To create your holiday centrepiece in a more environmentally conscience way, you’ll need: a pair of pruners, an up-cycled planter, a 1ft square of chickenwire, 1-2 stems of cedar, 1 stem of fir and 1 stem of pine.

Step One

Let’s get started! The first thing you are going to do is shape your chickenwire into a ball by wrapping the sharp edges around the chickenwire to fasten the ball together, you will want it to fit snug into your planter. Once the ball is placed into the planter fill to about half way with water.

Step Two

You’ll need to decide what shape you want your centrepiece to be, if you want a round centrepiece we will make sure that all your pieces of cedar are close to the same size. If you would like a longer narrow centerpiece, you will build two of the sides (opposite of each other) longer than the other two.

You’ll start with cedar first to create your foundation. You will cut the cedar and place it in the planter, close to the rim of the planter. Cut off any leaves that might be hanging in the water. By doing this it reduces the water usage in your centrepiece. The photo below shows what a base of a round centrepiece will look like.

Once you’ve added four pieces of cedar around your planter, you’re ready for your next layer. Add your next layer approximately one inch above the first layer, and in between the four base pieces. You will make your pieces slightly shorter as you move up to each layer. Continue to do this until you have cedar to the top of your planter. As you can see below there is a few spot that you can see the wire through and that is totally fine! By the end it will be very full!

Step Three

Next cut off all of your fir branches. Fir is used in between each piece of cedar that’s already in place. Keep your fir around the same size as your cedar or slightly shorter.

Step Four

Before we start to place the fir you will want to “strip” the needles off of the bottom to help reduce water uptake. We normally take off the bottom 1″ to 1.5″ of needles (pictured in the photo below).

Step Five

Now it’s time to add the fir. Your centrepiece will begin to look full, if you still have holes where you can see the chickenwire that’s okay because you still have pine to add.

Step Six

Next up is the pine. Pine is our fav because it adds a little fluff to your centrepiece!

Once again, make sure to strip the needles off the bottom inch or so. Again make sure your pine is slightly shorter than your cedar.

Next, add the pine in any holes where you see the chickenwire.

Unlike the cedar and fir, we like to start at the top of the planter and work our way down to the base, but that’s personal preference, either way works great!

And just like that you’ve made a beautiful, natural, up-cycled centrepiece to make your table festive this holiday season! You can even add a few décor items in, such as berries, and pine cones – remember to keep your decor from year to year.