DIY Wooden Coasters

A while back, my husband had to cut some limbs off of a tree that is in our backyard. Once cut, we realized it was a Cedar tree and the limbs had that beautiful Cedar fragrance and distinctive red circle in the middle. We stacked the limbs to save for firewood but I kept thinking that there must be something we could do with those beautiful pieces of wood. Then I saw a picture of some beautiful wooden coasters and decided that would be my next project and a thrifty way to re-purpose something.

This project was super easy. All you need are a couple of logs with whatever circumference you would like your coaster to be, a saw, a paint brush and some polyurethane. (You could also stain the pieces if you wanted too. Since I was using Cedar pieces they had a beautiful reddish circle that I wanted to keep authentic.)

Our first step was to take our logs and cut them to the width we desired. We chose to go with about 1/4 inch for each slice. 

 (Sorry, the picture is awful because we took it at night in our dark garage)

The logs weren't incredibly big, but still required us to use a chop saw to cut all the way through. Once my husband got started, it was easy to just keep cutting a bunch of coasters out. After they were cut, we carefully sanded any rough edges that were sticking out due to the saw blades, but were careful to leave as much bark on the side as possible. The polyurethane will keep the remaining bark on the edges so you don't have to worry about bark falling off while you have your coffee sitting on it.

Next came the Polyurethane. We ended up putting 6 coats of Poly on each side of these babies and made sure to get the edges really well too. This was the only time consuming part because we had to let the poly dry on each side for 2 hours before flipping them over and applying a coat to the other side. 

  

I absolutely love the finished project. They were so worth the wait! These beautiful coasters look beautiful on my end tables and I don't have to worry about my kids breaking them. Now I just have to keep them from being used as ninja weapons. 

These make a beautiful gift for a friend or family member, just pair them with a beautiful mug and you have an easy and thrifty gift.