How to Make Cheap and Easy Outdoor Wooden Christmas Trees

Everything you need to know to make easy DIY wooden Christmas trees from scrap wood including lots of tips for choosing the best wood, what sizes work best, and how to get a gorgeous finish that will last outdoors.

There’s just something about wooden Christmas trees that I love. In fact, I love them so much I put together a whole post sharing all my favorite styles last year.

This year I decided it was finally time to make a few of my own and I’m so glad I did!

This project is a great way to use up scrap wood and cast-offs. And it’s a perfect project for beginners because the only tools you really need are a miter saw and a drill.

These wooden Christmas trees are perfect to use outdoors, but they can also work anywhere you need some bigger decorations indoors. You can make them in a range of different sizes and pretty much any finish you like.

There really are no right or wrong ways to make wooden Christmas trees. If you just want to dig into your scrap wood pile and start cutting, that’s totally fine and there’s a decent chance you’ll end up with great Christmas trees. But for those of you who would rather have a little direction on what measurements and angles work best, I have all of that for you below.

I’m sharing a step-by-step tutorial for making these cute scrap wood Christmas trees including measurements for two different size trees, instructions for several different finishes, and lots of tips for helping your trees turn out amazing.

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Materials

• Scrap wood for the branches – Look for long planks that are between 1 and 6 inches thick.
• 1″x2″ board – for the tree trunks, inexpensive furring strips are perfect for this.
• Scrap wood for the tree base – you need sturdy wood that is around 6″x6″.
• 1″- 1 1/2″ wood screws – for attaching the branches to the trunk. (The exact size you’ll need depends on how thick the wood you use is.) It’s a good idea to use exterior screws if your trees will be outdoors.
• 1 1/4″ pocket screws – for attaching the trunk to the base. If you don’t have a pocket hole jig, you can use 2″ wood screws instead. Again, be sure to use exterior screws if needed.
• Wood glue –  this is my favorite wood glue – it’s waterproof and works great for indoor and outdoor projects
• Paint – this is optional depending on what kind of finish you want. I used Dixie Belle chalk paint in the color cotton on two of my trees. Chalk paint will need to be sealed for outdoor projects. If you don’t want to deal with sealer, you can use an exterior paint instead.
• Stain – to stain your tree trunks and bases. I used Behr water based stain in English chestnut, but any medium to dark brown will work.
• Sealer – to protect your paint finish. A non-yellowing indoor/outdoor sealer like water-based Spar Urethane is a great choice for outdoor trees. I used Varathane matte water-based polyurethane on my trees which is a great choice if your trees will be indoors (or on a covered porch).

Recommended Tools

• Miter saw – for cutting everything to size and cutting the angled ends on the branches
• Drill and drill bits – for attaching the branches to the trunk
• Kreg jig – for attaching the trunk to the base. I have and love the Kreg R3 – it’s a smaller, less expensive Kreg Jig that is still pretty easy to use. If you are new to woodworking and don’t want to make a big investment, the Kreg Jig mini is an even cheaper option though the Kreg R3 is a bit faster to use.

Where to find great wood

I love old wood so I tend to hold onto any cool wood that I find as well as all my scraps from past projects. This is the perfect project for using up all those little pieces along with any boards that aren’t quite straight enough or flat enough to use for other projects.

If you don’t have a scrap wood pile, I would recommend grabbing some furring strips from your local home improvement store. They come in 1″x2″ and 1″x4″ sizes, are super cheap, and are great for rustic projects like this.

1″x4″ furring strips are extremely similar to the wood used in pallets, but you don’t have to worry about finding or taking apart pallets and they are only a couple of bucks each.

For my own trees, I made one tree from old barnwood. Another tree was made from a leftover piece of the door I turned into a headboard and another old board, both of which were already painted green.

My third tree was made from all kinds of small scrap wood including parts of a broken mirror frame, bed slats, scraps from when I made a TV frame years ago, and scraps from the trim on my door headboard. (You really can use pretty much any wood!)

Dimensions

I made two large Christmas trees and one smaller tree. The large trees are approximately. 22″ wide by 40″ high. The smaller tree is 18″ wide by 29″ high.

How to Make Wooden Christmas Trees

Start by choosing your wood for each tree. After looking at lots of wooden tree examples online and trying out lots of different combinations, I think it looks best to keep each individual tree fairly uniform. That can mean using very similar wood or it can mean unifying a bunch of different kinds of wood with a similar finish.

A group of trees in different finishes absolutely looks great, but try to keep the wood on each tree similar in scale and feel.

Once you’ve chosen your wood, you can lay it out to find an arrangement you like.

Cut the branches

Now you can start cutting your pieces to size. Start with the lowest ‘branch’ of your tree. This will be the widest part of the tree.

I used three different angles for my three different trees: 25 degrees for the green tree, 28 degrees for the barnwood tree, and 32 degrees for the white tree. Which angle you choose is up to you, just keep it consistent throughout your tree. 25 degrees gives a taller, slightly thinner tree. 32 degrees makes a slightly fatter tree.

Set your miter saw to your chosen angle and cut one end of your lowest ‘branch’. Measure how long you want this board to be. (You can see my dimensions above for reference, but it’s also totally fine to just eyeball it.)

Cut the second end of the board, making sure that the two sides are mirror images with both angles facing in. The board should form a trapezoid shape (a triangle with the top cut off).

Use this board to figure out the measurement for your next board. You can measure each cut precisely if you prefer, but it’s also totally fine to just eyeball it. Cut the first angle of your board and then set it in place above first board. You want the bottom of each ‘branch’ to extend around 1/4″ to 1/2“ past the top of the branch below it. Mark where this is and then cut the second end of the board.

