Woodsy Hanger

Since outfitting our son's room on a budget is the name of the game, I've been doing and making what with the smallest cost possible   We needed something behind his door, and so I started thinking.  Since his room is mostly woodlands, I searched under that and found these:

 

http://www.shft.com/shopping/timber-tree-hooks

Awesome, but still cost money, and I figured that I could find something in my favorite spot ever.... the woods on the backside of our subdivision.

So, I popped my son in the stroller, grabbed my big tree cutter's and ventured to the far side of the neighborhood.

I cut a whole bunch of random sticks, mostly "Y" shaped ones, that could have a 'hook' like part, as well as two straight ones.  I tried to pick wood that had fallen, and already dried out, so I wouldn't be working with green wood.

I didn't know how bad the saw would tear up the bark, so I put masking tape around it, the same way I've done in the past when I cut through my counter tops.

This is what they looked like when I was done, pretty smooth cut!

They were all cut, and lined up, ready to go! 

My husband was worried about them having bugs in them, so I put them in a 1:1 bleach bath... and then laid them out in the sun to dry... and then came out 15 minuets later to white sticks!  Oops!  We mixed different shades of brown paint with water to thin it down, and 'painted' various colors back onto the bark.

Once the paint was dry, we used some poly to seal the hooks, (and to keep any bugs that survived the bleach bath IN).  We put the coats on thick and heavy with big bristled brushes.

I love that she wanted to help make something for her little brothers room, she's the best big sister!

Once the poly was mostly dried (I only waited a few hours), I laid the two long sticks out, and arranged the shorter hooks on top of them.

I drilled pilot holes where each hook would go.

Drilled the screws in part way for all of the hooks to get them started.

I'm so proud of how it came out (because in all honesty, I had NO idea how it would turn out... but I figured it didn't cost anything, just used some supplies I had on hand, so if it was horrible, I could just pitch it!)

 We hung it once we found the studs, and haven't had any problems yet!