HOLIDAY: Mid-Mod 'Cone' Trees

The wreaths are made and hung, the ornaments are ready to go on the tree...
now it's time to deck the halls and all of those other places you want some holiday cheer! Sideboards, shelves, mantels, windowsills, and niches in the wall are all great places to use the decorating elements you'll see in this post. 

These are simple 'cone trees', which isn't a new idea - but I think making them with vinyl placemats might be! I've also chosen to add the element of white ceramic vases as 'tree trunks' beneath them... and though this really is an unintended pun,  that one step really elevates this decor.😉

Are you ready to create some of your own?
Grab a vinyl placemat and let's go!

dwk

The two trees shown in the center and right of this photo are the large versions, each made with one whole vinyl placemat, and the skinny tree on the left is one of the three smaller versions made with portions of vinyl placemats. 

Materials:

scissors . double-stick tape . glue gun
vinyl placemats - 1 each for large trees, 1/2 each for two smaller trees, 2/3 for one smaller tree

ceramic vases (I used both large and small in these examples)

terra cotta pots that will fit over the top of large vases

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Method:

1. The vases I used for my large trees are pierced ceramic (meant to be used for candles), and are two different sizes. The terra cotta pots are added to provide inner support under the vinyl cone.

I had to try out a few terra cotta pots from my stash before finding two that fit snugly - but don't shove them down on the vase, they could both break! The pot should fit over the top of the vase and slide down about an inch or two. 

2. One whole vinyl placemat was rolled into a cone lengthwise to give it height.
The second large tree is a bit shorter and wider to fit its vase, made by rolling the whole placemat width-wise.

3. After I rolled each cone, I placed it over the vase/pot combo, to make sure that the bottom of the cone covered the pot completely.

No Photo, but while I held the cone on the pot with one hand, I placed two small pieces of double-stick tape at the top and bottom of the wrapped cone - between the surfaces that overlap - to hold it in place for the next steps...

4. I took the cone off of the pot, and laid it on its side so that the extra vinyl that isn't taped lays flat on my work surface. A pencil line drawn on the inner surface of the placemat, just past where I taped the surfaces, is a guide for cutting away the extra vinyl.

5. Sharp scissors cut the extra vinyl away easily. 

6. This cone is the wider, shorter one in progress. I followed the same process and cut away the extra vinyl down the side. 

7. The cones will have an uneven bottom edge once rolled... you can see the corners here. If you leave them like this, your 'tree' bottom will be uneven...

8. + 9. Sharp scissors will trim those corners off, making the bottom edge of the trees even.

11. The double-stick tape is holding well, but I wanted more of a finished edge...

12. A thin bead of hot glue placed just inside that side seam closes it completely, making the trees look much nicer. (I did not remove the double stick tape, I just glued inside the seam where there was not tape holding it closed).

13. For the final detail, I took one of the four-point 'stars' cut from vinyl and hot glued it to the front top edge of the tree:

A four-point 'star' shape appears in the center of the circles in this pattern - I cut some out, and used one of those as the 'topper' of each large tree and the tallest small tree.

Here's a look at the vases & pots under the trees, their size differences, and how they look assembled:

The smaller trees are made exactly the same way as the large ones - except I cut one vinyl placemat in half, and used one for each of the smaller cones, and used 3/4 of another placemat to create the taller small tree. 

The vases that I used for the bases of each of these small trees are shown uncovered, so you can see the basic size of them.

Two of the small trees are topped with a tiny white vintage satin ball ornament - I simply taped their hanging string down inside the top of the cones (there's a tiny hole at the top of each cone) to hold the balls in place.

I love the crisp simplicity of these, and using these pierced and ribbed ceramic vases as 'tree trunks' is very much in line with mid-century modern design. 

If you choose to make cone trees without ceramic bases and want them to sit level, make sure that you cut the bottom edge very straight!

Coming up in my next post (on Wednesday!), I'll be sharing how I made another kind of trees using the vinyl placemats... combined with some elements that I have been using for FIVE years now!

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