Vintage Inspired Bottle Brush Tree Ideas
Fun and easy ways to decorate with inexpensive bottle brush trees and add a touch of nostalgia to your home this holiday season!
Ideas for decorating with bottle brush trees
I love the look of bottle brush trees, and would love to own true vintage
ones, but let's face it...vintage items are getting SO expensive aren't they?
That's actually not a problem because I've gotten very good at FAKING THE LOOK
in my home and with my Christmas decorations! Just take a look at all my
vintage inspired Christmas ideas!
But I digress..today I'm showing you some creative ways to use brand new,
often dollar store, bottle brush trees to create vintage inspired
Christmas vignettes around your home!
Let's go!
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Idea #1 - Gathered in a basket
I bought
this metal basket
from Amazon for less than $13, and hit it with a little of
this brown spray paint
in areas to create the look of a rusty vintage piece. I filled the basket with
a stack of books, a little Target tree and a whole bunch of ornaments. There
are a few vintage floss ornaments in this batch
(I found those at Goodwill over a decade ago when the prices were still
reasonable!)
but most are dollar store ornaments.
A collection of ivory bottle brush trees on sticks were simply tucked into the
mix. I love the ivory trees because they look the most vintage to me. I
purchased
this set on Amazon (60 trees for only $14!!) and I also visited the dollar store
early in the season and bought all the ivory bottle brush trees they
had!
Insider Tip: If you can't find the right color of bottle brush trees you want, no worries! You can very easily spray paint them to update the color! I did this with several trees this year!
I held a sale on my Instagram for the vintage inspired snowmen that I made this year. They all sold within a few days! I spray painted many of the bottle brush trees I used to make these.
Idea #2 - Mixed with ironstone
As a long time collector of ironstone, both vintage
(and newer pieces that resemble ironstone!), I love to decorate with it
for all the seasons. This also gives justification to the fact that when we
move, there are 16 small boxes filled with ironstone 😏
I took some of my larger ivory and pink bottle brush trees and snugged them
together into ironstone bowls and compotes, and love the look! Scatter a few
ornaments around the base.
There is just something about these creamy colors that I love so much! The
bottle brush trees add great texture to ironstone!
I took this idea to a whole new level and filled my pine hutch with a mix of
creamy white ironstone and creamy bottle brush trees! See those ivory trees in
the NOEL mugs below? Those trees were white when I purchased them from Dollar
Tree....I had already wiped out their stock of ivory trees! I simply spray
painted them with
creamy white spray paint
to instantly get a vintage vibe.
Idea #3: Decorate a candle
I came up with this idea to use up some of the smaller trees I received in my
package of 60! A candle lid is easy to update by simply hot gluing 7 tiny
trees tightly together on the top! An inexpensive candle becomes a great gift
idea!
Idea #4 - Giftable box
Speaking of giftable, how cute is this little round box from Dollar Tree now?
After painting it, I hot glued
pearl beads
to gold bottle brush trees (Dollar Tree) and glued them in place. Any small
gift can be tucked inside, and the box itself makes a wonderful (and very
inexpensive!) gift idea! You can see more how I did it
HERE.
Idea #5 - Bottle brush trees + Santa mugs = Christmas perfection!
Need I say more? Just tuck an inexpensive bottle brush tree into a Santa mug
and watch the magic happen! New or vintage, it doesn't matter!
Idea #6: Bottle brush tree stir sticks
I love doing this for the seasons, and it's a great little inexpensive way to
decorate your coffee bar. Simply hot glue a tiny bottle brush tree to
ball topped wood stir sticks. Instant cuteness!
This is how I used the majority of the small ivory bottle brush trees in that
set of 60 I purchased.
This is a favorite way to make a big FAUX VINTAGE impact for very little
money!
Insider Tip: DID YOU KNOW? Some bottle brush trees have noticeable flat spots. You can fix this simply by running warm water over the area and using your finger to fluff up bare spots! Shake excess water from the tree and let dry completely before decorating with it or storing!
Idea #7: Fill a teacup with bottle brush trees
If you have medium sized trees, you could tuck a couple into a favorite teacup
and they should stay in place.
For the smaller trees that I was working with, I have a little trick up my
sleeve. Here is how I accomplished this sweet vintage teacup vignette:
- hot glued a styrofoam ball into the teacup
- added Spanish moss to cover the styrofoam
- removed the bases of the trees (just twist to remove)
- tucked the trees in tightly
- hot glue a pearl bead to the tops of some of the trees
- tucked in a little faux vintage putz sheep
Here's another one I made with gold trees and a red teacup. I love that
nothing is permanent. The teacup isn't ruined, the trees can be popped out and
reused in a different way next year!
Idea #8: Elevate dollar store bottle brush trees
I grabbed several of these trees from the Dollar Tree, as well as a bag of
small gold and silver glittered balls. I simply hot glued the balls to fill
the empty spaces in the trees. To literally elevate the trees, I hot glued the
base to a small
wood candle cup I found at Hobby Lobby. I painted the base and candle cup with
rub n buff
to match the tree. These dollar store trees are now an elegant addition to my
black hutch and vintage dishes.
Idea #9: Tuck into a mitten
I love using mittens as ornaments (see how to make DIY mitten ornaments HERE). Remember those stir sticks we embellished in step #6? Simply tuck a few into a mitten and hang on the tree! I made this no-sew mitten from a thrifted little girls sweater, I'll be sharing the tutorial on my Instagram channel soon! Such a cozy look!
Idea #10: Vintage inspired vignette
I added one of my
DIY vintage inspired Campfire Marshmallow tin of treats
to a vintage scale. This is made from a metal nuts canister and
this printable. The addition of Santa mugs and bottle brush trees is perfectly charming
and makes such a cute vignette for the holidays!
Idea #11 - Bottle brush tree stars!
This may be my favorite way to display bottle brush trees! All the trees
used to make these stars (and star tree topper) were purchased inexpensively
from Hobby Lobby or Dollar Tree. You can see my step by step tutorial
HERE.
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bringing beauty to the ordinary,
I absolutely love this post the most for Christmas! I love love bottle brush trees! I saved this on my pinterest board and already purchased the cute putz sheep and the marshmallow printable on etsy to make these projects! I can't wait - I will be making Christmas projects well into January :-) ready for next year! Thank you for sharing these beautiful projects! Merry Christmas! xo
ReplyDeleteYay, Lourdes, thank you so much for letting me know how inspired you were! That's exactly how I feel about bottle brush trees this year and I'm so thrilled you feel the magic too!!! A very Merry Christmas to you!
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