How to make your own outdoor stools from trees

Step 1
Give the wood a good sand with a coarse grit sandpaper to remove the worse of the splinters. Wipe off sanding dusts.

Step 2
Dilute the base colour paint. Tip all the paint from a testpot of Resene Toorak into a jar or container and then fill the testpot twice with water, adding it to the jar of paint. Mix well.

Step 3
Paint the diluted paint on to one of the wooden piles. Do a section at a time and wipe some of the paint off by rubbing it with a cloth. This helps to show some of the wood grain underneath.

Step 4
Once the base paint is dry, use Resene Quarter Dutch White and a variety of different sized paintbrushes to paint on different patterns around the stool. Fleur kept her paintbrush quite dry so that it left a rustic paint finish with some of the base colour showing through.

Step 5
For the next stool, repeat the diluted paint process but this time use Resene Explorer. Once dry, make a random pattern of short lines using Resene Corvette, Resene Roxy, Resene Chelsea Gem, Resene Sunbaked and Resene Hot Toddy.

Step 6
For the last stool, use Resene Blackjack for the base colour and have fun experimenting with different shapes, patterns and colours. Fleur used Resene Galliano, Resene Havoc, Resene Tree Frog, Resene Green House, Resene Quarter Dutch White and Resene Bowie.