DIY Piling Ornament

December 15th, 2022 by Lisa Gordon

This little guy was so easy & fun! It was actually created due to a mistake the ol' man made while helping me in the garage.

I wanted to make a towel countertop ladder for the kitchen & just to practice, I bought some wood from the good ol' Dollar Tree. I figured since I hadn't made one yet, I wasn't going to use expensive wood. I bought several long pieces of wood (pictures below).

I measured the space I had on our countertop and cut the pieces just a couple inches longer than what I needed. I then used wood glue to glue 3 of these wood pieces together. I used clamps & waited for them to dry. I did this for each side of the ladder (6 pieces total).

Once they were dry, I cut one end at a 15 degree angle so that the ladder would sit level on the countertop. I found the appropriate size wood dowel at the local hardware store for the rings. I stained the sides and as much of the dowel that I would need. I believe each ring was going to be 8 inches. I had about 7 inches left that I didn't stain. I then cut the rungs with the miter saw (that was already set up, so I just used that instead of the table saw).

I was rushing around trying to finish up some projects for a craft show I reserved a table at, so my boyfriend said he would drill the holes in the ladder sides for the rings. Lo and behold, when he was done, we realized he drilled the holes on the outer side of the wood & I would have had to cut the sides down shorter & reversed the 15 degree angle if I still wanted to make the ladder. I didn't. I'll save that project with new wood for another day.

Of course I'm not going to waste wood! Who does that? I kept all the pieces knowing I could use them for something else later. That's where my little ornament guy comes into play!

I used the 7 inch piece of dowel that I didn't stain & I cut them down to 3 different random size pieces.

Supplies needed:

• Wood dowel (your choice of size)

• Twine

• Table or miter saw

• Ruler or tape measure (not even necessary really)

• Pencil to mark

• Eyelet screw

• Phillips head screwdriver & small screw

Instructions:

Step 1) Mark your dowel for 3 different lengths.

Step 2) Cut the dowel into those 3 pieces.

Step 3) arrange the dowels together & wrap with twine. You can tie the twine off and hide the excess behind the twine, or hot glue it.

Step 4) Start a screw in the tallest piling, but don't screw it all the way in. Remove the screw & screw in your eyelet screw until the base touches the top of the wood.

Step 5) Attach twine to the eyelet to create an ornament.

You're done!! How easy was that? As you can see in the picture, the tallest piece looks grainy. That's where I left off staining the dowel. I think it have it character, although I wasn't sure if I should use it. This literally took me about 2 minutes after I cut the dowels to size.

Happy crafting!!

Lisa 😁