on fun stuff....
I wanted to show you all how easy it is to make a Painted Tree Stump side table. I showed this in our Living Room Summer Tour. We named him Scout, because every great thing needs to have a name! Ha!

First: Get a talented, handsome husband to make a stump level-ish for you.
 (Don't mind the beer can...hey, whatever it takes :)) In his line of business we have access to plenty of stumps. I recommend you dry it out for a while in your garage, and this will also make sure any bugs are gone from it. 

Second: Try to come up with a design pattern that you like. I knew I wanted something "Tribal" looking. I played around with some different patterns until I got the look I wanted. I really love the colors of brown, black, and white together, so this is what I designed

I also measured the stump to see what dimensions I wanted each row to be.

Third: I placed the stump on a drop cloth and picked out paints, it's actually pretty unpainted....but I didn't want a natural stump here. I used Annie Sloan's Old White (because I just love that white, and it's all I had on hand), and just black and brown acrylic paint that I already had also.

Fourth: Measuring and drawing the lines, this was a little time consuming...but so worth the look you get! Then I started with the white and painted one stripe at a time. 

Fifth: After painting the white and black stripes, I drew on the pattern. I DID NOT want this step to be perfect. I just eye-balled it, with no measuring. To me, the Tribal look is supposed to be imperfect and free-hand looking

Sixth: When the pattern was painted on, I thought this would be complete, but I decided I wanted a defined line between the stripes. So for that, I got out our trusty wood-burner. If you don't have one, you could skip this step. But we love wood-burning and use it often.

{I asked the Baileyhusband to help in this step so I could take a picture, besides, his hands are cuter than mine}

Seventh: If you have wood floors, I recommend using felt (or something else like it) on the bottom of your VERY HEAVY new side table. I hot-glued it on. I like to rearrange often, and this was a must for us to protect our floors!

Now the stump is ready to be used as a very stylish side table! I am so completely in love with this table and can't wait to see all the places it will end up in our home. 

I have had fun adding some accessories to it over the couple weeks we have had it. 

So, what do you think? Easy enough, right? Be very careful....it is addicting, and now I want a tree stump in every room! I think a plain green (my favorite color) is in my future...and I would love one painted with a fun, girly pattern for one of the girls. The possibilities are as endless as your imagination. Have fun!! And let me know if you tackle one of your own, I would love to see them!  

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