Continue doing this as you move up the tree.

The final piece will be a triangle rather than a trapezoid.

Cut the trunk

Next you can cut your trunks to size. I used 1×2 furring strips to make my trunks and they worked great. (I actually used a smaller piece of wood for my smallest tree, but if I were doing it again, I would stick with all 1x2s).

Set your 1×2 on your tree shape, decide how long you want it to extend past your lowest branch, and cut it to size with a straight cut. I would recommend leaving at least six inches of trunk below your branches, but you can go longer if you want more height.

You may need to cut the top of your trunk to a point if the top triangle of your tree is very small. If the top triangle is large enough that the sides of your trunk won’t show, cutting it straight across is fine.

Painting the tree branches

Once you have your pieces cut, you can paint or stain them the color of your choice.

One of my trees already had perfect chippy green paint, so I left that one alone other than cleaning it a bit and then painting one final piece to match.

Whitewashed wooden Christmas Tree

My second tree was made of barnwood and I decided to whitewash the wood to soften it a bit. I made a quick whitewash by mixing Dixie Belle chalk paint in cotton with water (around one part paint to two parts water.)

I brushed on the thinned paint and then immediately wiped it off with a clean rag.

I applied three coats of this whitewash to get the color I wanted. Here is the barnwood before and after the whitewash. I really like how it gives a softer, brighter look while still letting the natural texture of the wood show.

Weathered white paint finish

My third tree needed the most help to unify the finish because it was made from several different types of wood in all different wood tones.

I decided to give it one of my favorite aged white paint finishes.

I started by giving the whole thing two rough coats of white paint. (Be sure to let it dry completely between coats. And if you want to make sure there is no yellowing, I recommend starting with one coat of a shellac-based or oil-based primer to prevent bleed-through). This paint doesn’t need to be perfect – we’re going for an imperfect look anyway.

Once the paint is dry, lightly sand the details, edges, and corners with 220 grit sandpaper to expose the wood underneath.

Use a clean cloth to wipe a medium to dark wood stain onto all of the exposed wood. Then immediately wipe off all the excess stain using another clean rag dipped in mineral spirits. The mineral spirits will remove most of the stain from the painted areas while leaving it on the exposed wood.

Staining and sealing the tree trunks

You can stain your 1×2 tree trunks in the color of your choice.

If you are planning to use these wooden trees outdoors, I recommend sealing the finish as well. I sealed my tree trunks and branches with Varathane matte water-based polyurethane.

If your trees will be exposed to extreme moisture and weather, you may want to use a sealer specifically for exterior projects like spar urethane. Just be sure to get the water-based version to avoid yellowing.

Attach the branches to the trunk

Now we’re ready to put these trees together!

Lay out your branches facedown. It’s up to you whether you want to leave space between each board or make them flush. I chose to leave a tiny gap between each board on my Christmas trees. I like how it looks with a bit of space and that also helps prevent any issues from your boards not being totally straight.

Use wood glue and wood screws to attach each board to your trunk. (Be sure to predrill your holes to prevent your boards from splitting.)

Because we’re using scrap wood, you may have some wood pieces that are thicker than others. For my green tree, I didn’t love how much thicker some boards were than others so I attached small scraps of wood to the backs of the thinner boards to bring them up even with the thicker boards.

Attach your tree to the base

There are a few different ways you can make bases for these trees.

I decided to keep my bases simple and used square scraps of wood. This keeps the bases small enough the trees can be placed close together while still giving enough stability.

I cut my bases from 1″ thick scrap wood to be around 6″x8″. If you don’t have big enough scraps for this, you could buy a 6″ wide board and make multiple bases from it.

I attached my trunks to my bases using pocket screws. Just drill two pocket holes in the back of each trunk and screw it to the center of your base.

If you don’t have a pocket hole jig, I highly recommend grabbing a cheap one if you like building things at all. Pocket holes are one of the best, easiest ways to make really strong joints in wood. I have this small, inexpensive Kreg Jig and it’s great.

If you don’t have a pocket hole jig and don’t do enough building projects to buy one, you can still make these trees without one.

You can simply screw the base into the trunk from underneath using long wood screws. Be sure to also use wood glue for a strong joint.

Another option is to make the base using scrap 1x2s. I didn’t use this method in the end, but I did test it out and I took a photo of how the pieces would be laid out to show what I mean. This type of base is also quite sturdy and works great if you don’t have any larger scraps of wood.

The finished wooden Christmas Trees

Here are my finished Christmas trees!

And here’s a look at how the finish really affected the final look. (Or didn’t in the case of the green tree.)

My seven year old thought they should have decorations, so I added a few extra touches. The ‘star’ is just a wooden snowflake ornament.

I added my wooden trees to my front porch along with a few other touches. Can you believe I flocked that wreath 8 years ago and it’s still going strong!

I’m not quite done decorating the porch for Christmas. The asymmetrical sidelight is driving me crazy and I really want to balance it out a bit better. I’m thinking maybe some asymmetrical garland to balance things out? If you have a similar door, I’d love to hear how you deal with it.

But overall I think things are off to a great start and I’m loving these new trees!

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Looking for more simple Christmas DIYs? I’ve got you covered with the posts below!

• 23 Festive Front Porch Christmas Decorating Ideas
• How to make gorgeous 3D paper bag snowflakes
• 19 Easy and Creative DIY Outdoor Christmas Decoration Ideas