I went to Home Depot to get the most inexpensive posts i could find. I DO NOT like red colored wood so i planned on staining these once i got home. I grabbed one 10 foot Red Cedar Lumber, and one 6 foot.
I measured for how tall I wanted my posts before heading to home depot and added an extra foot to each one to account for how deep it needed to be in the ground.
I needed the posts to be cut at 6′, 5′ and 4.5′.
Home depot will do your cuts for you which was amazing! So I told them the measurements and they did the work for me.
I had an extra piece to use as a tester for stain colors. I wasn’t sure how the stain would turn out her the red wood so I tested out a few different colors. Ultimately I liked the way the Minwax Weathered Oak stain looked, and for a little darker look, I liked the Minwax Special Walnut stain. I started with the Weathered Oak all over the posts because I figured I could always go darker if i didn’t like it. I ended up leaving it with Weathered, which is what you see in the picture.
I did go back over it with a rag soaked in Special Walnut to darken it up a tiny bit later that day, and tried to do it as lightly as i could so I would get the best of both worlds and I love the way it looks.