Last week I shared how we made a Candyland tree extraordinaire out of our $25 faux tree. This week I want to show you how I spruced up an inexpensive Walmart flocked garland with colorful ornaments and ribbon.
In my opinion, garlands are one of the most difficult Christmas items to shop for. It takes a lot of trial and error. The fresh and “live-looking” garlands are usually only available online and at a high price, so you don’t really know what you have until you order it. Then if you don’t like it, it’s a hassle to return.
The in-store faux garlands all tend to fall a bit flat. I have yet to see a cedar or eucalyptus leaf at Hobby Lobby or JoAnn’s or At Home that looks real. Plus they still tend to be expensive for the quality that you get.
The best bang-for-your-buck garlands are the live cedar garlands at Trader Joe’s, but upkeep is tricky for those. You have to keep them moist and, despite all efforts, are usually vacuuming up cedar remnants all December.
Last year I searched and searched for the perfect garland but couldn’t find one that I loved that was in my budget. I kept going back to this under-$20 flocked garland at Walmart:
Indeed, I purchased two of the flocked garlands and changed my mind and returned them and then went back and purchased them again. At that time, my youngest was a newborn, so I put it on our bannister literally three days before Christmas. And I loved it.
This year, I decided to start the ball rolling early (we all need a little Christmas cheer, right?) and went ahead and tried the garland out on our fireplace mantel. Here’s how it turned out:
I was so impressed with how the meager Walmart garland perked up with a few ornaments and ribbon that I wanted to share the final result in case anyone else is in a garland rut. Plus these garlands tend to sell out in early December, which is in part my motivation for this Christmas-before-Thanksgiving post.
Securing the garland
I used floral wire (similar linked here) to attach the garland to the bannister last year. The fireplace mantel presented a unique challenge because I have a toddler wandering around who likes to get into mischief. I have seen people use Command Strips turned backwards to hold up garland, which is a good option. But I didn’t have any on hand so I decided to use Gaffers tape:
My husband introduced me to this tape (Amazon link here) a few weeks ago. It is similar to duct tape, but tears more easily and is supposed to be removable without leaving a sticky residue:
I started by putting one garland on half of the mantel (some gold ornaments from last Christmas were still attached).
Then I pulled back a good amount of the faux branches to reveal the support wire and taped that to the mantel. I did this all along the top and sides for extra security.
I’ll keep you posted on the tape removal process after Christmas. Fingers crossed.
Adding ornaments
After securing both garlands, the next step was to attach ornaments to the garland with floral wire (similar linked here).
I opted for shatterproof ornaments (i.e., plastic) because of the toddler factor. I purchased a 16-count box of the blue ornaments at At Home for $3.99 and the gold ornaments at Walmart last year for under $10. I’ve had a difficult time finding hot pink ornaments in stores this year, so I dusted off this old box of glass ornaments that I’ve had in the attic for ages:
I did order these shatterproof 4″ ornaments from Amazon to see if they might work instead, but they haven’t arrived yet:
If I end up switching them out, I will update this post. Green or bright orange or any bright color would be a good alternative too.
Adding ribbon
I loved just the ornaments on the garland (see photo above) but wanted to try filling out the garland a bit more with some gold ribbon. This ribbon I purchased at Costco last year, but you can find glittery gold ribbon pretty much everywhere.
I attached the ribbon by cutting it into smaller pieces and tucking it in on each side behind the garland. Then I used longer strands of cut ribbon on the sides and wrapped it around the garland.
Adding real greenery
I didn’t add live greenery this year but wanted to mention that this garland looks great with real leaves added to it as well. It’s a good option if you want a more neutral look. Last year I grabbed a bunch of magnolia leaves from my mom’s tree and attached them to the garland with floral wire (similar linked here).
You can preserve your magnolia leaves to make them last longer by soaking them in 1 part glycerin and 2 parts water for 4 days and then letting them dry. However, my unpreserved leaves stayed green for about three weeks, and I liked that I could compost them after Christmas.
Don’t forget the vacuum
After sprucing up the inexpensive Walmart garland, don’t forget about your floors and upholstery. The nice thing about flocked garland is that it doesn’t have to look real because, in reality, no one has actual snow inside their home. Plus the flocking powder covers up the faux greenery.
The downside to flocked anything is that it leaves flocking powder EVERYWHERE when you are trying to install the tree/wreath/garland. Remember, though, that the flocking powder is a temporary problem because your decorated garland should (hopefully) remain stationary throughout the holidays. To me the mess was worth it because gosh the final product looks pretty!
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