Perfect DIY Candle Centerpiece
Who doesn’t love when you can create something impactful for your home decor needs in less than 30 minutes? I had been viewing the 4″ x 4″ (which actually means it is 3 1/2″ x 3 1/2″) rustic taper candle centerpiece from a few different accounts on Pinterest. After scoping out my wood collection in my garage, I came across a 2 5/8″ x 3 1/4″ x 30 1/2″ rough sawn maple board and knew it would be the perfect material to make a similar style project out of. I felt even luckier because most of the other projects were just made with a 4″ x 4″ pine column, but with maple wood, you get such a unique look. Maple wood is a dense wood with a gorgeous grain.
Another great thing about this project is it let me finally use my new drill press. I haven’t found many firefighter decor items that I can make with it yet, but my brain is still thinking about that part. However, the drill press will be handy for a few other household decor items I have in mind. Now granted you can use a drill spade and a regular drill to do this same type of project and it will turn out fine. The benefit of the drill press meant that going through a denser wood was simpler on the drill press than with a hand-held drill and also it meant that I was assured all of my holes would be perfectly upright and no unwanted accidental slant that can sometimes just happen when you use a hand drill to drill in about 1 1/4″ depth. For the bit I used a 7/8″ drill spade. It fits the cheap candles I purchased from Walmart with just a slight size difference so the candles can slide in easily.
First I marked one side of my maple board with the spacing for the holes. I decided that I wanted about a 3″ spacing between each hole and then on the opposite linear space I added a marking between each of the 3″ spacing to create a zigzag along the top. I was able to mark off the board so that the board would hold 19 candles.
Once I had all the holes drilled, a light sand of the entire project and a quick coat of spray poly was all it needed. I wanted to keep a lot of the rough-sawn details of the natural wood and by only lightly sanding and using a spray poly, I was able to enhance the wood’s beauty.
I think the piece just turned out gorgeous. I can’t wait to get more of my fall decorations down from the attic and add them to my table centerpiece.
Happy creating… and stay safe my friends.
The Mother Trucker
