Tree Collar

I started seeing these out for sale in 2019 and thought they were cute, but never thought more about it until I started noticing them out in 2020 for upwards of $45!! My first thought was, I CAN MAKE THAT for A LOT less! Thus began the thought process of what to make it out of and how to assemble it. With the lumber prices currently at a crazy high, I knew I needed to find a more economical material than purchasing wood from Lowes. PALLETS!! Yes, pallets – they are free if you look around and can be disassembled to use as you wish. I knew I wanted a rustic farmhouse look, so pallet wood was perfect.

My husband had recently gotten some pallets in at work, so I asked him to bring me a few home to get this project started.

It did take me about an hour to get it completely disassembled using a flat edge pry bar, a hammer and a cats paw to get the nails out.

Now, my plan for this was to use it on the tree I was putting up in the entry way, an artificial pencil tree. I got the base out of the box and measured and knew I needed at least 16 inches square inside the box. Since pallet wood is not that thick, I went with an 18 x 19 inch outside measurement. This would allow for me to use a 2 x 2 piece in the corners for support.

I also put the bottom piece of the tree in the base and measured up to know what the height of the box needed to be. This came out to be 9 inches.

Next, I cut two 18 inch pieces and two 19 inch pieces with a chop saw, then cut those down on the table saw so they were half the width. For the one I made, you will need a top and bottom half-width piece on each side. The reason for one side being an inch longer was so the edges of the boards met up and covered the 2 x 2.

I then cut 5 pieces that were 9 inches long for each side. Pallet wood is NOT even and not all pieces are the same, so after cutting them I laid them out and matched them up until I had two sides that were roughly 18 inches and two sides that were roughly 19 inches. Having a rustic look means it does not have to be perfect measurements:) I also cut four 9 inch pieces of 2 x 2 for the interior corners. Now, I didn’t have a 2 x 2, so I ripped down a 2 x 4, but again, it’s just an interior corner and there’s no weight on the box, it’s just for looks, so whatever you have that will work with your dimensions and give it stability – I say go for it!

After the four sides were assembled using penny nails (after realizing that the nails I had for my nail gun were either too short or too long….so assembled using the old fashioned hammer and nail method), I then stood two sides up and using the longer nails, used the nail gun to attach the edges to the inside 2 x 2 as an interior corner support.

Once everything was assembled, I placed the tree base inside just to make sure I had the measurements correct before I painted it.

Since everything worked out, now it was time to paint it! As I mentioned earlier, I wanted a rustic look, so I did not sand the box prior to painting. I just used one coat of chalk paint.

Now, because this was going to be on the hardwood floor, I did add some of the stick on felt circles on the bottom corners, but that was it! It was super simple to make and the only cost involved was time!

Thoughts and other options for this project:

When looking up images, I did select a pretty basic design because I wanted to get it done quickly, but you could adjust the top and bottom pieces to be the crisscross pattern, which I may try another time and will update if I do.

I’ve also since seen some options on these that offer ‘collapsible’ boxes, so rather than using the 2 x 2, you would need some sort of hinge or metal slide insert (similar to what a bed rail would slide into a head/foot board), but those would add cost and a little more difficulty to the project.

If you wanted a more finished look, you could certainly sand and paint or stain the box.

I did purchase some jute rope to run around the box and a wood cut out to put a name or a cute saying on, but haven’t installed it because I liked it just as it is. You could certainly add these by getting the rope and the wood cut out at Dollar Tree or a similar discount store pretty cheap.