Bedroom tree

I have a problem with Home Goods. I find an excuse to pop in there about once a week and at this time of year, I’m always finding holiday decorations to bring home. But often they just aren’t quite right. This year, I’ve taken to customizing some store bought decorations. It’s much easier than starting a project from scratch and I’ve found I’m able to achieve a really high end look with just a little attention at home.

I bought this tabletop tree on the left at Home Goods for our bedroom dresser. It was a little sad looking with just the silver balls on it, but I really liked the pot and the fact that the branches had glitter on them. So I added some magnolia flowers I found at a nursery gift shop. We just stuck them in, didn’t even wire them on and it really gave the tree a nice face lift.

My second sprucing up project was not quite so easy. I found this pearl covered tree at a nursery gift shop. I loved the idea of it, but it was rather bare and I could see the wire under frame very easily.

Pearl tree

What I should have done was stick some fabric underneath to cover the frame. Instead, I spent far too much money on bridal sprays of pearls to attach to the tree to make it fuller. I also ended up buying some stick on pearls and attaching them directly to the wire frame to cover it up. I’m happy with the result, but not with the avenue I took to get there!

Here are my tips for dressing up store bought trees. Make sure that what you start with has good bones. If you thinks it’s ugly there’s probably not much you can do. Evaluate how much it would cost to fix it and then decide if the total price of buying and fixing it makes sense for you. Determine if the fixes are easy and are things you can actually do yourself. Also think about whether you can find the materials you need (I had a hard time finding pearl sprays to use for the pearl tree).