Photo: unknown~if you know where it’s from please tell me so I can give them credit
I have a dream. And it involves this branchy chandelier. Think I can make one? I’m thinking I could just wrap some kind of bendy branches around a current chandy. Any thoughts?
Look, here’s another kind: DIY How to Tree Branch Chandelier @ Apartment Therapy
And have you seen what Pottery Barn’s been up to? I’ve been in love with their new focus on nests since the moment I laid eyes on it all but, I happened to stroll through the store the other day~they used mossy sticks to decorate everywhere. They had them hanging from little ropes over tables and pretend mantles. Love, I tell you. I am so infatuated with sticks. I guess it could be worse, I could be infatuated with gold bars.
I found some of my very own mossy sticks out in the wild this weekend.
I’ve got some sticks piled in this urn, what should I do with my mossy sticks?
Do you decorate with sticks?
a branch-filled chandelier!? Never would have thunk it, but gotta tell you, now I can’t STOP thinking about it – how divine! I dare say that’s definitely a ‘sticky situation’ I’d like to be in! ;)
I don’t have any suggestions for the mossy sticks, but I’d love to see a tutorial on how to make them into one of those chandeliers! Remember your motto! Hee hee! ☺ Celeste
I’ve tried to decorate with sticks, but my husband kept asking, “Why is there kindling all over the place?” I used to have an awesome (huge) willow-stick heart that I put a plant in, and the leaves grew through the branches…very pretty. Hmmm. I have no idea what happened to it. I’d better check my husband’s burn pile…=]
I love the chandelier! And dust is just a protective covering!! If you are worried about bugs in moss you could bag it really tight and smother the little critters.
I love the Pottery Barn focus on birds and nests and right now Michael’s and Home Goods have lots of pretty eggs and birds. PB also has a really nice set of keys for 19.00 and free shipping if you like to decorate with keys.
I’m hoping not many people buy the PB items with the bird and nest focus so they will go on sale and I can snatch up a few items! They have a beautiful rug with birds and flowers and a bird canvas -only 279.00. gulp.
I love decorating with sticks – pussy willows and dogwood are my faves. I just broke down some dogwood branches today and put them in a little Red Wing white stoneware vase – pretty (cheap) little update.
I love sticks too.
A good way to dust them is the compressed air in a can you buy for your computer keyboard.
This is so lovely!!
I too love to decorate with sticks!!
I LOVE decorating with sticks!
I currently have a stick mounted on my wall. Just hanging there like a tree grew in my house. I have a family photo hanging kindof under/to the side but I hadn’t intended it as any “family tree” type of pun decorating. :)
In my old house I used a 5 inch around Ash tree (that had to be cut down) as a curtain rod. I suspended it with curtain tieback hooks things and draped fabric around it and then down the wall.
I also put sticks on my candles: http://mollythepirate.blogspot.com/2009/10/getting-twiggy-with-it.html
I have a lot of trees, therefore a lot of sticks. I work with what I’ve got. :)
This weekend we constructed a raised vegetable garden bed out of found cedar branches and trunks. It looks pretty cool and was 100% free! When I get a picture I will send one your way.
Also, I just found your blog recently and love it! Thanks for all the great tips.
In my first house, we used branches as curtain rods, with a length of muslin swooped around them as a sort of valance. My neighbor has a lovely smooth polished branch as her stair railing. I have driftwood in bowls with beach stones, branches in vases…oh, yes, I decorate with sticks.
I had a friend who made the most gorgeous stick chandelier I had ever seen in my life (althought the one in your post rivals it). She drug a big tangled mass of twigs out of the river by her cottage. When it had dried, she strung little globe lights throughout it (small ones like a Christmas light strand). She switched out her existing light with an electrical outlet and mounted the huge bramble to her ceiling and just plugged it in! She installed a dimmer switch which worked on the light strands. It was amazing how much light all of those little ‘fairy lights’ generated- enough to light the room, but the whole thing was spectacular when dimmed. It looked absolutely magical!
I’ve always wanted to make one…
Oh, the picture of my dining room looks great on your blog and my woody chandelier. I don’t mind that you used it. Bwahahaaa.
Snicker. Kidding!
One of my Martha Stewart friends made a curtain rod with a stick. Instead of putting the iron bar on top of the window-she laid a twig on top of the brackets. It was super cute.
funny– I was just looking at that first photo a few hours ago wishing I had that chandelier. I saw it in Traditional Home magazine– March 2009. How random is that?? The whole house in that spread makes me want to cry it is so pretty! I live in a ski resort so I am always looking for organic decor without going over the top with the whole lodge look –and I think this twig look would be perfect. Does that make sense?
