Faux Wood Pilings For Summer Decorating

About

You Will Need (4 things)

Steps (6 steps, 60 minutes)

1. 1

   Cut the pool noodles to the height that you want them to be. I like varied heights in each bundle but you can make them whatever size you want them to be. The pool noodles cut easily with a serrated kitchen knife. For the pool noodle groupings that are in the final picture, I used 6 pool noodles (cut into varying lengths) and 3 rolls of wood-grained contact paper.

2. 2

   Cover the cut pool noodles with the woodgrained contact paper. It takes about half of the width of the contact paper to cover each noodle piece. Put the contact paper on going with the grain of the wood longways. The contact paper will stick to the noodle after you pull the backing paper off. I got the noodles and the contact paper at the Dollar Tree so this project was very inexpensive.

3. 3

   If the top of your faux wooden piling is going to be visible, you can cut a knot hole out of the contact paper in a circle that will cover the end of the pool noodle.

4. 4

   Bundling the covered pool noodles together with rope helps the noodles stand up and gives it more of a nautical feel. Putting three noodles together makes it a manageable bunch. You can group bunches if you want more pilings together. These pilings are shown in the natural color of the contact paper.

5. 5

   If you want the pilings to have more of a white-washed look, you can paint the contact paper with water-down acrylic paint. Keep it thin enough that the wood grain still shows through.

6. 6

   For this mantle vignette, I used two groups of 3-noodle bundles on each end. They are very light-weight so be aware that if they are outside in the wind, they may blow over. I store mine in an inside-the-house closet and they have held up well for three years now.