s Easy DIY Wooden Dowel Doormat - The Kim Six Fix

Easy DIY Wooden Dowel Doormat

Today’s post is presented in conjunction with The Home Depot.  
(Also known to me as The Happiest Place On Earth!) Easy DIY wooden dowel door mat
Today is the day!!  Blogland’s biggest virtual DIY party!   I am so excited to share my (and a bunch of other bloggers) fabulous versions of this month’s Home Depot DIY Workshop!   I’m going to give you a quick overview of my version, but if you want to see a hands on demonstration (and depending on your location possibly build your own), make sure you head to Home Depot on March 26, 2016 at 10 AM.
MAKE SURE YOU HEAD TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR CHANCE TO BE INVOLVED WITH THIS DIY WORKSHOP AS WELL AS OTHER INSPIRATIONAL VERSIONS OF THIS PROJECT.  



Spring front porch with wooden doormat
The original version is made of square deck balusters designed for outdoor use.  I wanted to change it up a bit. Home depot door matMy version is different because I instead used wooden dowels.  The assembly is still really easy and 100% of the materials are still available at The Home Depot.
Wooden doormat made from dowels
The funny thing is that the round edges feels pretty good on your feet.. and my kids keep walking all the mat telling me they are getting “foot massages.”  Who knew right?

Okay.. now for a quick run down on how I made it:  

Supply List: 
6 - (4 foot) 1-1/4” hardwood dowels 
Sisal Rope (1/4 x 50’ Roll) 
Behr Weather Proofing All In One Finish (Mine was in Cordovan Brown)


Dowels and twine to make DIY doormat
Tools:
Miter Saw or Hand Saw
Drill or Drill Press
3/8” Drill Bit  (for the money you can't beat this set)
Random Orbit or Palm Sander (what is the difference?)
Electrical or Masking Tape
Paintbrush (I like this type when working with this deck stain)

Optional:  
Scrap boards (for drilling jig)
Clamps 

Cut List:
18 - 16” 1-1/4" Dowels  (Cut each dowel into thirds)
2 - 80” lengths of 1/4” sisal rope (or longer.. it is better to have too much than not enough!)
Cutting down dowels with jig saw
Once you have your 18 lengths of dowel you need to drill a hole on each end to run the twine through. In order to get straight consistent holes I set up a jig on my drill press.  I nailed together two board to form an “L” shape and then clamped that to my drill press table.
Drill press jig DIY
I set the backer board up one inch to the right of the drill bit and 3/4 inch in front of it (so I could line up the end of the dowels with the end of the backer board and I didn’t need to measure or mark my dowels) Drill press jig for drilling dowelsWhen drilling holes at each end you just needed to make sure they were both facing the same way (so if you drilled straight down you needed to make sure the hole on the other end was facing straight up!)

Next I sanded the cut ends of the dowels since they were going to show at the front and back of the mat:
Sanding end of wood dowel
Because the dowels are not weather proof (they aren’t pressure treated or redwood or cedar) I had to seal them up really well.  So once again I relied on my favorite weather proofing stain (this is the same stuff I used on my X-leg outdoor bench which has held up for years now) Behr waterproofing stain
QUICK TIP: A trick I have for staining these things (since I had to get all four sides and they were NOT easy to prop up on painting triangles) was to hand them all on a length of kite string and then stain them while they were suspended. Staining wooden dowels on a string
The last step was the most time consuming (although my kids helped and really got into it).  Feed the twine through the holes and tie a square knot on one end.  Then in between each dowel tie another knot.  To make it easier to feed the rope through and to stop it from fraying, tape the ends of it with electrical or duct tape.

QUICK TIP: You want to make sure you tie the knots RIGHT UP against the dowels.  If the knots are too loose or two far away from the dowel, when you set on the mat they are going to want to roll.  My mat was very stable because I have the dowels tied extremely close together.
Tying together door mat from wooden poleHere is the finished project:
DIY wooden door mat from dowels and rope
It was so easy to make, took me less than an afternoon (really it would have only been a few hours if it weren’t for the dying time on the wood stain!)
Flowers and wooden door mat
Wooden dowel door mat on front porch

Now go RSVP to build your own!   (Plus don’t forget to check out Home Depot’s other workshops.  They have something for everyone; from Kid’s Workshops, to Do It HERself workshops geared specifically towards projects of interest to women.  The experts are Home Depot are there to help walk you though projects that may seem too intimidating to tackle on your own.)
March 26th
10:00 to 11:00 am
Stop by next Monday to get lots of inspiration from the virtual party.
Register to create the wooden door mat right HERE.
Share your very own project throughout your social media channels using
  #DIYworkshop.
I’d love to see your projects so don’t forget to tag me or send me a photo! I’ll feature them on my Facebook page.  The whole project costs less than $20 and the tools to make it are super straight forward! So no excuses! 

*I acknowledge that The Home Depot is partnering with me to participate in this Workshops Program. As a part of the Program, I am receiving compensation in the form of products and services, for the purpose of promoting The Home Depot. All expressed opinions and experiences are my own words. My post complies with the Word Of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) Ethics Code and applicable Federal Trade Commision guidelines.*

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