Lobster Buoys

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Have the look of the seacoast as a part of your outdoor decor with these beautiful and colorful lobster buoys. You can make them for far less than what you would pay for them at the popular online retailers.

Colorful lobster buoys

DO YOU LOVE YOUR SEACOAST VACATIONS? Or perhaps dream of one? The sandy beaches, the refreshing waves and the seashells, the relaxed feeling of staying at a beach cottage. If you vacation, or live, along some coastlines where lobster is caught, you will see colorful lobster buoys used by the fishermen that gracefully float in these waters. Here is a project to bring some of the beach back home with you (no, not the sand hiding in with all the swimsuits)!

The lobster fishermen make these buoys to locate their lobster traps that are underwater. The rope of the buoy gets attached to a long rope that reaches down to the trap. The buoy floats on top of the water, to let the fisherman know where his traps are located. The fishermen paint their buoys with favorite colors, designs, and sometime their number so that they can easily identify their own buoys floating out there in the water.

This project will add colorful accents and a beach/coast feel to your summertime outdoor decor. Colorful lobster buoys hanging from a hook on your porch post or standing in a group at the corner of the patio draped in fishing nets will give a backyard get-together a beach cottage feel. We can hear those waves rushing towards the sandy shore right now!

We were inspired by the buoys that we saw online at pottery barn, but wanted to change them a bit. The buoys that we made are more colorful and rustic looking. Sort of a handmade look as if one of those lobster fisherman had made it himself. They are fairly easy to make and will be far less expensive as the ones we saw at PB!

Materials

You may already have the wood in your scrape bin of wood from other projects.

Buoy Plan: Dimensions

We made these from leftover 4” x 4” rough sawn cedar posts that one of us had from a porch renovation. The cedar will last a long time because it is naturally insect and rot resistant. We also liked it for its rough appearance. You could use whatever post you like, and different size posts will give you a nice variation. 3x3, 4x4, 5x5 posts, and even rounded posts, make attractive sizes for the buoys.

We used the 4x4 post for all the buoys, but we varied the lengths. We made three length sizes: 19”, 17”, and 15”. As a rule of thumb, we made the tapered section of each size of buoy around one-third of the length - for example, the tapered section for the 15” length was around 5”. The beauty of it is that you can adjust the dimensions to get the look you’d like. And the very top of the taper was always a 2” square.



Making the Buoys

If you have a band saw the cuts will be very easy to make. A circular saw works, but not as well when cutting the large post dimensions. You will have to make a cut and then keep turning the post over to make another cut because the circular saw blade isn’t deep enough to cut all the way through. Tightly secure the post to a workbench so it can’t move around while it is being cut with a circular saw.

Cut and planed 19" buoy

This photo shows the 19” buoy after the taper was cut with a circular saw, smoothed with an electric planar, and the hole drilled for the rope. We used the planar to remove the unevenness of the blade marks left by the circular saw. As it turned out, we actually liked that the planar eased the edge line where the taper meets the straight section of the post. We think it made the buoy look more authentic.

After the buoys are cut out, they will need a hole for the rope. All buoys need a good strong rope to stay attached to the lobster traps! With a 5/8” paddle drill bit, drill the hole for the rope 3” from the top of the taper. Use a strong, durable, sturdy rope.




Painting

If you are in the lobster business, there are paints made specifically for painting buoys, but since the buoys we made are not going to be attached to any lobster traps, we painted the buoys with an exterior paint with a gloss finish (you don't have to use gloss - other finishes work, too). Gloss paint very often takes a lot of time to dry, especially in high humidity.

Make thumbnail sketches to test colors and designs to paint the buoys

First, we primed them with an exterior primer. This also helped to brighten the surfaces for the paint colors, since the cedar was darker. Use an exterior paint if your buoys will be used outdoors.

We think you will enjoy your new outdoor lobster buoys even more because you made them yourself!

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