With so many at-home celebrations this year, it’s no surprise new ideas are rising on how to make birthdays and holidays even more special! I loved seeing these birthday candle boards pop up and just knew I could (err, have my husband) create it for much less and get something we can use for multiple occasions, starting with my son’s birthday and followed by Valentine’s Day.
There are many tutorials available on Pinterest and they all sort of follow the same steps because it’s a super simple, cost-effective DIY. Today I am breaking it down into four easy-to-follow steps for you.
Step 1: Get the board and cut it
To start, get yourself a 4″ x 4″ x 8′ board, these vary in price but shouldn’t cost more than $15. Depending on the size you want for your finished candle board, you can get 2-3 finished pieces out of one board. (We went with a 3 ft board which gave us one extra and a smaller board we used for practice.)
Once you’ve marked your cuts, you will need a 12″ miter saw to cut them. Lowe’s was not able to make the cuts for us as their in-store saw machine does not cut these type of boards. (Thankfully, our neighbor was able to cut it for us and I have promptly added a saw to my wishlist.)
Step 2: Sand it
After the piece has been cut, you will need to sand it down to get it nice and smooth. See this before and after on what a difference the sanding part makes! Do not skip this step.
Step 3: drill your holes
We purchased a set of these forstner drill bits and figured out how we wanted to space out our candles. This is where having a test board came in handy! I knew I wanted all my candles to be the same diameter, but you can incorporate different size candles for a fun look too!
The pattern is really up to you, and is the most time-consuming part of this DIY. I decided I wanted 3 rows of taper candles and I wanted to stagger the holes so on row 1 I spaced the holes out 8″ apart, the holes in row 2 were 7″ apart and in row 3 I spaced them 6″ apart.
Once you’ve figured out how you want to lay them out, mark the center of each hole on the board with a pencil. Drill a few holes onto your test board and use a candle to test out the depth. If your candle seems wobbly, make the hole a bit deeper for a more secure fit.
step 4: add you candles
It really is a simple DIY and now comes the fun part – styling and adding your candles! I opted to have different heights and placed them randomly on the board for a fun look. You can see below how the color of the candles can be customized for every occasion or used year-round as a beautiful centerpiece.
For Valentine’s Day I opted for light pink and white candles in different heights. I love how they instantly set the mood and compared to some of the prices these candle boards go for, this DIY is a real keeper in my book! 😉
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