Easy DIY Wire Brush Bleached Trees
This post will show you how to make some Easy DIY Wire Brush Bleached Trees! Having been an Antique Dealer for quite a few years, I have always loved old Christmas things and especially the old Wire Brush trees. The old ones can be hard to find and a bit pricey when you do find them, so I thought I would try my hand at making over some new ones. I had planned on coloring these, but I ended up liking the white ones so much, that I ended up leaving them that way and added some pearly accents to them!
Shown below is the pack of mixed Wire Brush trees that I picked up at Michael’s Crafts. I believe these are typically used for Train sets and such. I also saw some individual ones for sale at Walmart, so you might want to try there too. You can also sometimes find these at Home Depot and possibly Lowes.
DIY Wire Brush Bleached Trees Supplies:
- Wire Brush Trees
- Clorox Bleach
- Mod Podge
- Glitter
- Pearls
- Seashells
Safety First! I did this project out in my garage with the door open, to get plenty of ventilation, and used a Gallon of Clorox to bleach out the green color. Make sure you wear gloves and safety goggles to protect your eyes too and keep this away from kids and pets.
I just poured the Clorox into a bucket and left them to site. Just keep an eye on them so that you can pull them out as soon as they turn white. I think it was around 10 minutes or so that I left them in.
The big ones didn’t fit all the way in to the pail, so I just turned them over and bleached them one end at a time.
Once they’re done, just pop them into a another pail of soap water, to stop the bleach process. And then do a final rinse with plain water to get any soap residue off.
So cute already right! Like a little blonde forest! I love that they are an off white, and not pure white, as it gives them more of a vintage look I think. Let them dry thoroughly before the next step.
Next I brushed on some white glue, I think I used Mod Podge actually.
And then I sprinkled on some silver glitter. I used German Glass Glitter because it looks more authentic, but you can use what you like.
Next I applied more glue to the base and then sprinkled on some white glitter from Martha Stewart. (I found out that you can unscrew the bases and then screw them back onto the trees again). I like this glitter because it looks like Mica which gives them an authentic vintage look! After the bases dried I reattached them to the trees.
Then I repurposed the beads from an old Pearl necklace, they made the perfect ornaments for my little trees! I used pliers and hot glue to attach the pearls in a random pattern to the trees. And then I added some small pearly Seashells to the tops of the trees!
Cute and sparkly! They look so nice in a grouping, I placed mine on top of an antique plateau mirror. I hope you enjoyed this project!
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial for making these Easy DIY Wire Brush Bleached Trees! You might also like our Christmas Book Page Paper Rosettes HERE.
Secrets d'Hier says
Thank you! It's a great idea!
Anonymous says
Love these. Gonna check out Home Depot then brave WalMart. LOL
Anonymous says
Those are adorable. Never would have guessed what they’re made of.
Courtney Mitchell
Carol says
Thank you so much, Karen, for sharing this great idea! I have to go to HD, anyway, so I’m going to see if they still have some of those!
pak says
Well, that is just brilliant!
Dewdrop Gardens says
Adorable, I would never have thought to bleach out the colour of these trees. I used a couple when I made snow globes and the water is now blue-green from the trees. Doesn’t look terrible, but I think I’ll try again and bleach the trees. Thanks for the post and the tips.
Debbie 🙂
Karen Watson says
You’re welcome Debbie! I’m glad you found this useful!
LeAnne says
I have some of those trees just waiting to be bleached! Thanks for the tutorial….they are just beautiful!
Karen Watson says
You’re welcome LeAnne! I hope you have fun with this project!
Lorrie Everitt says
I have been using these green bottle brush trees for the past two weeks in my projects BUT I just adore your white trees. Will have to try this out with my last few trees!!
I’ve been putting my smallest trees in salt and pepper shakers. You can see my post here http://lorrieeverittstudio.blogspot.ca/2012/11/salt-shaker-snowglobes.html
Thanks for sharing Karen.
Karen Watson says
Thanks for sharing Lorrie, those are adorable!! I’m totally going to do that next year!