Yep, I’m a stick lover, too! =-D And I am soooo wishing that I could see a couple of close up shots of that first chandy. It is of the uber fabulosity.
Recently, I acquired one of those standard, harsh gold chandeliers for free off CraigsList, and have been looking around for inspiration for a while now because I want to redo it. I’m really thinking about this stick stuff now. Hmm….
And there are so many great tips here in your comments!
I saw that stuff in PB and totally thought of you and how much you would love it! Also, TJ Maxx has had some bird/nest related stuff and I put some in my bathroom on a shelf that has been barren for a month. I wish I could show you! I want to make you proud!
Here’s some inspiration for you.
Can’t wait to see your creation.
http://www.deannawish.com/default.htm
I’m getting ready to re-do the master bedroom in an elven-inspired design and was looking for some ways to bring the outdoors in. What a great place for inspiration – thank you.
That second pic looks like it has fiber optic branches. My husband says you can find them on the internet if you search for “LED branch light.” They’d look nice mixed with the real thing.
What could possibly be better than decorating with something free…seriously…we’re not even talking cheap….FREE. Love to use twigs and branches. I did a little ditty with some paper and hot glue. It sits in the girls bathroom in a fancy vase right now. Here’s what we did….
http://wallawallavalleygirl.blogspot.com/2009/03/if-paper-grew-on-trees.html
yes! My faves are twisted willow…my mil has a twisted willow tree and that stuff grows like mad! I even spray paint some white for easter/spring decor.
Potterybarn has an awesome ‘sticky’ chandelier that I’ve been drooling over, but the thought of the spiderwebs and dust scares me.
http://www.potterybarn.com/products/camilla-6-arm-chandelier/?pkey=cchandeliers
I saw a very cool DIY chandy with long grapevine wrapped around the light fixture. It was very cool and cheap! The woman covered up the chandy she already had but hated w/ grape vine.
Wow! Seeing the mossy sticks I now know I could be rich! That’s what’s all over my yard after a wind storm (we have woods behind our house). Looks just like that! Wonder if they would buy from me??? lol
Girl, I attached some manzanita branches horizontally to my dining chandy with some floral wire over Christmas and it was uber cool – I hung snowflakes in silver and white from it and it was like something out of a movie – enchanting. Do it, you’ll love it. Maybe include some mini birds nests and floating butterflies for Easter. Magical !!!
I love bringing in all types of nature in :) I did find at a small thrift store for 30 cents a bunch of pussy willow branches, they have the soft pussy willow blooms all over then still and are sooo pretty, they break very easy though so the are in a rustic vase on top of a shelf, i enjoy their look with small white lights wrapped in. have fun and be a little daring! sometimes you just have to do it to see how you will tweak it and make it work! you know you will do something fabulous!! cant wait to see the pictures of the masterpiece you come up with!!
Hello,
I love this post. I love sticks. I use branches for my curtain rods. I just nail them right to the molding and tie my curtains to them. I also love to use them around the house just propped against the wall. This year I had found some really nice branches that had beautiful fall leaves on them. Then for Christmas I stripped all the leaves off of them & hung the kids’ Christmas ornaments from them.
Take Care,
Maria
if you soak the sticks in water. you can bend them how you like
I absolutely love this post, I want to incorporate it all into my own home. I adore decorating with sticks, and I don’t care who knows it. I love the idea of adding them to fresh flowers in a vase for the kitchen table too.
LOL! I just love the look, but don’t foresee using sticks to decorate my home… We have 5 kiddos, and the two youngest are 3 1/2 and almost 1 year old boys. For me, this would just be BEGGING for trouble lololololol!!!!
Oh, on a totally different subject, I have my 1st window mistreatment ready to put up, but the stick (ok, that keeps it in the same category lol!) I got for the top is about an inch too long. I’m going to dig for a saw today and I should have it up tomorrow!
I decorate with sticks, love them! I cut some branches from my neighbors tree (shh…don’t tell ‘em) and forced them in a vase. LOVE the early spring look! I also have a big vase filled with sticks, some w/leaves in various colors ( golds mostly) and some naked that I pruned from my backyard. I noticed the other day that some are starting to get green buds, so excited! That’ll look awesome, both green and gold leaves in the same arrangment and they are the real deal!
