Rocking Horse from Scratch

Campbell turns 11 weeks this Thursday, so she is hardly old enough to ride a rocking horse, but that doesn't mean she didn't get one for Christmas. And that's about all she got this year, unless you count our new Canon Rebel and some diapers. Back in November, Court sent me a link to a child's rocking horse she saw on Pottery Barn Kids, saying it would make a nice addition to the nursery and that she could use it when she was old enough. Not wanting to pay Pottery Barn prices, I decided this would be a perfect option for my first make-it-from-scratch project. Using just the photo online (thank you Pottery Barn for only providing one single photo), and some creativity, I proceeded to start my plan. 

Here is the Pottery Barn rocking horse.

Here is the rocking horse I made before adding the finishing touches.

Obviously, they are not identical, which is somewhat by design, but mostly because a) it was my first major project and, more importantly, b) I did it from a freaking internet picture with no plans whatsoever.

I started by breaking it out into 12 different pieces and using some scaling from the photo and some common sense, I figured out roughly how big each piece would be. The whole thing is made from one 10' long piece of 2" x 10" pine, with a 1.25" dowel rod for the handle.

After some distressing, one base coat of Valspar Swiss Coffee paint, a top coat of Valspar Grand Hotel Makinack Blue, some strategic sanding to simulate years of wear and tear and wiping on (then off) a dark walnut stain, here is the final product. I'm pretty proud of it, considering what all went into it, and I still managed to keep my material costs well under the Pottery Barn price tag. If I were charging myself for the hours of labor and planning, however, I would have been severely underpaid.

Here is the finished product.