National Coffee Day is on September 29 and to celebrate, make this DIY But First Coffee Wood Book Stack using scrap wood.
For more crafts, check out all our DIY posts.
Book stacks got so popular a few years ago. I don’t know when the burst happened, but, just like shiplap walls and sparklers at weddings, one day, book stacks were just everywhere.
Don’t fight the trend. Learn into it and make this very cute DIY But First Coffee Wood Book Stack.
We made ours using scrap wood with a rounded back, just like the spine of a book. But, it’s more sensible to make this using scrap wood that you have lying around rather than buying books just to use in a craft.
This would be a really great homemade gift for a coffee fan. For more ideas of what to get them, check out our list of 10+ Best Gifts For Coffee Lovers.
DIY But First Coffee Wood Book Stack
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DIY But First Coffee Wood Book Stack Supplies:
You can get the full list of supplies in the how to card below.
- Scrap oak stair treads – This is what we used. You could use any type of scrap wood.
- Miter saw – If you don’t have a miter saw, you can ask your hardware store to cut the wood for you.
- Acrylic paint – You need dark brown paint (we used Burnt Umber), white paint, and beige paint.
- Plastic disposable cup – This is to dilute the paint.
- Paint brush – Any size works.
- Alphabet stickers – White stickers work best.
- Jute cording – Any shade of brown works.
- Scissors – To cut the cording.
- A match – To burn away any fray strings.
How To Make A But First Coffee Wood Book Stack:
Use a miter saw to cut three pieces of 3.25- x 4-inch wood.
You want to cut from the back of each piece so that you keep the curved edge so that looks like the spine of a book. If you don’t care about that, you can just cut three equally-sized pieces from any part of the wood.
Pour some of the dark brown acrylic paint into the plastic disposable cup.
Paint the top and all the sides of one of the pieces of wood with the dark brown paint. Let it dry. If you think it’s too light, paint a second layer.
Add some of the white acrylic paint to the plastic cup. Stir until the paint is combined.
Use that new color to paint the top and all the sides of one of the pieces of wood.
Paint the last remaining piece of wood using the beige paint. Let the paint dry completely.
Now it’s time to add the alphabet stickers.
Starting with the beige brick, spell out the word “BUT”. The easiest way to do it so all the words end up right-justified is by starting with the “T” then the “U” then the “B”.
Set that block aside, grab the lighter brown block and use the alphabet stickers to spell out the word “FIRST”.
Finally, take the dark brown block and use the alphabet stickers to spell out the word “COFFEE”.
Stack the blocks on top of each other, starting with the lightest and ending with the darkest.
Take a piece of jute cording and wrap it around the blocks three times. Cut the cording with a pair of scissors and tie a knot up top. Then, tuck the extra pieces of string under the string that’s wrapped around the wood block.
Use a match (or lighter) to very carefully burn the jute cording to remove any fly-aways. This is optional. If you opt to do it, the cording looks really nice, but you want to be really careful with fire near wood.
DIY But First Coffee Wood Book Stack: Frequently Asked Questions
You can use books to make a book stack. Everyone seems to make them out of wood (us included) and call them a wood book stack. But you could make them out of books.
You want books that are the same size, so you could either buy three copies of the same book or you could find three books that are the same size.
If they have paper covers on them, be sure to remove the covers and look at the spine of the book. You’re going to put the words there, so you want to make sure there aren’t any words already imprinted there.
You don’t need to glue the wood book stack together. You could if you really wanted to, but these are just going to sit near your coffee area or on a tiered tray as decoration and aren’t meant to be handled. So they won’t be flopping around or anything. They’ll stay put without glue.
If you’re set on gluing them together, though, use wood glue rather than school glue.
You can use ribbon, twine, string, really anything you want as an embellishment for the wood book stack.
DIY But First Coffee Wood Book Stack
National Coffee Day is on September 29, 2022 and to celebrate, make this DIY But First Coffee Wood Book Stack using scrap wood.
Materials
- Miter saw
- Scrap oak stair treads
- Burnt Umber acrylic paint (or any dark brown paint)
- Plastic disposable cup
- White acrylic paint
- Beige acrylic paint
- White alphabet stickers
- Jute cording
- A match
Tools
- Paint brush
- Scissors
Instructions
Use a miter saw to cut three pieces of 3.25- x 4-inch wood.- Pour some of the dark brown acrylic paint into the plastic disposable cup.
- Paint the top and all the sides of one of the pieces of wood with the dark brown paint. Let it dry. If you think it’s too light, paint a second layer.
- Add some of the white acrylic paint to the plastic cup. Stir until the paint is combined.
- Use that new color to paint the top and all the sides of one of the pieces of wood.
- Paint the last remaining piece of wood using the beige paint. Let the paint dry completely.
- Starting with the beige brick, spell out the word “BUT”. Set that block aside, grab the lighter brown block and use the alphabet stickers to spell out the word “FIRST”. Finally, take the dark brown block and use the alphabet stickers to spell out the word “COFFEE”.
- Stack the blocks on top of each other, starting with the lightest and ending with the darkest. Take a piece of jute cording and wrap it around the blocks three times. Cut the cording with a pair of scissors and tie a knot up top. Then, tuck the extra pieces of string under the string that’s wrapped around the wood block.
- Use a match (or lighter) to very carefully burn the jute cording to remove any fly-aways.
Notes
Did you make this DIY But First Coffee Wood Book Stack? Let us know how it went in the comments.
Carol
Thursday 13th of October 2022
I can't tell you how much I love these! They are so perfect to make as gifts.
Allyson @ Southern Sunflowers
Wednesday 12th of October 2022
Your coffee book stack is so cute!
Kelly
Tuesday 11th of October 2022
This is super cute. Thanks for the tutorial.