As far as making a stick “chandy”, I’d sink an eyebolt into your ceiling (esp. if you have exposed beams) and work from there. You can open up all sorts of possibilities, an old metal ring from a wine barrel, maybe a spraypainted oversized embroidery hoop? Oh….now you’ve got me thinking what can I do?!?
I could use ideas on how to decorate with them more. I like the chandelier idea but don’t think it could work on my existing one. We have 5 boys, so I keep picturing sticks in eyes if I have them out in the open too much. I love the texture of nature in decor though! Thanks for sharing the ideas and pictures!
I did find some really cool mossy sticks and stuck them in an urn around Halloween. It was a bit spooky, yet warm and homey at the same time. My hubby thought I was crazy.
P.S. I fell in love with the PB nest definition pillow too and my hubby suprised me with it. I keep moving it from our bed ( a literal nest in the morning when the kids pile in ) to the family room couch where we all squish together for a movie.
I noticed Pier 1′s mailer has a beautiful stick-y, Easter-y dining table center piece with eggs hanging from it. I just might be able to pull that one off!
Oh I was just in PB today and I was gushing over everything! I love sticks too and just walked through a foot of snow to borrow (steal) some from my neighbors downed branch, I just posted a few pics on my last two posts of what I did with mine. I would love to do that with a chandelier, oh my!!!
I made a centerpiece with my four year old out of sticks last month and it turned out darling! I too am drawn to outdoor decor. We took a medium size rectangle basket and put a stand with a huge candle in the center. Then we found some sticks in the yard that still had live fall leaves on them and piled them around the candle. I then added some balls with feathers on them and other “outdoorsy” things. I love how it turned out and it was completely free! I love the chandy you pictured!
Well your talking my kinda language babe! I have a terrible habit of stopping anywhere a birch tree has fallen to ask for branches, I have on display in my home (not kidding..) at this very time, corkscrew willow branches (6ft tall..) birch in various containers and mossy branches everywhere…Its the best feeling using something that mother nature created so beautifully and then be able to use it in my creations at home! As for your chandy, I think Manzaneeta branches might give you what you want, and ikea sells the chandy kit where you could make your own!~
First time commenting, but I’ve been reading for a long time! I absolutely love decorating with sticks, think I may tackle a stick-y chandy, thanks for the idea!
Anywho, I recently made some mini trees with some moss and sticks from my yard. Here’s the link: http://whitehouseblackshutters.blogspot.com/2010/02/my-little-trees.html
I made my husband drag a tree out of someone’s brush pile last summer in 100 degree heat because it had THE. BEST. BRANCHES. JUST like your curvy ones in the urn with the feathers. I cut some off and put them in a big metal vase and loved them. Then, in December, I painted them white and stuck them in a pretty clear vase with epsom salts to hold them in place a la Melissa at The Inspired Room. I LOVED them.
So, of course, when I spotted MORE of the same stuff in a similar brush pile at the same house a couple of weeks ago, I asked my husband to raid it again. He loves me so much. Now I have to figure out where to put all THOSE branches!
I love decorating with sticks/branches/leaves. I just made a branch frame and posted about it on my blog! Enjoy!
http://itsallabouto.blogspot.com/2010/01/branch-art.html
I love the pillows and the mossy sticks. I am going looking this weekend for some.
I DO decorate with sticks!!! Look what I did for my daugher’s 2nd birdie birthday party with them!
http://dankrisolsen.blogspot.com/2010/02/little-bird-birthday-party.html
I only felt a *little* funny painting sticks with glittered acrylic paint when I had 101 other things to do…but a centerpiece for your daughters birthday party that she will not remember is pretty important, right? (It was fun anyhow!)
I have a galvanized pail of willow branches in my bedroom. Love it!
hey nester! if you have a grape vine wreath (can get them at craft stores) you can snip the pieces holding it together, then soak it for a few hours in a bath tub. it will slowly loosen and you can start stretching it out and untangling it. when they are all moist they are more pliable and can be bent and twisted around. i think that should work for a chandelier!
looove these.
The first picture of the “Branchelier” is by Deanna Wish Designs. We sell them on if anyone is interested. :)
The one in the picture is called “Briarwood” – forgot to mention.
Thanks!
Don’t know if you ever got the info on the dining room picture or not. It’s a design by Suzanne Kesler out of Atlanta. Her work is AWESOME! She does a lot with Ballard Designs as well. I’ve got the same picture on my blog as an inspiration for a twiggy chanedlier that I’m attempting to recreate with my existing chandelier. Check it out soon to see the finished product (hopefully!).