How To Make Cheap Garland Look Expensive
November 30, 2017This post contains affiliate links.
I don’t know about you but I have been in total Christmas mode around here. I put up our Christmas tree, displayed our Christmas village (more on that tomorrow), and added all kinds of festive touches around the house. Today I am going to show you how I transformed cheap garland into something much more gorgeous and substantial.
How To Make Cheap Garland Look Expensive
How To Make Cheap Garland Look Expensive
Ok, here is the starting point. We have all seen garland like this at the dollar store or big box stores. It’s cheap but it looks completely sad!
How To Make Cheap Garland Look Expensive
Start by twisting together a few strands of the garland together. Here is what it looks like now. It’s not amazing yet, but it’s getting closer now!
How To Make Cheap Garland Look Expensive
Ok, now it’s time for the secret ingredient: real evergreen clippings. I went to my yard and picked an evergreen bush. I got to work with my scissors clipping off small pieces. I brought inside my beautiful pile of real evergreen clippings.
How To Make Cheap Garland Look Expensive
With the hot glue gun, I simply glued the real evergreen pieces directly to the garland. I tried to attach it in an organic way, mimicking the way plants grow.
How To Make Cheap Garland Look Expensive
I absolutely love the way this looks on top of our burlap runner in the dining room. You would never guess this started out as dollar store garland, right?!
How To Make Cheap Garland Look Expensive
For more DIY Christmas ideas, check out these other posts:
Displaying a Christmas Village in Glasses
Ooooh these are good tips! It really did look so much more realistic after you worked with it. I love all your decor ideas!
Now this is a Christmas decorating tip I will definitely have to try. Ever pick up garland and then have to string a couple of pieces together to get the look you want? I have and it is so annoying. Your tip makes the garland look fuller without the hassle. Thanks for sharing.
What a clever idea! I love hanging garland throughout my house during the holidays. I’ll definitely have to use this little life hack.
What an awesome idea. I will definitely be trying this project out with my middle child, as she’s extremely artistic and loves to help me out with these!
I never thought about adding real to the faux. I just bought supplies to dress up my wreath but it’s all fake!
That’s a great way to fill in real lengths with bare spots too. The village in the glasses looks very cute.
I love the idea of sprucing up a dollar tree garland…. no pun intended. It looks great after you’ve fixed it up.
Wonderful tips! I’ll have to remember this the next time I’m at the dollar store. Right now we have discovered after our most recent move that a lot of the Christmas decorations we had, simply doesn’t go with our new house anymore. It’s time to sell the old and buy some new.
This is a fantastic idea. I have some of the sad looking garland and was trying to think of what to do with it. I will definitely do this on the weekend.
The decorations look so nice. I love the Christmas village in glasses idea. So pretty!
Aww thanks! That was from last year and it’s still one of my fave Christmas decorating ideas ever!
This is a good idea. Really doable too. The end result is fantastic and the garland now really looks grand and expensive.
Very nice but dont the clippings dry out fast and be brown by Christmas
I have used evergreen clippings on other projects and they do last a while. Definitely for the next several weeks until Christmas. However, I can’t vouch for what they would look like after a year. I will probably store this garland with my other Christmas stuff after the season is over and see what it looks like next year.
Great idea and it does look so much better. My question is… what are you going to do with it at the end of the season? Would you just throw it out? Would it be any good to save and store for next year? Because I have seen this done all over blog land…but then I wondered what to do at the end of the season because it is glued in.
I am going to store it with my other Christmas things at the end of the season. I don’t want to throw it out, but I have no idea what it will look like next year after a full year in storage. I am fairly confident that it will continue to look pretty & green through the rest of December. Thanks for your comment!
Your garland is awesome. I love DIY ideas. Unfortunately I don’t have live greenery available. but twisting the garland together and adding pinecones and berries might work for me.
You made this project look amazing! I need to go into my attic this weekend and pull out al my old garland!!
Great tips! I am a huge fan of buying something for a great value and then sprucing it up to be what you want it to be. Great way to work on fun projects for a great value. This looks great.