Lately I have been focusing on bringing extra light to my outdoor living spaces. I scattered solar pathway lights throughout my flowerbed in the backyard just for fun. I also have a pile of string lights and lanterns waiting to decorate deck phase 2 once it's finished. In the meantime, I have been enjoying relaxing on the completed half of our deck in the evening, and usually bring a few candles out with me.
So, today I will share three easy ways to display some candles, specifically tea lights. The best part was that I was able to make these with scraps that I had laying around, so they didn't cost anything! Let's get to it!
Option 1: Modern Candlesticks
This one features 3" square mahogany blocks on a canary wood base, but of course the shape can be made with any type of wood. I like that the mahogany was cut with sharp corners and obviously isn't just ordinary lumber. I finished the whole piece with teak oil since both mahogany and canary wood are hard woods.
The hole for the tea lights is made with a 1 1/2" spade bit (same for all 3 ideas), drilled to the depth of the tealight. Before I get too much farther, I have to at least recommend that you use the flameless LED tea lights, especially if you have a tendency to leave this sort of thing unattended...
I wish I had a bigger table to photograph this one on, but you'll have to use your imagination- wouldn't this look great as the centerpiece on a picnic table?
I like the dramatic, long look of this one. Mine is roughly 2 feet long, with the candles centered every 2 inches. If you were to make it any longer, you might want to push the spacing to 3 inches. For this one, I only drilled about 1/3 of the way into the board so that the tea lights just barely sit in place.
This happens to be made of a scrap piece of purple heart wood. Yes, it's really that purple! Now, to keep it's color, it can't be left outside as the UV will fade the color.
Option 3: Firewood
The first thing I want to say about this one is that it really should have the flameless lights. I lit these long enough to take the picture, but I really wouldn't want to leave this one alone, especially with the peely kind of bark.
Anyway, these were made from leftover branches from cutting down the big tree in our yard. These are another one that I probably will not leave out in the elements, as the hole for the tealight will probably aid the wood in rotting pretty quickly. Not that it's that hard to find replacements...
I like these most along the deck railing like this:
(Let's just pretend that they all stayed lit for the photo, ok?)
This is a really simple project, but I think each could be a neat way to bring some ambiance to some time outdoors. All you need is some small pieces of wood, a 1 1/2" drill bit and drill, and the tea lights! Seriously, the hardest part of this was photographing them (10 candles + breeze = frustration)!
Hope you can enjoy some outdoor time this summer!
~Amy
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