Holidays

Submitted by RyTurner / The Design Confidential
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Project Details

This project was sooooo much fun and so simple that I even dared to let Monster Mash help out! After all, the holidays aren't quite as much fun without a little holiday magic and kid friendly woodworking! Am I right?

You can decorate with ornaments, or perhaps drill out some shallow holes on the ends of each branch for candles... The possibilities are endless!

DIY Modern Wooden Christmas Tree
Estimated Cost

Under $25

Dimensions
Dimensions for This Project
Tools

Safety Gear

Tape Measure

Drill

Spade Bit or Hole Saw Bit

Saw

Lumber

3 - 2x2 at 8'

1 - 3/4" Dowel at 36"

Materials

2 1/2" pocket hole screws - optional

Wood Glue

Sanding Supplies

Finishing Supplies - optional

Cut List

2 - 2x2 at 27"

4 - 2x2 at 24"

4 - 2x2 at 21"

3 - 2x2 at 18"

2 - 2x2 at 15"

2 - 2x2 at 12"

4 - 2x2 at 9"

2 - 2x2 at 6"

1 - 2x2 at 3"

1 - 3/4" Dowel at 32"

Instructions

Before beginning to build, always check in on my site to make sure you have the most up to date set of plans, I occasionally update and change the plans to make the building process easier or to allow for less expensive purchasing of materials!

Read through the entire set of instructions and all comments before beginning this project. If you print out or save plans, be sure to check in on my site to be sure you have the most up to date set of plans, as I occasionally update things for ease of building or buying. If you are new to building, read through the GETTING STARTED section and other articles found under the BUILD tab in the menu on my site, it has valuable information about how to get started, tools and techniques. If you are unfamiliar with the finishing process, visit my Finishing school for some tips and tricks for painting like a pro and for special finishing practices.

Use glue to secure your joints and Consider Painting or Staining individual sections prior to assembling. This makes the paint application virtually flawless. Coat with a spray on Poly or Wipe on Poly to protect your finish and your piece and it will last for ages. Adhere to all safety standards and guidelines, and be sure you follow safety protocol throughout your build. If you are unsure about whether you are building safely, run a quick online search for the tool or technique you are using, or contact me via email or post to the forum before you move ahead. My contact info can be found in the menu of my site.

Step 1

Build your Base: You can use your Kreg Jig set for 1 1/2" stock and your 2 1/2" pocket hole screws and glue. Using your Spade Bit, drill down almost all the way through your base, but not quite all the way. This would be about 1 1/4" down into the board. Tape your Bit as shown here so that you know where you need to stop.

Step 1
Step 2

Add you dowel: If you want this to be collapsible, don't glue. Or you can glue this piece and allow the branches to be movable so you can flatten to store...either way.

Step 2
Step 3

Add the Branches: Using your Spade Bit drill a hole in the center all the way through each branch. Then simply layer in the order outlined below:

Each dimension listed will be for 2 pieces in the listed size unless otherwise noted.

Row 1 and 2: 21"
Row 3 and 4: 24"
Row 5 and 6: 27"
Row 7 and 8: 24"
Row 9 and 10: 21"
Row 10 and 11: 18"
Row 12 and 13: 15"
Row 14 and 15: 12"
Row 15 and 16: 9"
Row 17 and 18: 6"
Row 19: 3" This is the Top and only one of these will be used.

Step 3
Step 4

Add the top: This piece will also drilled only partially,to about 3/4" will work to secure the top piece on your dowel and cap your tree so to speak.

Step 4
Finishing Instructions

Fill any Screw, Nail or Pocket Holes, Sand and Finish as Desired. For Finishing Tips and Tricks visit my Finishing School

Note

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Disclaimer

**Disclaimer: Some rights reserved. Private use only. Feel Free to link to any of my plans so long as you provide an adequate link back to the appropriate post! Plans from this page are not to be used for commercial purposes or republished without the express written consent of Rayan Turner, The Design Confidential I hope to provide accurate plans, however, I cannot guarantee each plan for accuracy. Not every plan that I post has been built and tested, so you are building at your own risk. It is recommended that you have a clear understanding of how the project works before beginning any project. Please contact me if you find an error or inaccuracy so that I might fix it.

