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Christmas is by far our favorite time of year and decorating our various Christmas trees is near the top of festive activities. We recently received a new King of Christmas artificial tree and needed a new tree skirt to match our finished Study. Taking inspiration from the wood beams and rolling ladder we have, a wood slat tree skirt sounded like a perfect fit.
Like many others, we landed on the Crate + Barrel Skei Wood Natural Christmas Tree Collar, but just couldn't justify the $129+ price tag. We also wanted to customize the size a bit to fit our space better, so we did what we always do and DIY'd one! This project can no doubt be done in a weekend and in total took about 6-8 hours with the longest wait being for the stain and poly to dry.
Materials Needed
1/2" or 3/4" Plywood
2x4 1/4" Plywood
5/8" Brad Nails
220 grit sandpaper
Paint Brush
Staining Rags
Wood Poly
Step-by-Step to DIY a Wood Slat Tree Collar
Overall Dimensions: 23" Inner Diameter; 28" Outer Diameter; 9" High
Step 1: Take Your Measurements
The base of the new King of Christmas tree was about 21.5" each way, so in order to give ourselves some wiggle room, we decided to make the inner dimensions a round 23" wide at the top and then 28" at the outer end on the bottom so it flared out a bit. The first branches were at about 9" from the ground, so that was our height.
Step 2: Cut Base Layers
In order to attach the individual wood slats we needed something we could nail into, so we decided to create some circular rings. With some extra 1/2" plywood from a different project, we used a router and circular jig from Lowe's to cut the bases. This was the first time using the tool and found it incredibly helpful in getting a perfect circle. Absolutely thrilled we bought this as it'll come in handy on so many other projects! You could use a jigsaw here as well if you don't have a router.
The important step here is to remember your inside and outside dimensions of the circles. We made a little mistake here in not accounting for the size of the router bit, but it worked out ok. We intended to have about a 2" thick circle and ended up with closer to 1.5".
Top Base: 23" inner diameter, 24.5" outer diameter
Bottom Base: 26.5" inner diameter, 28" outer diameter
Tip for a better build: If we had to do this over again, opt for thicker wood than 1/2". It works ok, but could be sturdier with 3/4". We also were using leftover plywood, so we had to staple our halves together. In a perfect world, use a whole piece of plywood or glue together some planks. The staples definitely make the piece weaker, but again it's working out just fine for our application.
Step 3: Cut Wood Slats
We used our table saw to rip down 1/4" plywood into strips for the slats. In the Crate + Barrel inspiration, the slats were very thin and we wanted something a little thicker. We ended up going with 1" thick.
To do so, we took the plywood and cut 1" strips the long way. We figured on this because of the height of the tree skirt. Our final height was 9", but each slat was going to be 9.125" to account for the slope. So by cutting the long way, we could maximize how many strips we ultimately got. We ended up stripping the entire 2x4 of plywood just to be safe, and glad we did as we used 85% of them. The ones we didn't use, we'll probably repurpose for paint sticks or shims.
Tip for a better build: This is the first time we invested in a nice table saw blade with more teeth for a smoother cut. Wish we did this sooner as it makes a HUGE difference versus what the table saw originally comes with. At Lowe's we bought the Dewalt 80 tooth blade and it cut like butter.
Step 4: Finalize Wood Slat Height
Taking the larger strips of wood, cut them down to size with a saw to that 9.125" height. Get as many as you can so you can pick and choose which slat to use during your assembly. At this point you can also choose to sand all your pieces and even stain them if you'd like. We sanded and stained with everything in place and if you look close you can see some of the edges without stain, but it's not very noticeable.
Step 5: Assemble the Wood Tree Collar
This was by far the hardest and longest part of the project. We used some scrap 1x4 cut down to 9" high and some additional 1/4" scrap taped together to create a bit of a form to hold the top and bottom bases together. The pieces we taped together measured the inner dimension of the top circle and the inner dimension of the bottom circle to try and keep everything as even as possible. It was hard to rig up and get right, but very much needed.
Tip for a better build: Make sure you have enough clamps for the top and bottom of the form. We didn't have enough to clamp the bottom all the way around and it made it harder to keep everything even. We also assembled this on the ground...if you're able, put this up on a table and save your knees/back!
Now you can go around and nail in your slats. We went one at a time: align the slat to the very bottom, nail the top first, use a level to make sure it was even, and then nail in the bottom. For the next slat, we put it close but not touching to the previous and then went around and around.
We went around and around until everything was nailed into place!
Step 6: Sand + Stain
As mentioned before, we sanded and stained with everything assembled. Once going through with some 220 grit sand paper, we noticed we missed the nail on a few of the slats, so just cleaned that up and made sure everything was ready for staining.
We used our stain of choice (Minwax Dark Walnut) that matched everything else in our house. Only ended up doing one coat, waited overnight, and then did one coat of poly to make sure it was sealed. Just needed to wait for it to dry and we were done!
Overall, extremely happy with how this turned out and glad we did the DIY! We love the look of it, and by doing it ourselves, we were able to customize the color and size to better fit what we needed. This was a fun project and would definitely recommend it if you love this style of tree skirt!
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