A couple of weeks ago while we were on our quest for pine boughs to decorate our house with, we stopped at a nursery in our neighborhood. At this particular nursery, they sold real Christmas trees that had been decorated with flocking. Let me tell you guys, if I had an extra $150 burning a hole in my pocket every December, I would buy a real, flocked Christmas tree. I would. They are beautiful! Just look!
Of course, we left that nursery without a flocked tree and came home to this tree. Of all the Christmas trees in our house, this one was the Charlie Browniest. I couldn't stop thinking about those flocked trees.
I really wanted to flock the little artificial Christmas tree for our basement family room. I did some research and wasn't able to find much information on flocking your own Christmas tree. The information I did find said that you would need a machine that would spray the flocking on to your tree and there was no way that I would be able to find or purchase something like that. Other tutorials said to use a mixture of soap and water, but that approach was more suitable to a real Christmas tree that could be disposed of after the end of the holiday. My husband called the nursery that sold the flocked trees and asked if there was any way to flock an artificial tree. The employees there were quite helpful and gave us some information which I will share with you today!
I am not going to be confident enough to call this a tutorial for a couple of reasons. I do not know how the flocking will hold up after Christmas is over. The employee we spoke to at the nursery said that it should last for a couple of years, but there is no certainty in that. Our plan is to remove the ornaments and lights but leave the rest of the tree together, since pushing the branches down and storing it in a box will no longer be an option. Putting it in a Christmas tree bag and keeping it in our attic will hopefully preserve the flocking for at least a couple of years.
Also, I'm not sure that there is a "technique" to this. The employee at the store said to "throw the flocking at the tree", which I did do at times. I also "sprinkled" the flocking on to the tree. At times, I "pushed" the flocking onto the tree. In other words, I basically flew by the seat of my pants on this project, not knowing for sure if it would turn out until the end. Yikes. I'm still not confident about how I went about it, thus, I won't call it a tutorial. I'm not a flocking expert. However, I will tell you that it made our artificial tree much prettier to look at and it was worth the time, effort, and money put into it. So that's that. I would be happy to try and answer any questions you may have, but I can't guarantee good results for your tree should you try it yourself.
Let's move on. To flock our Christmas tree, I used the following supplies:
a Christmas tree (artificial)\
spray paint
flocking powder (I bought a 5 lb. bag for $5.00 per lb.)
a spray bottle filled with water
a mask
safety glasses
rubber gloves (optional)
old clothing (this project is messy!)
To start, I brought our 6'x3' tree outside and primed it with a very light coat of spray paint. I am not sure if this step was necessary, however I wanted the flocking to adhere to the tree as best as possible.
After the spray paint had dried, I sprayed a small section of the tree with the water. I then put on my safety glasses and mask to protect myself from the flocking dust.
I then took a small handful of the flocking powder and sprinkled it on the wet sections of the tree.
To set the flocking powder, I sprayed it with water. As I applied the water to the flocking powder, it clumped together. After the flocking and water dried, it turned hard.
This is what the flocking looked like after it dried completely.
I could have added more flocking to this tree to make it look like the ones in my inspiration picture above because I had more than enough flocking. However, Jason and I both decided that we like a little bit of the green in the tree to show. Also, the more flocking you use, the more expensive it is!
Here is what our flocked tree looks like now. It is the perfect little tree for our basement family room and adds a little brightness down there!
The before:
The after:
Thank you for reading! I hope to be back again before Christmas to share a favorite Christmas recipe as well as some more decorations throughout our home. See you soon!
