Farmhouse Advent Calendar to Countdown until Christmas

This farmhouse advent calendar tutorial is brought to you by Walnut Hollow and contains affiliate links, but nothing that I wouldn’t wholeheartedly recommend anyway! Read my full disclosure here.

Today it’s all about Holiday Decor…and decor is kind of my thing! I’ve been thinking about my Christmas DIYs for months and I’m really excited that it’s finally socially acceptable to least start talking about Christmas (at least in the blog world…where we always need to be one step ahead of you in real life).

Today’s farmhouse advent calendar is simple and easy to create, but turns out awesome and will add so much rustic charm to your Christmas decor! 

How to make a farmhouse advent calendar – step-by-step tutorial

Step 1. Arrange birch rounds in a tree shape on the wooden tray.

Start by unpacking the birch rounds from the value bags and arranging 25 of them in a general tree shape on the tray.

Step 2. Drill holes in birch rounds.

Next, use a drill press or a drill to drill 1/8” holes in the top center of the birch rounds. These holes will allow the nails to go through so the rounds can hang on the tray.

A drill press makes this job really easy, but you could use a normal drill and a small drill bit if needed.

Step 3. Stain wooden tray.

Stain tray with a dark wood stain. This is to create a dark base underneath the painted surface, which makes it really easy to create the farmhouse distressed look.

Step 4. Paint tray with white chalk paint.

I used a foam brush to apply one coat of white chalk paint. I did paint it on roughly so that it was thinner in some areas and let the darker wood peek through a bit.

This helped so I didn’t have to do as much distressing to get that rustic look for my farmhouse advent calendar.

Step 5. Distress tray.

Distress the wooden tray with sandpaper to your liking. Since I did such a light coat of paint, I really didn’t have to do much sanding. I just focused mostly on the edges of the tray.

Step 6. Hammer nails for birch rounds.

Arrange your birch rounds in the tree shape again and start nailing. Try to keep the nails as straight as possible and put them in the same depth in the wood tray.

Step 7. Number birch rounds 1 through 25 for the Christmas countdown.

Number your rounds with a permanent marker (or you could use a paint pen too!) from 1 to 25.

Step 8. Seal rustic Christmas advent calendar.

Remove the birch rounds from the tray and spray the tray with sealant. Then add the rounds back and spray it again. This should seal everything so that it lasts for years to come.

I love how this farmhouse advent calendar turned out. I’m glad that I decided to stick with my gut and go with neutral tones.

Now even if I change up my Christmas decor in the future, this DIY advent calendar will always fit right in.

The way you use the farmhouse-style advent calendar is really up to you. We’re going to start from the bottom of the tree and turn the wood rounds over so the numbers are revealed every day as we count down and get closer to Christmas.

So…this is what will look like with 8 days to go ’til Christmas.

Alternatively, you could also start at the top of the tree and flip the days over starting with 1 on the 1st of December.

This calendar looks great up on a shelf or you could even hang it on the wall! Whatever little way your heart desires, you’ll be loving this farmhouse advent calendar all season long!

How to Make Farmhouse Advent Calendar

Yield: 1

Active Time: 2 hours

Total Time: 2 hours

Difficulty: Easy

Estimated Cost: $35

This farmhouse Christmas advent calendar fits right in with the rustic style and it is simple to create! You’re going to love this easy Christmas advent countdown calendar idea.

Print

Materials

• Walnut Hollow Tray
• Walnut Hollow 2 Birch Value Bags (20-Pc)
• Dark Wood Stain
• White Chalk Paint
• Nails
• Permanent Marker
• Spray Sealant

Tools

• Foam Paint Brush
• Sandpaper
• Hammer
• Drill or Drill Press

Instructions

1. Arrange birch rounds in tree shape on wooden tray.
2. Drill holes in birch rounds.
3. Stain wooden tray.
4. Paint tray with white chalk paint.
5. Hammer nails for birch rounds in a tree shape.
6. Number birch rounds with Sharpie marker 1-25.
7. Seal farmhouse Christmas advent calendar.

Did you make this project?

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