On one of my walks on the beach I picked up 2 pieces of driftwood and saved them for future projects.  The biggest piece seemed like a good option to recreate these wooden centerpieces Hunter’s cousin, Brooke, had at her wedding last year.  The centerpieces were long pieces of wood with cutouts in them for tea lights.  Well, I had found my next project..

Driftwood Candle Holder Centerpiece

What you’ll need:

• Piece of driftwood
• Drill
• 1.5″ Speedbor drill bit
• Tea lights

This is a great example of a project I started, and then it basically sat in our garage for awhile while life took over… And finally had time to finish it!  Such is life, eh?

The piece of driftwood I found was filled with sand, so first I rinsed it off with the hose to get the excess sand off, then I let it dry off for a few weeks on our back patio and in the garage.

Once the piece was dry, I was ready to drill!  So when I got to this point and started drilling, Hunter and I realized that I had the wrong drill attachment to complete the project (a hole saw wasn’t gonna work).  I’ll blame this mishap on the delay in finishing the project, but eventually we went to Lowe’s and got the right piece –> a speedbor.

When you have the right tools, figure out how many cutouts you want to make and where they will go.  I decided on 7 tea light cutouts.

Then use your drill and slowly cut out the wood until it’s the perfect depth for the candles.  This was about 1/2″ – 3/4″  for me, so the tea lights fit in without anything sticking up.  By the way, the 1 1/2″ bit is the perfect size for tea lights.

Once I drilled all 7 holes, I let the wood dry a few more days since the inside of the wood was still kinda damp.  Then it was time to bring it inside and put the candles in!

The holes aren’t perfectly lined up, but it matches the imperfections of the driftwood.  Now I just need to find the perfect place for it!  And find more pieces of driftwood…