Wooden Sled Decor for Winter Decorating

When I spotted this decorative sled at Goodwill, the calendar read May and our southern summer was beginning to rear its ugly, sweaty head. I tossed it in my cart and filed it away as a Christmas project for later that year. Well, wouldn’t you know it, but Christmas came and went, and the sled was still collecting dust in my garage. That’s when I decided to ditch the red and green for icy blue and silver, and to transform it as wooden sled decor for winter decorating!

The wooden sled also seemed like a great candidate to do some stenciling on! It had lots of smooth real estate to bedazzle, so to speak.

A fresh coat of paint on the rails and the center sled part, a little stenciling, and I’d (hopefully) have a lovely sled to use as winter decor.

And I know some of you have expressed struggling with winter decor in January and February! So much so that I put together this collection to spark some ideas.

And if my idea for the wooden sled went as planned, it’ll fit right in this coming winter!

This post contains affiliate links for your crafting convenience. As an Amazon Affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. All blue, bold, and underlined text is a clickable link, either to a product or to a related post.

All stencils used in this tutorial have been provided to me free of charge by Funky Junk’s Old Sign Stencils; however, all opinions are my own.

Painting a Decorative Sled

First, I selected a dark metallic silver paint for the rails. I am, admittedly, obsessed with this color right now.

For the sled itself, I envisioned a fresh bright blue that had a touch of grey in it- think of a brighter, louder Wedgewood blue. And I also planned to distress it a little to give it an aged, well-loved sled look.

Sure, I could have looked for a fancy chalk (or similar) paint in the color I wanted, but I honestly didn’t feel like trying that hard!

So, I headed to the hardware store for an inexpensive sample of latex paint.

It was looking much fresher and brighter by the second!

Next, I decided to “weather” the rails a little. Not a totally “rusted” look, but more like a touch of rust effect.

So, I decided to rub some dark brown crème wax over the silver for a rust effect. And it worked swimmingly!

Stenciling the Wooden Sled Decor

My wooden sled decor was coming together better than I could have hoped. I lightly sanded the blue portion just to distress the paint ever so slightly.

Now to add some fun winter details to my decorative sled. So, I hit up Funky Junk’s Old Sign Stencils for the right winter stencil!

I selected the “Winter Graphics” stencil for my project because I figured white snowflakes would look divine! Plus, the stencil had three different sizes of snowflakes on it, which was a total bonus.

Next, I grabbed my favorite stencil brushes (purchased from this online shop), some painter’s tape, and white craft paint.

Then, I began to add snowflake decorations to my wooden sled.

The snowflake stencil worked perfectly! And my wooden sled decor was going to be darling when I was done!

Finally, I finished up the entirety of the wooden sled, moving the snowflake stencil around.

I liked letting the snowflakes hang off the sides a bit and incorporated the natural break between the wood in the center.

Lastly, I *very carefully* sanded the areas of snowflake that went over the sides.

Because I had already lightly distressed the edges of the sled before I stenciled, the white paint stood out against the exposed distressed wood!

Wooden Sled Decor for Winter Decorating

But that was it, my wooden sled decor was done!

I’m not sure where exactly I’ll use it. Maybe the mantel? Or maybe I’ll give it a good top coat and use it on our front porch!

DIY winter decor doesn’t come as naturally as the other seasons, does it? But I REALLY love how this turned out…and maybe it’ll inspire me to try my hand at more ideas.

And if you enjoyed this upcycling idea for winter decor, you may also be interested in this idea for a winter wreath!

Craft on!

S

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