3D Wooden Christmas Trees
I’ve been meaning to build up a lot of my Christmas decor for years, but I have a really hard time pulling the trigger with spending a lot of money for decorations that are out maybe like a month out of the entire year (maybe two if you are really enthusiastic). However, I am ok with spending some time on making decorations, so we found another project to work on! I saw a replica of wood trees like this being sold from Crate & Barrel for like forty bucks, and said “I can make that”, and proceeded to buy some wood and just make it happen.
We ended up making 10 trees total that were different sizes - in total, the two pine boards cost me eighteen bucks, and I didn’t even use the entire two boards; you probably only need one! Here’s a breakdown below if you’re like me and want some cute and affordable Christmas decorations that you can design to your own style!
Step One: Purchase & Sand Your Wood
I bought two 6’ 12’ width standard pine boards - these were the rough cut pine boards at our local home improvement store (Thanks, Menards!). While they aren’t top quality wood pieces, they don’t have to be!
I didn’t want to have to sand little pieces after they were cut, so Jake sanded down both of the boards before we started cutting until they were really smooth.
Step Two: Draw Your Templates
What I love about this project is you don’t waste a lot of wood with this project, and you can get away without having to make super difficult cuts or measuring a ton AND you can make a ton of different sizes without a lot of brain power. Win-win all the way around!
In this picture, I have outlined how I made the template. This can be used with any height, width, etc you want for your trees, so hopefully this makes it easy!
Determine the height and width of your triangle. Draw straight lines into a square that give those parameters that you want (red lines in drawing).
I didn’t go higher than 12” tall for any of my triangles because we wanted to be able to make these cuts with our miter saw, and we can cut up to like 13”.
For an even triangle, find the center of your width and mark it on the top for the point in your triangle (Yellow Arrow)
For example, if you have a 6” width triangle, make a mark at 3”
Draw lines from this point down to the corners to build your triangle. At this point, you should see your tallest piece (red shaded triangle)
Also, use a ruler or straight edge for this to get crisp lines.
Your side pieces are actually the “spare” wood on either side of your triangle (blue triangles). However, you don’t want them to be the same height (or maybe you do) as your tallest piece. So, however much shorter you want your side pieces to be, drop it down that length (I typically did somewhere between 1 to 2 inches) and draw a straight line from side to side. (Purple line)
Your side triangles are upside down, so you have to drop it down from the widest part of the side triangles, which is really the top of the tallest triangle. Don’t think about it too hard!
There you have it; your template for cutting! Check out all the different types of templates I created for my trees - I didn’t do a lot of perfectly determining sizes, I just took different measurements that were assorted and used the same formula to get a good variety of tall and short trees, along with skinnier and wider trees.
Step Three: Cut Your Wood
We are going to go back to our drawing again. If you have a miter saw that can cut the width of these trees, awesome, it will be perfect. If you don’t, you also could use a circular saw to cut these as well, and hopefully this makes it easy.
Start with cutting the square out first before we get into our angled cuts - these are the red lines on the diagram.
Next, cut out your tallest piece (red shaded triangle) from this square by doing the two angled lines.
After this, you should have your big middle triangle piece and two right angled triangles. This is where those purple lines come in - cut on those lines to make your side pieces the right height.
All your cuts are done!
Step Four: Glue!
Next you want to glue your side pieces on your tallest piece to make them stand! Because I sometimes need everything to be perfect, I found the thickness of my side pieces (¾”) and subtracted that from the full width of the bottom of the tallest piece. Then, I took that number, divided it by two and marked where my side pieces should sit at the bottom. You also could just eyeball it! The main purpose is to make sure the bottom is flush so it can stand flat.
I used a makeup applicator to apply the wood glue; you want to apply the wood glue to the side that is the tallest end of the 90 degree angle - the edge that will go flat against the tallest piece. Once you smear on the wood glue, put it in place against the tallest piece, and hold and press for like 10 seconds to allow the glue to adhere to the wood. For these trees, I went through and did one side first to let it dry and laid it down before putting the other side piece on. Because I had like 10 trees, it gave enough time between them to let it dry.
When I attached the other side piece, I held it for 10 seconds and then put painters tape on it to help hold it into place in case it wasn’t as solid. We then let these dry for a few hours.
Step Five: Stain or Paint
I decided to do these different wood stain colors - I wanted to do something natural but also that had some depth to it, so I decided to do a white stain, with a medium stain (provincial) and a dark stain (expresso). I split up the sizes between the stain colors and went to town!
You also could do them all one color, you could paint them, or you could leave them completely natural and just do a clear coat over them - these trees could be made to fit your style and your decor theme - did you know that they make colored stains as well? Give that a try if you’d like a pop of color!
Step Five: Decorate
I love these trees. I love how simple and natural they are - I have them popped in a few places in my house. They could be used as a Christmas table centerpiece, shelf knick knacks, or a statement piece…really anything, and all for under $20! These might be my favorite Christmas decorations yet, because they are beautiful AND affordable.
Let us know if you give this one a try - we want to see how they turn out!