Submitted by RyTurner / The Design Confidential
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I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, for those of you in the US who celebrate Thanksgiving. For those of you who don't... I hope you had a wonderful Thursday and Friday!

We had quite an eventful evening filled with food, family, and a dog seizure. What a night! To say I hope we don't have a repeat affair anytime soon is an understatement on a few counts, but as for the family and food, it was delectable.

I have mentioned before that my home is not large, but that it suits me fine for what I need. When 'what I need' becomes a place to seat 15 for a formal dinner, things can get a bit hairy.

You can see from the images above that I have a living room dining room combo and that it's essentially a long narrow room that hardly fits my majorly over sized furniture. Clearly I care more for my things than I do for creating a more suitable arrangement because I haven't been able or ready to let go of anything since moving into this place. Perhaps one day... but not this day!

And so I began to clear and streamline my very lazy fall decor. I hardly did much more than pile every pumpkin I have in the center of my table and pretend like it looked good! This is what happens when you become to busy to enjoy the things you love, like holiday decorating!

I started to realize this room had basically become a holding cell where all of my accessories come to live when they get booted from the other rooms. Of course now I can't wait to transform this room for a more permanent look, but for now the goal is to make it feastable.

And so I cleared, and cleared some more... and then again more... until only a fraction of the 'stuff' that was in here remained.

My table seats 8 on a good day, and this day was one of those days.

But there were 11 adults, and no matter how much sweet talking I did to my pretty little gal, she could still only seat 8.

The sofa stepped in and helped out by allowing me to pull in another table and a couple of extra chairs and actually made for a fun seating arrangement that gave everyone plenty of room to stretch out during dinner not worrying about rubbing elbows with anyone else.

It all worked out in the end, right up until 'littlest dog in the world' decided to have a seizure and scare everyone to death. Not to worry, my amazing family was on the job and everyone jumped in on the action to try and save him, even though we didn't know what was happening at the time and thought he might have been choking.

I walked upstairs for 30 seconds until my sister ran up to tell me I needed to come down immediately because my dog was croaking! Eek. My father in law attempted to remove anything lodged in his throat, as did my husband, and my wondrous mom even gave him doggie mouth to mouth!

By the time I was downstairs he was breathing and seemed fine. Another clue that he had a seizure. We probably scared him half to death trying to resuscitate him, but I'm glad to have the support of everyone who knows how much of a doggy lover I am. They weren't about to let him croak without putting up a good fight!

I managed to miss the whole event, short lived but scary as it was, and I will tell you that nothing can clear out a house like an animal emergency. Just in case you ever need to end a party quickly you will know what to do. Just whip out your dog and have it roll over and play dead. Great party trick... yikes!

Did any of you have an eventful evening or afternoon? Any other dog seizures out there? For your sake I certainly hope not! eek.

Submitted by RyTurner / The Design Confidential
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I don't know about you...but I like my chocolate... chocolaty...VERY chocolaty. Semi-Sweet has it's place, but it's not in my mug of hot chocolate!

This fun project is one the whole family can get in on. Setting up an assembly line to crank these out is just pure fun for the little ones especially. The lucky people you give this to will adore the presentation of this simple gift that has been made just for them!

Recipe for this Chocolaty Goodness:

I have mixed and mingled several recipes over the years, to come up with my own variation of mouth watering chocolaty chocolate! The ingredients below seem to yield just the right flavor, and just the right amount for gifting to approximately4- 6 people (Using 4 or 6 Large Mason Jars).

Makes 8 cups of MIX and 24 cups of Hot Chocolate (mmmm)...reduce by half to create 3 Hot Chocolaty Chocolate Jars!

This is the total amount of each item you will need for making this quantity of mix, so do not blend ingredients unless you are going to drink and store for your own use. Below that you will find the breakdown per mason jar for 2 different sizes of jar.

**For a less chocolaty experience you can use 1/2 the amount of pudding mix (1 package).

3 cups chocolate chips
3 cups of mini marshmallows
6 1/2 cups powdered milk
2 packages non-instant chocolate pudding mix (package typically 5 oz.)
1 cup powdered chocolate milk drink mix (Nesquik,or something of the sort)
1/2 cup powdered non-dairy creamer
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup of mini marshmallows
This can be stored for the season if you are making for your own use. Just be sure to seal in an airtight container.

