Driftwood Christmas Tree

We plan to use a lot of driftwood when decorating for our wedding. My mom has so kindly volunteered to scour the beaches of Surf City, New Jersey this winter to find some large pieces we can use for part of the centerpieces, to decorate the gift and dessert tables and maybe even to adorn an arbor to be married under.

Pinspiration: driftwood centerpiece, driftwood garland, driftwood arbor

 
But unfortunately, the large pieces are few and far between. She has lucked out though and scored a ton of smaller pieces. She had the awesome idea to use some of those smaller driftwood pieces as the handles for the shell bouquets me and and my bridesmaids will be carrying. (More on those in a later post, I promise).

My mom is the kind of person that can't sit still. Like me, she always has to have a project to work on. So you can see her dilemma when she's sitting in front of a mini-mountain of driftwood. She just had to do something with it. With the holidays right around the corner, she came up with the perfect solution: a driftwood Christmas tree!

So cool, right? I asked her how she did it and it was really quite simple. She bought a wooden dowel. Then she drilled a hole through the center of each piece of driftwood equivalent to the size of the dowel. She also used a block of wood for the base, which she also drilled into, but not all the way through. She then slipped the driftwood of varying lengths onto the dowel, with the larger pieces mostly at the bottom leading up to the smaller ones toward the top. She then stuck the dowel into the wooden base, but not before adding a bit of wood glue for stability. She then fanned out the "branches" to give the tree some fullness. She then used a glue gun to add a shell at the top for a star (although she said she's waiting for the perfect starfish to really top her tree).

I love that she left hers very simple, as it fits in with the natural coastal vibe. But I can see adding some embellishment in the form of tiny, shiny ornament balls, or glitter to make it bling. The coolest part is, once the holidays are over, the "branches" can be moved around so that it lays flat for storage. Although, I think I would find a way to display it all year long.

Here are a few other crafty ideas I've found on Pinterest for decorating with driftwood.

Pinspiration: seahorse, driftwood orb, driftwood anchor, driftwood lantern, driftwood mirror, horse head