u/internetisporn8008

Hey all. Im renoing one of the bedrooms in our house because our first child is due in a few months. I've cut all the excess framing around the closet off so its just an indent in the wall essentially, I plan to establish it a bit more visually with trim.

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I want to, on the corner of the closet, put up awestern red cedar tree, polished and stained. We plan to install some "branches" off of it also polished and stained, to hold up bookshelves, and some shorter ones for hanging clothes on.. as well as I large flat spot cut into the tree for marking their hight as they grow.

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My question is this... should I sand the tree once removing the bark? Before and during staining??

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My vision has this tree looking shiny and smooth, but with the colors from the cut outs popping out strongly. I plan to use a clear varathane, or one slightly yellow (like a spar varnish) to finish it, depending on how we finish the solid fir door, and the red cedar trim in the rest of the room.

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Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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The pictures above are the tree im going to use (standing dead)

And the corner i plan to put it on. I plan to carve out a quarter section of the tree all the way up. Then screw it to the framing around the closet, plugging the holes behind the screws.