How to Make a Decorative Wooden Buoy

How to Make a Decorative Wooden Buoy — The inspiration for this project came about a few months ago when I was walking on the beach and came across a mess of rope from a lobster pot that had made it’s way to shore.

The lobster pot was long gone, but knowing I wanted to decorate our little house here in Maine in a coastal theme, I thew the rope in the back of the car and headed home VERY EXCITED.

Long story short, my husband thought it was trash, I thought it was a treasure and well… what do you know, when all was said and done, he was like… Hey, those wooden buoys you made are pretty cool. Husbands.

They’re kind of funny that way. 😉

So this is for all of you who see the beauty in things others do not.

Supplies

{2} 10″ x 3″ x 3″ scraps of wood
Acrylic Craft Paint {I like Apple Barrel Paints}
Recycled Lobster Rope {Jute rope works well too}
Miter Saw {This is the one we have}
Drill
1″ Spade Dill Bit
Pen or Pencil
Ruler
Blue Painters Tape
Sand Paper and/or a Palm Sander 

Get yourself some wood. For this project I used {2} 10″ x 3″ x 3″ scraps of wood {4″ x 4″ fence post scraps work well too} that I saved from when we built our garden boxes earlier this year.

Because we live in coastal Maine, people have these type of wooden buoys all over the place and it’s not uncommon to see wooden buoys around town with house numbers on them and hanging either at the front door, or around mailboxes {pretty neat-o if you ask me}.

Directions

Using a pen or pencil, mark a line 1″ at the top of the block of wood on both sides. Measure down four inches on the side of the wood and make another mark. Draw a line from point a to point b as pictured above.

Using a miter saw, cut away the corners you had marked.

Using a 1″ spade drill bit, drill a hole about halfway down the top of the buoy.

Keep in mind that your holes do not have to be perfectly center.

These wooden buoys are going to be roughed up a bit and you want them to have a bit of an aged appearance. If you’ve got a split or two in your buoy, even better!

Now comes the hard part.

What color you want your buoys, and where you want your stripes to be.

Since I’m going for a red, white and blue theme with this house, I chose to paint one buoy red, white and blue, and the other one blue and white so that they’s compliment each other.

Since I’m not super awesome at painting straight lines, I used blue painters tape to help.

And it works like a charm every time. 🙂

Since these buoys will be kept indoors, I used acrylic paints. If I was going to display them outside, I’d probably give them a coat or two of polyurethane to help them weather outside a little better.

I LOVE how the color combination worked out!

Once your buoys are dry, rough them up a bit with a sander or by hand with sandpaper.

Wipe the dust off your sanded buoys with a damp cloth.

Cut your lobster rope to the desired length {I cut mine about 16″} and string the rope through the buoys and tie them off at the ends.

And that my friends, is how to make a decorative wooden buoy. Pretty cool don’t you think? 🙂

Stay awesome everyone, and have a great day.

~Mavis

For more cool craft projects, check out my arts and crafts page.