Monogram Stocking Holder

For the last couple years I have been looking for stocking holders. Last year we used one of those sticky plastic hooks to hang our stockings. This year I wanted real stocking holders. The challenge for me is our TV hangs above the mantle leaving only about 6 inches of room for anything to fit under it. So hence the monogram stocking holder was born.

Supplies:

2×4 (amount depends on how many stocking holders)

Saw

Drill

2 1/4 inch screws

Thin plywood scraps

Wood glue

Stain

Sand paper

Spray paint

Acrylic paint

Upholstery nails

Hooks or drawer knobs

Hanger bolts if you are using drawer knobs

Command picture hanging strips

I cut my 2×4 in 6 inch blocks so for four stocking holders I had eight cuts total. If you don’t have a saw have an employee at Home Depot or Lowes cut them for you. Here is a picture of my eight blocks. I forgot to take a picture before drilling in one of the blocks…oops.
I then drilled two holes at the bottom of each base.

Next I glued the top piece to the base, let the glue dry and used the 2 1/4 inch screws to screw it in place.
Then I stained the blocks with Rustoleum Dark Walnut.
While the wood was drying. I cut and spray painted the thin plywood pieces. My cuts were 5 x 2 3/4 inches and spray paint was Rustoleum in Heirloom White.
After spray painting the plywood I sanded and stained them.
Next I picked my font of Lucinda Bright font size 240. I cut out the letters, traced them and painted a few coats with black acrylic paint.

I found some old drawer knobs that I thought would work great to hang the stockings.
I spray painted the drawer knobs and the upholstery nails with Rustoleum Hammered spray paint in Dark Bronze.
I glued the thin plywood pieces to the 2×4 blocks, drilled a hole in the base for my drawer knobs. Then I screwed in the hanger bolts to the drawer knobs and then screwed the knobs into the base. I also hammered the upholstery nails into the corners of the thin plywood. This was challenging because I hammered them in crooked sometimes and also the spray paint was chipping off. So I took a small nail and made a small hole with the nail to premake the hole for the upholstery nails. This really helped the upholstery nails to go in straight. I then took a q-tip and touched up where the spray paint had chipped off. You can also see in this picture that I sanded the edges of the 2×4 blocks to give them an aged look.
Here is a picture of what hanger bolts look like.
Next I placed a Command Picture Hanging Strip under the stocking holders and on the mantle to hold the stockings in place. I anticipate a full stocking this year so I wanted to make sure these were secure to hold the loot ;-).
And here they are all finished sitting on the mantle.

I hope you are enjoying the holidays!