Here’s a quick and easy way I made a DIY alpine garland for an old cupboard I have the Christmas village set up in.
This is the very old corner cupboard we rescued from the brick cottage when we were renovating it. This year I decided that it was the perfect place for the Christmas village to be set up in. Only thing is that once the houses were all plugged in, I had 2 choices, bring the cords out the front and have them show, or drill holes in the back of the cupboard to hide the cords. I just felt bad about drilling that many large holes in this old cupboard, so I opted for the cords to show:
Village looks great! Cords… not so much!
That’s where the DIY alpine garland comes in… to help camouflage and hide the cords.
First thing I did was screw in 2 screws in the top corners of the opening… First mistake too!!!
Why didn’t I use these 3M hooks I raved about when I hung the deer antlers?! I dunno!! (they would have come off completely clean… now I’ll have to fill and paint. Oh well, it’ll inspire me to repaint the cupboard anyway… I’ve been wanting to do it the dark grey color that I used on the sideboard in the dining room)
After a quick shopping trip at Target, here’s what I came up with: (see links at end of the post for most of this stuff)
The only tool I used was a hot melt glue gun… you could instead use florist wire if you didn’t have a glue gun too.
I spread the berries out to look a little less squished.
Then started to glue them to the wood ring garland rope. (isn’t that wood ring garland cool?)
I dabbed little glue clumps along the rope part…
and I securely glued the main stem end of the berries to a wood ring.
I needed a little more length to my DIY alpine garland than the wood ring garland ropes were, so I added the length by gluing a bunch of berries upside down at each end.
For the two top corners where the garland will hang over the screws, I bent the stems of the berries at a right angle and glued it that way:
It fits securely to the screws, (that should have been 3M hooks!)
Next, I added more berry bunches, concentrating on filling in the spots where the cords show the most.
I wasn’t trying to cover the cord 100%, just mostly camouflage it.
I then wired the center of the long felt cord to the center of the wood ring rope.
Working one side at a time, I loosely wove the felt cording in and around the berries and wood slices. The felt cording has a wire in it, so I could manipulate it and it holds the shape.
The final addition was the faux boxwood wire. (unfortunately I’m not recalling where I bought it… Good grief! It was only a few weeks ago too… I thought I bought it at Target too, but I can’t find it online to link for you, so I’m not sure)
I loosely wove that boxwood wire around the garland too. It added just the right little touch of greenery.
Here it is all done:
It works great camouflaging the cord, and softly adds a ‘ta-da’ to the village scenery inside the antique cupboard.
I’m really pleased with the airy and unique look the garland has when put together.
I am always a sucker for texture… and this DIY alpine garland has some great texture going on!
Here are the shopping links I promised you: (I just noticed they’re on sale/clearance today, so you may want to order them quick!)
Here are more Christmas decorating posts:
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This post is linked up at the following other sites: Skip to my Lou, Coastal Charm, DIY Showoff, Between Naps on the Porch, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, StoneGable
