Birch Tree Stand

Hello fellow DIYers,

with all the free time and limited possibilities to spend it in the current world situation (2020) I started to do handicrafts, like many others. Today I will show you how to make a simple, mobile tree trunk as a coat stand or flower stand or whatever-your-heart-desires-stand. None of the steps I show here are unique, but easily done and require only customary tools (mostly). Maybe it will inspire you to develop this project-idea even further.

Steps:

• Get your supplies
• Tree trunk handling
• Tree trunk attachments handling
• Setting up the trunk
• Prepare the attachments
• Assembly

The hardest part to find is probably a nice tree trunk. I found (cheap and beautiful) birch trunks at the local hardware store. Above all, it should be dry and thick enough. (not just sawed off from the forest). Most of the things from the supply list that you do not have can be found in the hardware store (or on Amazon).

Supplies:

• tree trunk (obviously)
• rubber feet, rubber sheets
• wooden supports
• wooden sticks & beams
• clear coat spray
• screw-in nut
• customary tools (hand saw, hammer, wrench, screwdriver)
• drilling machine
• hard brush

After you have found the tree trunk and a place to work, saw it to the right length (your room height minus the rubber feet). The sawing surfaces should be parallel to each other and perpendicular to the log.

Stick a rubber sheet (at least a few millimeters thick) to the bottom of the trunk. I cut the sheet out of an old rubber carpet (2 layers) and stuck it on with the double-sided adhesive tape.

Make a press support on the top of the trunk using the rubber feet and screw-in nuts. As in the pictures, drill holes in the top of the log for the screw-in nuts (depending on the size of the trunk and your rubber feet you can make 1, 3 or more attachments. I had about Ø10cm trunk, Ø4cm rubber feet and M8 screws). Start with smaller boreholes than you think is right (or recommended for your screw-in nuts), otherwise you will have loose fitting screws. If you plan to drunkenly fall against the tree trunk later you can make the screw connection even more stable by making the dual-boreholes. The first X cm (as long as the screw-in nuts) as thick as your screw-in nuts -35% and the next 5-7 cm as thick as your screws -35%. Specifically, I had a 10 cm deep hole that was Ø8cm at the beginning and Ø5cm at the end.

If your rubber feet already have screws then everything is fine. Otherwise take a suitable screw with 2 nuts and screw it together so that the rubber washer is loose between the 2 nuts and screw head.

In the last step clean and coat the tree trunk. That was also the most annoying and time-consuming step for me. The best way to clean was with a hard brush with not too much pressure. After the trunk is clean, paint it with a clear coat (suitable for inside). I used a clear coat spray. Make sure you do it outside and don't forget a protective mask. In the picture you can see the difference between the raw trunk and the cleaned, varnished trunk

The next step is to make the attachments you want. I made one trunk into a coat stand and another into a flower stand and describe the steps accordingly.

For the flower stand you don't need to do anything with the tree trunk anymore (that was easy :)

For the coat stand you still need holes in the trunk for the hoes. The hoes are simply made out of a wooden beam so it depends on which beam or which large-hole-drill you have. In my case I had a 35mm drill so I just bought one meter of a Ø35mm wooden beam. Drill the trunk at an angle with the drill at least a few centimeters deep. I have chosen the original branch places so that it looks even closer to nature.

As long as you made a good estimation of the trunk length, you can now place the trunk in your room and press it in position. If not obvious, you can do this by screwing on the screws of the rubber feet so that the tree is pressed between the floor and the ceiling. Below are the rubber pads and above are the rubber feet. I would recommend that you first apply a painter's tape to the feet to avoid black spots on the ceiling.

For the coat stand take the wooden beams and cut it into pieces as long as you want the heels to be. After that sand it well and paint it with a lacquer suitable for indoor use. I would recommend a wood oil. After everything is dry you glue the beam pieces in the holes with the wood glue (or in my case you hammer them into the holes)

For the flower stand there are many possibilities. I got myself wooden supports and screwed them together with a crossbars. Everything was done with a handsaw and wood chisel (see pictures). After that I oiled everything and screwed to the trunk with wood screws. If your trunk also has an odd shape like mine, you should use wood spacers between the trunk and supports. Make sure to use a level to align the supports correctly. I also had the idea to put velcro tape on the wood supports and the plant pots, but I didn't do it because it was stable enough

That’s it. And as a bonus everything is 100% vegan (provided you used vegan oil)