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Unique DIY Wooden Christmas Tree With Knobs On

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I can’t walk past a skip (dumpster) without having a good look in. I especially love odd bits of wood with interesting moldings or hooks and knobs on them. Over the last year, I managed to gather quite a collection of this Architectural salvage. I needed to do something with it, that’s when I got the idea for a DIY wooden Christmas tree

I love a flat Christmas tree, last year I made a stylish branch DIY Christmas tree. This looked great in my front room and didn’t take up half as much space as a real Christmas tree.  I’ve even painted a large flat Christmas tree on my wall.

As much as I love a real Christmas tree we don’t really have the room for one. Flat Christmas trees just don’t take up as much space.

DIY Wooden Christmas Tree Made From Architectural Salvage

I still have my branch Christmas tree, but I thought it would be fun to have another flat Christmas tree in the dining room. This DIY wooden Christmas tree is very different as it has knobs and hooks and is made from architectural salvage.

I think that the knobs look like Christmas ornaments in themselves especially the coloured ones. The tree can be simply hung on the wall or you can make a stand for it and have it free-standing.

How to make a fun unique DIY wooden Christmas tree. Upcycled from scrap wood such as moldings and pallets combined with old knobs and hooks.

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What you need to make a DIY wooden Christmas tree

  • Scraps of wood – I used bits of skirting board and architrave because of it’s attractive moldings. I also used some old wooden coat racks and pallet wood scraps. Use whatever you can find. The longest branch was approximately 3ft.
Salvaged wood scraps used for DIY Christmas tree.
  • A collection of old knobs, hooks and general ironmongery
knobs and hooks for salvaged Christmas tree.

How to make a DIY wooden Christmas tree

1.. The first thing to do is to gather up all your wood scraps and lay them out on the ground to work out how the Christmas tree will look. Put the smaller pieces of wood at the top.

Laying out the design of a DIY wood Christmas tree.

2. Next, to get a typical Christmas tree shape using a sharpie, mark where you will need to saw your wood planks. Make sure that the ends of the tree shape slope. Using a reciprocating saw if you have one, saw along the sharpie lines.

Don’t worry if you don’t have an electric saw, you can always do this bit by hand, but it will just take a little longer.

3. Next, before screwing your Christmas tree together paint the wood. However, before painting, you can brush a Crackle Medium onto the wood to give a more rustic finished look to the wood.

For the paint, I used Annie Sloan chalk paint in Antibes green. To add to the aged wood effect, I finished it off with a coating of Annie Sloan dark wax. Stain the wooden trunk dark brown using the dark wax.

4. Then prepare the knobs and hooks for the tree. First, by scraping away any excess rust from the metal and painting the wooden ones.

I just used what spray paints I had in my craft cupboard to paint the wooden knobs but you can use any leftover paints you have.

painted knobs

5. Next, the placement of the knobs and hooks on my DIY wooden Christmas tree may look random, but they weren’t quite.

Lay the painted wood branches down on the ground. Then, place the knobs and hooks where you think they look best. Taking one branch at a time, screw the knobs and hooks into place.

Placement of knobs and hooks on DIY Christmas tree

6. Finaly, lay the trunk flat on the ground and starting with the top, one by one screw the branches of the Christmas tree to the trunk. I used 2 screws per branch.

Screwing branches to wood DIY wooden christmas tree

The DIY wooden Christmas tree hangs on the wall in my kitchen. I just used to hooks in the wall to hang it from. The way the tree is designed it can simply lean against the wall if you want. Just make sure you lean it somewhere it won’t accidentally get knocked.

Another way to secure the Christmas tree is to make a stand for it.

Use architectual salvage from skips and dumpsters to make a unique DIY wooden Christmas tree. Hang it on the wall for the perfect flat Christmas tree

The original plan was to hang decorations from all the knobs and hooks of my flat DIY wood Christmas tree. However, the knobs and hooks are like Christmas ornaments in themselves, so I think I might just leave the tree as is, and hang my decorations elsewhere.

Mind you as the tree lives in the kitchen during the festive season the knobs have been handy for hanging tea-towels and oven mitts.

Decorated DIY wood Christmas tree. A space saving unique flat Christmas tree for your home. Full step by step tutorials.

I love my flat Christmas trees as you can just hang them or lean them against the wall, taking up very little space. You might want to check out the stylish branch Christmas tree I made last year.

Or if you like simple Christmas trees that are great for showing off ornaments, check out these other DIY trees.
DIY Lampshade Rustic Christmas Tree
Stylish Scandinavian Christmas Tree

I’ve also used scrap skirting boards like the one I used for this tree to make some cute wooden key holders that would make a fabulous Christmas gift.

How many Christmas trees do you have in your home?

For more repurposed and DIY wood projects visit the DIYideacentre.

DIY wooden Christmas tree


Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Teresa

    This is the most unique and creative Christmas tree I’ve seen and I absolutely love it!! It’s inspiring! Thank you so much for sharing it at Party in Your PJ’s.

    Reply

  5. MEDINA GRILLO

    I couldn’t remember if I commented on this before – but oh well if I have this post deserved two comments! Great way to use knobs Claire .. loving this! And like you said – a total space saver!

    Reply

  10. Julie

    That’s brilliant, what a lovely tree. We just have the one in our house, and it has every decoration we’ve ever had on it!
    I love the idea of these flat trees though, I’m sure we have a space for one somewhere.

    Reply

  20. Carla

    Oops… I guess I just submited my comment to the contact form. Well, here again as a comment: I totally love your idea of flat Christmas trees and do like both your versions. Maybe will try one too, as one Christmas tree is never enough.

    Reply

  21. Lins @ Boo & Maddie

    The flat Christmas Tree is fabulous! I’ve seen so many ideas on Pinterest but none so creative as this. I think my favourite is all the bits of ironmongery which make it really stand out. Thanks so much for linking up to #HomeEtc X

    Reply

  25. Kara

    Wow, I love this, I wanted to do a flat tree last year and seeing this has made me want to do it even more. Nothing better than a great upcycle x
    #homeetc

    Reply

  26. Louisa

    What a fantastic idea! My husband has an ever growing collection of wood offcuts and I know he would love an excuse to use them. #homeetc

    Reply

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