Barn Wood Stocking Hanger

I have wanted to make a barn wood stocking hanger for years. Blog land is currently full of Christmas crafts, decor, and food ideas and while they are filling my head, none have come to life this year until today.

What now seems like ages ago; the kids and I started creating our own barn wood with a few projects in mind. Originally, one of my plans had been to make a new table top for the dining room. Using 2×10″ Douglas Fir boards, we distressed, stained, painted, sanded, etc until we had old barn wood looking boards. Our old dining room table’s legs and apron were going to be the base.

Unfortunately, that didn’t work the way I planned and four 8′ boards ended up stored in our shed. Then, two weeks ago we started our mudroom renovation and those boards finally found a home inside the house. We used not quite 3 boards to make our countertop. The room isn’t finished and ready for a reveal post, but you’ll get a little sneak peek today.

DIY Barn Wood

I promise a full post on how we made our faux barn wood with pictures. In the meantime, a quick Pinterest search will result in lots of options. For now, here’s the quick rundown of how we made ours. It was a great project to do with the kids, particularly an angry teenager!

Put your wood out in the grass and give the kids a hammer, screwdriver, chain, garden tools or whatever you have. Let them go to town, occasionally flipping the boards over so all the sides get some roughing up. (I guess I should put a safety note in here: protective eye gear and a safe distance between is recommended…. or what I told my kids, “you could hurt yourself or each other. Try not to. If you do, you know where the band-aids are, you’ve been warned”).
Stain the wood. This was another great thing to let the kids help with. O-Man really enjoyed staining and has asked to help me on many occasions now. He brushed the stain on with a foam brush and I wiped off the excess with a rag. We made a good team.
Dry brush paint in your choice of colors. Personally, we used shades of gray we have left over from different rooms in the new house and acrylic craft paint in white and black. I found a big fat brush lightly dipped into different colors of paint worked well. I brushed it on a piece of cardboard before brushing it onto the wood.
Sand in the direction of the grain. I used a palm sander. Sometimes I applied a lot of pressure, sometimes I just lightly sanded the area.
Stain again or whitewash or repeat process as needed. It’s really personal choice. Have fun and stop when you achieve the look you want.

The Stockings Were Hung…..

Once your board is distressed the way you like it and dry (or paint it a solid color and go for a clean crisp look) it’s time to personalize it. I selected “The stockings were hung…..” because I wanted it to hang above my fireplace. Merry Christmas or Fish Family would have also worked. Believe or We’ve been good are a few other ideas.

Using a pencil, either write or trace from a stencil the phrase. I always start in the middle and work the last half of my phrase to the end and then work my way to the beginning making sure it looks evenly spaced. If you don’t have neat handwriting or want a particular font, use a stencil. Or you could order a custom vinyl.

Paint

Acrylic craft paint and a fine brush work nicely. I liked simple white and painted two coats.

Did you notice my barn wood stocking hanger is on top of more barn wood? That’s my mudroom counter below… and a peek at my cabinets. We’ve been adding spar urathane to the counter tops and I still have to tile but we’re getting there!

Add Hooks

Again, finding the middle, I worked outwards. We needed 5 hooks. I had a bulk pack similar to these. Once I found my center, I evenly spaced the other 4 hooks. Screw them into place.

Barn Wood Stocking Hanger

Place it on your mantel! Or hang it on your wall. We had a store bought, very light weight version for years in our old house. Since we didn’t have a fireplace, it was great. It was cute, and originally I loved it, but I try to incorporate handmade personal items at Christmas time.

My mother-in-law made our quilted stockings. They are so beautiful and deserve to be displayed with a custom stocking hanger. I love personalized handmade stockings.

Obviously, someone approves! O-Man was thrilled to see our handmade elf on the shelf, Elfis, snuggled into his stocking when he woke up this morning.

I’m so happy I was able to do this project after all these years of thinking about it. Since I already had the barn wood made, from the time I brought it into the house to the time I set it on the mantle was less than an hour.

Here’s a view of the whole fireplace. I’m inspired now to get a bit more decorating done!