If your Mason Jar will hold enough MIX for 4 cups of hot chocolate:

1/2 cup of chocolate chips
1/2 cup of mini marshmallows
1 cup and 1 tablespoon powdered milk
1 1/2 oz. of non-instant chocolate pudding mix
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons powdered chocolate drink mix
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon powdered non-dairy creamer
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon powdered sugar
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
If your Mason Jars are sized for the amount of MIX needed for 8 cups of hot chocolate:

1 cup of chocolate chips
1 cup mini marshmallows
2 cups and 3 tablespoons powdered milk
3 oz. of non-instant chocolate pudding mix
1/3 cup powdered chocolate drink mix
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons powdered non-dairy creamer
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons powdered sugar
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
Optional: add cinnamon and nutmeg for more of a Mexican Hot Chocolate flavor. Add a touch of Almond Extract while boiling...fantastic... Throw a Vanilla Bean into the mix and watch your taste buds electrify. There are so many variations on hot chocolate, but each and every recipe should have one thing in common...sweet, chocolatly, rich flavor!

Add layers of each ingredient to your jar in any order you prefer:

Creating your layered mason jar container is most easily maintainable if you put the solid ingredients on the bottom (chocolate chips, marshmallows, etc). In my experience, if they are placed at the top, they will shimmy and shake their way down your container, mixing your beautifully defined layers for you as you go! Not preferable for the striping effect.

Keep your ingredients separated and add to the jar individually, layering for color variation as you go. If you want the marshmallows to be given as a topper, consider placing only those at the top of the jar or placing them in a separate cello bag along with your instructions!

Create a personalized gift tag with instructions for use:

{Pour contents into mixing bowl and wisk ingredients together. Be sure to blend well so each cup has an equal flavoring of chocolaty goodness. To drink: Add 1/4 - 1/3 cup of blended mix to 8 oz. of boiling water. Stir until disolved and serve.

If you prefer, you can also add 1/4-1/3 cup of blended mix to 8 oz water and bring to a boil, stirring frequently (chocolate can burn fairly easily if you aren't careful). Reduce heat and serve.

To make multiple servings of hot chocolaty chocolate at the same time, boil the appropriate amount of water necessary for the total number of servings you will be making (8 oz of water per serving). Stir in 1/4-1/3 cup of blended mix until dissolved, reduce heat and serve.

Enjoy....}

Submitted by RyTurner / The Design Confidential
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I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween! We celebrated in true Halloween Lover's Fashion with deadly drinks, spooky decor, and a bit of festive fun. Our neighborhood was packed full of little ones going door to door for candy treats. It was such a magical evening for my own little Dark Knight since it was the first year he wasn't scared to wear his costume and trick o treat!

I'm a holiday decor freak, and so of course I adore any excuse to break out the crows and skeletons, which I secretly wish had reason to live with us for the rest of the year (told you... holiday decor freak). I guess my freaky inner goth kid comes out every now and then? Not sure what else my excuse might be... I'm pretty impressed with my neighborhood's overall participation in this scary occasion. My little block never ceases to amaze and delight us with the most haunted of holiday decor! Complete with sound effects and slide shows projected onto houses, some of the homes nearby definitely gave us a few good frightful scares! Eek.

Submitted by RyTurner / The Design Confidential
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The image below shows a high end space using recycled, low end pallets in a most fabulous way. This may very well be the most inexpensive, high style storage solution for this particular use, I have seen yet. The only unfortunate part of this, is that for many of us, these inexpensive or free, recycled pallets, are anything but. In California, you would be hard pressed, or very lucky to get your hands on a few of these...so, if you're like me, and you can't join them...beat em' and fake it!

Submitted by RyTurner /
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I was feeling the need for a sweet cupcake inspired table for my little family's Valentine's Day dinner. I took the remainder of my color story from my wedding bouquet (to be shown at a later date with a DIY tutorial) and added elements from around my house that I already had.

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