A Tree for Every Room: Gilded Dining Room Tree

In The Studio

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Last year I had a goal to really do up the house for Christmas, including (as the title suggests) a decorated tree for each room. Between a convention in Mississippi in the middle the month and sheer end of the year exhaustion, it didn’t happen. I got 2 trees decorated and Todd put the lights on the big tree on the landing, but that’s as far as I got.

I did, however, order supplies for the dining room tree, so I was set to get started this year! Over on the Helmar blog I have step-by-step instructions of how I made the kitchen-themed garland for the centerpiece of my tablescape. Here’s the rest of the story, as it were.

I started with a simple artificial tree from Big Lots. It was the right size, but it was green, and the picture in my head was of a white and gold scene. So I used a tip from Jen over at EPBOT to flock our tree with spackling. Only thing was, all the spackle we could find was the heavier stuff, but there was spray spackle on the shelf and we decided to give that a shot. It worked perfectly and didn’t even take a full bottle to cover the little tree. If I find the second tree we bought (but is currently buried in the Christmas closet) it will be no problem to do it up as well.

Once flocked and the garland made, it was time to add a few more items. I didn’t want to overwhelm the tiny tree, so I added a single strand of white LED lights and a strand of small pearls to balance the heavier wood and gold garland. And it’s the dining room, it’s okay to dress up!

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Finally, I made some ornaments from a set of metal chocolate molds. I used an awl to punch small holes in the top and bottom of each mold and wired a loop at the top with gold wire to attach a hook. From the bottom hangs a large faux pearl.

I still need more to really fill out the tablescape–one tree isn’t going to cut it–but for now this is a really good start. I love seeing the tree on our dining room table when I walk through the room and I’m really excited to go get our big tree for upstairs this weekend!

 

31 thoughts on “A Tree for Every Room: Gilded Dining Room Tree

    1. Thank you, Esther! We’re all about the DIY whenever possible around here. And what they want for mini tree decorations is a bit scandalous these days!

  1. You have no idea how much I love this post! I am a Christmas tree FANATIC! I have a tree for every room (not all full sizes). My husband loves it when I make him pull all the boxes up from the basement each year. lol

    1. A kindred tree-spirit! Most of the trees I have planned are smaller tabletop ones, but the upstairs landing and library have enough room to hold a full-sized tree without issue.

  2. Such a sweet tree – and I love the idea of having more than one tree for the holidays. Our house is tiny, so for now, we’ll stick to one 🙂 I love the little chocolate mold ornaments. How clever!

    1. Thank you, Paula! Our last house didn’t really have room for a tree (though we did try one year, it was very in the way) so I constructed hanging “trees” from tomato cages. Now that we have the luxury of space, I’m taking advantage of it!

  3. What a lovely tree! I love the idea of putting up tiny trees in every room instead of just concentrating all the decors in some places of the house.

  4. That is such a cute little tree! I’d love to have one for every room. Spruce every room up for the holidays, that would make me smile!

    1. Probably the lights and sparkle of everything from the stars in the sky to the trees downtown. I like the festive atmosphere and feeling like it really is possible for everyone to be kind and considerate and wishing each other well.

    1. Hey, we’ve got plenty of time! Our main tree is upstairs settling his branches so we can decorate it some time this week.

  5. I love themed trees and yours is awesome. I always purchase trees and themed ornaments in after-Christmas sales so I am always ready for the following year!

    1. Thank you, Ida! That’s a really good tip–I usually avoid the stores then because it’s almost as bad as before Christmas, but the deals really can be good!

    1. Wow, 20 trees?! That’s awesome. I don’t know if I’ll get all the rooms tree’d this year or not, but I’m going to see how far I can get 🙂

  6. Before the kids I went all out and decorated every room of the house, but now I hardly have time for one tree. How long do you keep your Christmas decor out?

  7. I love the tree you made and I’m impressed you made it yourself. I barely have enough time to decorate our main tree and our house, so the fact you can do more and create your own trees is highly impressive!

    1. I have two things going for me, Eva: I don’t do well without a project to work on and I don’t have kids to take care of. It’s just me and my husband and he’s got his own projects that he works on.

  8. Your tree turned out just beautiful! We’ve started to get our decorations out and hope to finish up this weekend. Maybe we need some more trees!

    1. Thank you, Kristin! I have a feeling it’s going to be a couple of weeks before I get everything set up, but that just prolongs the fun 🙂

  9. I love this! Last year we put a tree in our kids’ room, and they absolutely loved it. This year they are in separate rooms, so we need to get another tree. I would love to get my house completely done up for the holidays! Someday soon, we are in the process of finishing some trim/flooring/baseboards/thresholds, so maybe next year 🙂 I love that you made this yourself! So pretty!

    1. Thank you, Heather! Having my own tree as a kid would have been awesome; I’m sure you’re kids felt really special! Good luck with the floor work, I do NOT look forward to the day(s) we redo ours.

  10. When I lived in Michigan, we would have trees in nearly every room. We really decked the inside and outside of the house. Now, we have a tree in the living that I never take down. I love that bell ornament.

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