‘Vintage’ Sled Centerpiece
The title of this post is actually a little misleading. You see, I plan to make my own ‘vintage’ sled and use it in a Christmas centerpiece. You know, a fake ‘vintage’ sled. Here is how it went down. We started with ‘old’ wood.
Before I approached Jim about building this sled, I made this drawing to show him what I had in mind because I knew he was going to ask me how big, how long, what kind of wood etc. I thought I would save him some words.
We headed out to our workshop, not to be confused with Santa’s workshop. First thing we had to do was find boards suitable for our project. The more ‘vintagy’ looking the better.
We cut them down to size according to the dimensions from my drawing. Two runners measuring 28 inches long, two rungs measuring 5 inches long, 1 steering support 9 inches long and three slats measuring 18 inches long. Oh, and you will need a piece of rope.
Remember racing down the hill as a kid on a wooden sled? Yeah, me neither. By the time I was a kid we had progressed to hard plastic sleds with hand brakes. Handy things..those brakes. But I fondly remember one incident involving a long icy steep hill, cardboard for a sled and trees at the bottom of the hill. Enough said.
But…back to our ‘vintage’ sled building process. Once all the pieces were cut out we did a dry run. We had to adjust the width of the three slats for the top. Then it was time to drill holes for the rope handle.
Once we were happy with everything, all pieces got a good sanding.
Here is how we attached the rope to the underside of the steering support. We just separated the twists of the rope and stapled them down.
And it was time for assembly. Since this is just a decor piece there was no glue involved, just brad nails. Here it is all ready for finishing.
First thing I did was add a little red paint. I could have stopped there but it was still looking a little newer than I pictured in my head so I decided to add some stain to darken the sled.
With the stain dry it was time to add a few Christmas decorations and voila…
Now we are one step closer to getting the house decorated. Tree isn’t up yet. I’m procrastinating on that.
Later