Scavenger Chic

Wood Salad Bowl Makeover diy

• By Joan
• November 30, 2015
• 15 Comments

I have a great diy for you today, a flea market or thrift store wooden salad bowl covered with sticks.  If you have a glue gun and a chop saw you are well on your way to making this project.

This project starts with a plain wooden salad bowl from a local thrift store.  I absolutely love when I have a project in mind and I find what I’m looking for (the salad bowl) at the very first place I look.

Actually, in my mind, my salad bowl would have had sides that bowed out slightly. Nevertheless, this salad bowl was perfect, it was wooden, it had seen better days,  it was therefore a perfect candidate for my makeover.

Before attacking my salad bowl with sticks, the bowl was painted with black chalk paint.

The edges were sanded to give that typical chalk paint distressed finish…

…and finished with a coat of dark wax.  I really liked the bowl even at this stage, so if you want to call it quits at this point, I wouldn’t blame you.

And now for the stick portion of our makeover.  Gather up a good supply of sticks the less bumps and knots the better.  Most of my sticks were cut from my wisteria vine.  When I asked my husband to trim our wisteria away from the surrounding trees, he got a tad carried away and I was left with a huge pile of wisteria vines.  I guess I need to thank him now.

However many sticks you think you’ll need, double it.

Trim all of your sticks to the same height.  I found it easiest to cut the sticks on a chop saw cutting several at a time and using tape to show exactly how long each stick should be.  Mine were two inches.  Please keep those fingers free and clear…I don’t want to be responsible for any bloodshed. 

This wasn’t nearly enough, but it was a nice start.

I started to use builders adhesive to attach the sticks but I could only work in one small area at a time, the sticks started to slide and the glue was extremely noticeable since it was white.

A much easier method was a hot glue gun.  So quick, so easy and the sticks dried almost immediately.

If you are going to do the larger sticks like I did in the middle, attach them first and use the smaller sticks to fill.

When you get to the top, don’t put the hot glue on the end, put it on the underside of the stick so it can’t be seen.  Finish any holes with smaller sticks.

This could be a fun gift idea.  Take it to the next level and fill with fruits or muffins (yum).

Have a great week and I’ll see you back here on Thursday.  Stay inspired.

Shared at Inspire me Tuesday, Be Inspired, Wow us Wednesdays,

Vintage Inspiration Party, Creative Spark Link party,

Think and Make Thursday, Handmade hangout,

Funky Junk Upcycled Link Party, DIY Sunday Showcase,

Silver Pennies Sundays, Amaze me Monday, Trash 2 Treasure,

Home Decor and More, DIY Collective

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