I have three artificial trees for my home (yes,
three!) that I love for several reasons:
*I don't have to go out and buy a tree every year, or worry about disposing of one.
*Artificial trees don't need water or maintenance, so they are easier to care for.
*Since they are not going to age, I can put my artificial trees up as soon as Thanksgiving is over and enjoy them much longer.
*Because the branches are wired, I can pose them as I wish, which means greater design flexibility!
For me, the benefits of artificial trees are endless. But there are a couple of drawbacks. For one thing, there is no wonderful fresh-cut pine tree scent filling your home. I
love that smell, so I buy evergreen scented wax cubes for my Scentsy warmers. Problem solved ;)
Another problem with artificial trees is the fact that most times they look....well...artificial! There is no getting around the fact that those branches have a lot of wire and plastic hardware in place to keep them attached to their 'trunk'. When I look at my trees I want to see lush pine boughs, lots of lights and beautiful ornaments, not weird sticks, color coded tabs or - and this is the worst- the
wall behind the tree. Nooooo Sir!
(Just look at the picture below!)
The wire branches, color coded tabs and plastic rings all clearly visible. I took this photo of my living room tree
after I spread out all the branches. In order to fix this problem I started using evergreen garland to camouflage the hardware of my trees.
Today I will share with you how I go about doing this, but first let me introduce you to my trees;
Tree 1: This is my kitchen tree.
This tree is a small 6-foot tree available at Wal-Mart. I think they are economically priced at around $20 for this size, but I found mine while treasure hunting and only spent $5. This is a good tree for smaller homes or apartments, as it is relatively skinny. The tree is not pre-lit and comes completely disassembled. Each and every branch must be put into place. The branches are basic faux greenery, all of one type.
Tree 2: This is my dining room tree.
This tree is a super gorgeous, super fancy tree from Prairie Gardens, and stands at 8 feet tall/ 3 feet wide (at the base). This tree used to be a pre-lit tree, and easily pops together in just three sections. The branches are composed of two different types of high quality faux greenery and have real pine cones as well.
I was treasure hunting one day when I walked up to a sale and saw this tree with a sign on it that said 'FREE'....huh?!?!?! Of course I asked right away why such a nice tree was being given away. The lady explained to me that this was a really nice, really expensive tree from Prairie Gardens. She paid almost $300 for it, but the lights didn't work anymore and she didn't feel right selling it to anyone that way.
Well let me tell you, I snapped that free tree right up! It did take me nearly 45 minutes to remove all of the lights. The lighting was so well done that I had to use wire cutters and individually clip each branch away from the lights, but it was worth the effort. Now with the addition of new lights, the tree is good as new!
Tree 3: This is my living room tree.
Measuring in at 8 feet tall/ 5 feet wide (at the base), this is my largest tree. The tree comes completely disassembled and the branches are composed of two different types of artificial evergreen. This tree is big! We needed a really big tree to house all of our 'yearly' ornaments, but I'll get to that in an upcoming post. I purchased this tree 5 years ago from Wal-Mart for $80.
Now that you know my trees, lets get started!
The tools you will need:
A decent pair of work gloves and your vacuum cleaner.
Tip: Faux trees are created with lots of heavy duty wire. While the wire gives the trees their shape and allows positioning of the branches, all of those ends are sharp. In addition, the foliage itself is also very scratchy. I highly recommend wearing long sleeves and a pair of gloves if you are going to work extensively with your tree. Because the garland needs to be tucked inside the branches near the trunk, you will be reaching far into the tree. Any bare skin will be scratched like crazy!
Tip: I heard someone say one time that they wanted an artificial Christmas tree to avoid having to clean up all of the needles that a real tree drops on the floor.....Haha, good luck with that! Faux evergreen trees (and garland) drop tons of little plastic 'needles' all over the place. And the more you work with them, the more they drop. I can't stand a messy floor, and I don't want the needles tracked through the house, so I run the vacuum after each step of the set up process...and again after lighting...and again after decorating....I can't believe my trees aren't bald at this point!
Artificial Evergreen Garland
When it comes to choosing a garland, there are all kinds of lengths, thicknesses, colors, textures, etc. In fact, each of my three trees has a completely different type of garland in use.
I took the photos here because I wanted to show you how long and skinny the garland that I use for my dining room tree is. Left in it's original state, this garland would take forever to mask the hardware of the tree, so I make it shorter and thicker.
I do this by taking each length of garland, folding it in half and twisting it into place. Now I have lengths of garland that are half the size and twice as thick, and I repeat the process. What I end up with is very short but full lengths of garland (pictured on the right). These smaller and fuller sections are much easier to tuck into the tree and cover more flaws at once.
I suppose you could cut your garland apart before twisting, but then you could never revert back to the original long sections. I never know what I'm going to want to try next, so I like to keep my options open. By not cutting my greenery apart it can always still be used for other things. Versatility is important to me ;)
This is my kitchen tree.
Left: The tree as is comes out of it's box. When you remove your branches from the box, they are going to be very skinny and all smashed together. This is good because all of the smashing allowed the tree to fit inside of the box, but it isn't all that pretty. Look at that poor thing!
Middle: This is the tree after I individually fluffed out every single branch. You can see that it's starting to look a whole lot better, but is still very weak and spindly. And if you look near the 'trunk' you can see the wires of the branches. I don't know about you, but I never saw a tree in the woods that looked like
that!
Right: This is the tree after I have added five sections of garland. Not only is the tree now lush and full, but all of the mechanics have been hidden :)
How To Garland: The branches of an artificial tree radiate out from the base in several tiers, one on top of the other. I consider each tier of branches to be a 'shelf', and tuck the garland around the trunk on top of this shelf. Just play with the garland and continue adjusting until you can no longer see any hardware. I like to take a step back and view my tree from a few angles in order to check for any missed spots.
....Can you see the amount of needles on the floor? Sigh....
Here is another pic of the same kitchen tree.
What in the world is the deal with artificial trees always having this super long branch sticking straight up at the top? I suspect it's to 'add height' without adding more tree. As in, "Look! The box says that this tree is 6 feet tall"...then you get it home and it's a five foot tree with a foot of green stick at the top! :D
Anyway, I'm not really into the whole Dr. Seuss look, so I always take the stick at the top and fold it in half.
So. Much. Better!
:D :D :D
Dining Room Tree
Even the expensive trees can use a little help, look at all those holes!
(Although I will say that this tree doesn't require that the branches be individually spread out and shaped. This tree easily pops into place without a lot of fussing)
Dining Room Tree
If you viewed this tree from the kitchen before the garland was added, you could almost see out of the window
through the poor thing!
Dining Room Tree
In this set of photos you can really see the extensive 'holes'. I did not take the framed photograph off of the wall behind the tree, I just added garland ;)
The Living Room Tree
Even the big guys need a little help sometimes ;)
When I worked in the floral shop, we called techniques like this, "hiding our secrets". Any time something looks perfect, you can bet there is a lot of wire, glue or plastic involved, but you don't want all these mechanics to be seen. Using visual tricks, like garland
inside of your tree, helps to cover up unsightly hardware.
Don't the trees look so much nicer all filled out? I love how much more prominent they become, more respectable!
I'll be posting soon with my lighting and decorating tips, but in the meantime I would love to hear from you. What tricks do you use to create a beautiful looking tree? Pictures are always welcome :)
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