Need Driftwood for your decor… why not make your own?

We aren’t going to kid ourselves here and pretend we’re a god. There’s no secret way of clapping your hands three times while rubbing a bald man’s head in order to make some driftwood appear. There is, however, a way to turn regular wood into driftwood, and that’s exactly what we are going to be doing today.

The tutorial today comes from Craftiments, a great site that is well worth taking a look at. Not everyone has access to an abundance of driftwood, yet there is so much you can do with them around the house that you will wish you did. Luckily, following this tutorial we will show you how to turn regular wood into very authentic-looking driftwood.

Basically, we are going to take something like this:

start

and turn it into something like this:

finish

Supplies

The supplies for this DIY project are few in number and relatively cheap. This is great because it makes it an inexpensive alternative for creating beautiful driftwood designs. The list of supplies below is pulled from the tutorial over at Craftiments:

  • Eye protection and rubber gloves
  • Dry sticks and small logs
  • Hammer, other tools that could be used for distressing the wood
  • Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (MSDS)
  • Hot water
  • Container large enough to hold the wood
  • Wire brush
  • (optional) Oven for drying the wood
  • Sandpaper or sander power tool

As you can see, most of the materials needed are quite basic and should easily be found lying around the house. The only item that you will really to go out and buy is the Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda but other than that; you should be good to go.

Tutorial

Now comes the fun part, actually turning the wood into driftwood. To do this, head over to Craftiments and have a look at the tutorial there. They did a great job of going through the entire process and did it much better than we ever could.

Uses

Now that you have the driftwood, you need some inspiration with what to do with it. Luckily, driftwood is so versatile and can be used in so many fun and creative ways. Have a look at some of the designs below to get some inspiration.

tree

Christmas time coming up? Then get maybe you can spend a few hours making this spectacular tree to hang out for that good old summer Christmas (assuming you live south of the equator – looking at you Australia).

decor example

A great way to incorporate some sea shells into the design!

candle

Let us know in the comments below what you come up with, we would love to have a look!