Train/Christmas Tree Platform

Last Christmas, my wife asked me about building a platform to hold a Christmas tree, train, and her Victorian Christmas village. Her grandfather used to have one when she was younger and she has always wanted something like it for our kids to enjoy.

She envisioned a simple small platform. LOL, like everyone else who loves to play with wood, my vision was a bit more grandiose. Without her knowing it, I started on the platform. When she first mentioned about it, she said that it would be nice to find the corrugated brick paper to put around it to make it look better. I couldn’t bring myself to do somthing like that. The pic you see is the final product. I did not take pics during construction.

It is a simple reinforced box frame made from 2×4s with a 3/4 plywood top. For the brick, I used 1/4 plywood, painted with an off-white paint to which I added granules for a textured look. Once that was dry, I taped off the brick lines with 1 inch blue painter’s tape, but I only ran my finger down the center of the tape, leaving the edges a bit loose for the brick feel. I then rolled several coats of brick red paint over that, removing the tape when it was partially dry.

Finished product is just a hair over 6 feet wide (thanks to the white trim around the top), 4 feet deep and 20 inches high. The wife flipped when she saw it. For the rest of the year, it is stored in my mancave/shop area and I have 1/4 plywood to cover the top so that the kids can have a stage and put on “shows”.