How to make a beach-style Christmas tree decoration
Mark Rayner shows you how to create this simple outdoor table decoration – a perfect centrepiece for a balmy Christmas barbecue.
You will need:
- A bucket, trowel, piece of wood, builders' mortar mix, construction glue.
- Pieces of driftwood, small white pebbles, shells, pumice.
- Garden twine, a terracotta pot and a paintbrush.
- Resene Terracotta Sealer and Resene testpots of Resene Double Biscotti and Resene Quarter Biscotti.
Here's another option: You can use other objects such as pieces of beach glass, paua shells, scoria and glass beads to create a more colourful Christmas tree decoration. Or colour the driftwood itself by staining it with Resene Colorwood or priming with Resene Quick Dry and painting with your favourite Resene testpot colours.
Get the look: Mark painted the table with Resene Enamacryl tinted to Resene Woodstock.
Instructions
Step 1
Apply one coat of Resene Terracotta Sealer to the inside and outside of the pot and allow to dry.
Step 2
Apply two coats of Resene Quarter Biscotti to the outside of the pot, allowing two hours for each coat to dry.
Step 3
Apply two coats of Resene Double Biscotti to the upper rim of the pot, allowing two hours for each coat to dry.
Step 4
Form a Christmas tree shape using pieces of driftwood, as shown, fixing together with garden twine.
Step 5
Fix shells to the driftwood form, as shown, using construction glue.
Step 6
Fix pumice to the driftwood form, as shown, using construction glue.
Step 7
Fix a larger piece of pumice to the top of the driftwood form, as shown. Again, fix with construction glue. Allow construction glue to dry.
Step 8
Mix a little builders mortar mix with clean water in a bucket to a fairly stiff consistency.
Step 9
Trowel the mortar mix into the painted pot and lightly compact, as shown, with a piece of wood.
Step 10
Insert the driftwood tree into the damp mortar mix. Allow mortar to dry and place white pebbles around the base of the tree.