Monday, November 29, 2010

DIY Christmas Tree Planter


I have always wanted to create a Christmas tree planter. I love how neat and tidy it makes a tree look, a little unexpected, and of course, options are limitless. I've never done it, but this year, I decided to do it. Not to mention that the stand that comes with the tree that I've used every other year, had a missing leg. What happened to it? I have no idea. Yeah, yeah, I heard the " What are you going to do with that?" and "Why don't you just go get another stand?", but I had a vision that was going to come to fruition, so I ignored all of the non-believers in my household and got to work. This was one of the easiest projects I've done, but it was a little bit of an investment, but how it turned out made me feel all better.

What I used:
Large Terracotta pot
Manila roping (3 bags/rolls)
plastic utility bucket
50 lb. bag of concrete
Hot glue gun
jig saw
strong back

I put the pot up on the kitchen counter to make it easy to work with.
Starting from the bottom, I began gluing on the rope, keeping it nice and tight. I just glued randomly, every few rows or so.
Eventually, I made it to the top, beware of aching wrist though!
Initially, I though that I would put the concrete in the pot itself, but I like how it turned out so well that I certainly thought that I could use it elsewhere, not just for Christmas. So I bought one of those utility buckets and it fit perfectly in the bottom of the pot, I was so happy, but it was too tall. So I used the jig saw to cut off the top, which worked like a charm, and got the bucket down to the right height. I did it right in the house too, it took like three minutes and just a little plastic clean up.
This project took and entire 50 pound bag of concrete, I mixed it up right in the bucket, and stuck the legless tree stand, with pole, right into the mixture.
I let it cure over night, and I was really happy with how it turned out. I put the tree together (it's one of those hook on styles) and had a better looking tree than what I started with!
It makes my artificial tree look a little more real!
Now it's time to trim the tree!
I hope you are inspired to try your own Christmas tree planter!
Thanks for reading! I've gotten my mantle decorated, and will be showing you that tomorrow, see you then!




25 comments:

  1. How neat! I'd never seen anything like it, but might try that technique with some small topiaries... I'm not nearly as brave as you to go big the first shot!

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  2. Wonderful idea...thanks for sharing xx

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  3. Ahhhhh! I love it! It's so dang charming! I want to do it right away. I hope you don't mind a copy cat!

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  4. It looks awsome! What a little rope can do?!!!

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  5. Michelle, you think of ways to fix everything and make it looks so much better! This is so cute and looks so much more natural.
    Brenda

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  6. That looks amazing! I am inspired ;o)

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  7. We have an artificial tree too and I've always admired the buckets and baskets people use to put their real trees in. This is a great idea! Thanks!

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  8. Michelle,
    How inspiring! Love the new look!
    Dee Dee

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  9. Thank you for inspiring, Michelle! I've been wanting to do the same thing for my kid's Christmas tree but not sure how to anchor it. Thank you for sharing. You're the best!

    Thank you for linking up to the first ever "Amaze Me Monday" blog party.

    I'm your newest follower!

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  10. I've never seen anything like that...very polished looking, love it!

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  11. Thanks for stopping by Michelle! I love your blog and look forward to visiting again soon.

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  12. I wanted to say "hello" and "thank you" for visiting my blog. You have a beautiful blog with great ideas! I particularly like your christmas tree planter.

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  13. I cannot begin to tell you how much I LOVE this! It turned out beautiful! Now I know what I will be doing instead of a tree skirt this year ;)

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  14. Brilliant! It looks so good. If I didn't have to un-decorate my trees to do that, I would certainly give it a try.

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  15. Fan-Freaking-Tastic! I love it! What an upgrade!!!

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  16. THIS IS A GREAT IDEA! I can't stand the ugly bottom of our tree! Thanks for sharing this!!!!!!!

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  17. Yay! Awesome idea! How tall is/was your tree?
    Thanks, Jessica

    jessip@skynetbb.com

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  18. I'm thinking if you didn't want to keep the tree in the cement bucket, you could put a pvc pipe in the bucket that is 1/2" larger than your tree pole. That way, you could just slide the tree right into the cemented pvc opening!

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Thank You for taking the time to comment! Because of the insane amount of spam comments, I had to stop anonymous comments-sorry for the inconvenience.
Michelle