It would be a lie to say that I’ve ever used fresh evergreen in my house before. My mom and dad switched to an artificial tree when I was 8 and never looked back. However, I have always missed that fresh pine scent in the house, yet could never justify cleaning up needles off the floor or risk the cats would eat them and end up in ER, so nope!
However, seeing how my boys are well trained to stay off the tables and counters, I felt like I needed some fresh evergreen in the house and I was absolutely o.b.s.e.s.s.e.d with the deer antler candle holder that I found at Canadian Tire.
Now, I will say that I added some touches to the said antlers, because though I adore the idea and the thematic fit it had with the house, I didn’t like that the colour was so flat and metallic. I wanted the natural look, but without the natural antler! So with a couple of layers of acrylic I adjusted that antler just a tad, and I can’t tell you how crazy cute it looks! Just look at my pride and joy!
To achieve this look, I have a super easy gif you can follow if you scroll down, but in a nutshell, all you need is just a few boughs of pine and a couple of cedar clippings (I actually got those off a broken branch near my house!), a couple of ornaments, and a candle holder in the middle.
- I laid out the pine boughs onto my runner from Homesense to cover a good amount of real estate and give some volume to the piece.
- After which you want to center your choice of candle holder on top of the pine. Don’t worry too much if you can see the bough ends at first, those can be covered with the pine clippings.
- When adding the ornaments, there’s two things to look for: a) alternate sizes and b) contrasting colours. Alternate them (odd numbers are easy, but another simple trick is using rules of three).
- A few pinecones add a bit of texture, and then you’re ready to add your tapered candles!
The candles I’m using are from Amazon, and I can’t say enough good things about them: they are tall so they really add verticality to the room, they are a clean white (not that ugly off-white, cream tone that looks aged), they burn 12 hours, and best of all they don’t drip. You read that right! These are dripless!
Et voila! You have the simplest guide to making a stunning evergreen centerpiece, that literally takes minutes! Now all that’s left to know is that sadly, evergreen doesn’t live very long, so make sure to do the following steps to prolong the life of your projects:
- Mist with water every day.
- When clipping the boughs, do so on an angle, and let each stem sit in water for a few hours before assembling.
- Replace dried branches every 2-3 weeks.
- Enjoy!
