Wooden Doormat- Welcome home!

Ever wanted a gift so bad at a Chinese auction Christmas party that you could barely stand it? 

Well, that was me when Christine brought a homemade, aqua, wooden doormat to our Girls' Party!

 

Since she's awesome, she said she'd come over and help me make my own. I loved the aqua colors, but yellow is a household favorite around here!

While I usually craft with fabric, Christine crafts with wood and clay. She brought over tools and safety gear that I do not have in my sewing desk! :) After the mat was done, she said, "So simple, right?" And I agreed- except that having the right tools was a major part of the project. 

Even though I know how to use the tools we used, I'm not even going to attempt to name them- I know my limits.

We used five 2x2x8's. She cut them into 24" lengths which gave us twenty total pieces.

 24" gave us no leftover pieces- I like no waste! Most of her mats are 20" long.

I then found the worst looking side of each piece and marked 6" in from each side with a pencil in the middle (marks at 6" and 18"). These would become the sides of the mat and holes would be drilled to run the sisal through.

If there were markings on the board, they became a "side." Any missing wood pieces would also be marked for a side piece.

She showed me how to drill straight down and through the center on each side. (We used a 3/8ths bit.) I took over while she sanded the ends and holes.

 A good, small sander worked great.

 

Christine made sure each end was beautifully sanded down and each side of the holes was smooth, too.

There's 20 sanded boards and 40 good-looking holes!

 Time to paint! We rolled out some butcher paper in the carport and laid the boards out.

 Christine brought all the colors I would ever need! I decided to go with a yellow-orange scheme. This is acrylic paint. I would suggest buying a white to make different tones of the same color.

 After mixing yellow with white and yellow with orange to make three different colors, she added water to make the paint more of a stain. You don't want to paint the wood as much as stain the wood.

 Here's the yellow, yellow-orange, and orange. Even though they looked varied enough in the cups, once they hit the wood, there wasn't much difference between the first two. When I make the next one, I will make sure there's even more of a distinction.

 I decided to do 8 yellow, 8 yellow-orange, and 4 orange. We separated the pieces and got to work. You want to stain three sides and each end, let it dry, and then flip it over to paint the last side. Try not to let the paint "pool" on the butcher paper because it will paint the fourth side before you are ready.

 Paint and wait! It didn't take long to dry...just a few minutes. Flip and paint the last side.

 We were ready to tie it all together. I made a pattern with the three colors and realized we had an extra yellow board at the end. Christine kept it for another project, and we were down to 19 boards.

 Christine got this 100 ft of sisal rope at Home Depot for $5. We used less than 15 feet for this project. I can't remember the diameter of it...and I can't tell from the picture...but I know it's less than 3/8ths (because that was the size of the holes).

She pulled out two 7 foot pieces and cut them off. We wrapped tape around each end to help thread them through the holes.

 Tie a knot for one end.

 Thread the sisal through a hole, and tie another knot. Tie a knot between each board. And a last one at the end.

 And, after two quick hours of work, it's done! Working two at a time really made it a quick project!

 It's currently at our front door- but we don't use the front door, and I never get to see it.
So, I think it's going to have to move to the carport door.

 Christine had an amazing shade of purple that I haven't been able to shake from my mind. I might have to do a purple-blue-aqua scheme next.

 It feels "beachy" to me! Maybe when we own a place in Hilton Head, I'll make one for every door!
Until then...

Happy making and giving,
-braxton

Christine, you are the best! Thanks for letting me post your creativity!