Traditional with a Twist

The holidays are now in full swing!  Decorations abound inside and out of homes: bright lights in all colors and shapes adorning roof-lines and lawns, presents wrapped in shiny paper with ribbons and bows, wreaths aplenty hanging on front doors, trees trimmed with tinsel and ornaments, big and small.  It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

This year, however, seems a bit slimmer in the wallet arena.  So in thinking about a tree, I needed to think outside the box.  Last year, we bought a small potted tree, which we then planted outside to accompany the older pines that line the driveway.  Here’s the little tree, happy in it’s outdoor setting

So, while spending time in the yard, clearing fallen branches by the dozen and stacking them for kindling, it came to me.  Why not use a large branch instead?

After a few minutes of searching, I found just the right one – almost a small tree itself with nicely balanced branches.

A bit more searching around and I found some planks of wood that could work as a base.  I am sure a traditional tree stand would probably work as well, but I wanted something that might function as a sculptural object after the ornaments and tree skirt are packed up in January.

After nailing a large nail through the middle plank of wood and then up through the base of the branch, it was ready for painting.

I spray painted the entire “tree” with white Lacquer.  The nice thing about this particular branch was that the tips of each twig had small bulbs (it must have fallen last spring), adding additional shape and texture to the “tree”.

I used Chalkboard spray paint for the base.  That way I can decorate it differently throughout the year!

Even though this “tree” is very different from a bushy green pine, I like the simplicity of the white branches.  Once we got all our ornaments hung on the “tree”, it actually looked quite festive!  It kind of reminds me of the little tree in “A Charlie Brown Christmas” – all it needed was a bit of love.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!

09 Dec This entry was published on December 9, 2012 at 12:53 pm. It’s filed under Small projects and tagged beginning to look a lot like, bows, charlie brown, children, christmas, christmas lights, clearing branches, decorating, decorations, DIY, holidays, inspiration, landscaping, little tree, paint, painting, pine tree, planted tree, project, ribbons, skl new york, spray paint, trees, white, wood, wreaths, xmas. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.