Decorating with Bottle Brush Trees on the Mantel
Decorating with bottle brush trees can give any room a vintage, holiday touch. A few years ago, they were really hard to find unless you scoured flea markets and thrift stores. Today, with all of the awesome reproductions in lots of different and fun colors, they are so east to find! They are such a great part of vintage Christmas decor. By decorating with bottle brush trees on the mantel flanked in pines, I was fun to mix and match to give my mantel that boho, eclectic flair that wasn’t just traditional red and green holiday decor.
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Last year, my mantelscape theme was more of a rustic woodland them. This year, I was going for a little more color. I used a garland of fresh,live greens as my base, an over that, I draped a yarn pom-pom garland. It was super cute with a mix of traditional yarn and fuzzy wool yarn. I love how the layers look with the white pom poms over the fresh evergreens. I wish fresh pine lasted a little longer, I normally have to change it out at least once during the holiday season since I decorate so early.
On top of the mantel, I used these really cute, rustic wood trees as a taller part of the backdrop. I also layered some faux pine trees in pots in the background. Realistic looking faux pine really is a gift.
I found all of these really cute, metallic and colorful bottlebrush trees, and placed them across the mantel in a random size order. It created kind of a vintage winter wonderland with some holiday shimmer. If you’ve ever wondered where vintage bottle brush trees originally came from, have I got a fun answer for you!
Bottle brush trees were made in the 1930’s by the Addis toilet brush company. Yep, toilet brushes. They were made of a natural bristle and originally dyed green. In the 1950’s all of those fun colors came around. It really gives a new perspective on “Decking the Halls”.
It’s funny how toilet-brushes can make the perfect holiday decoration. My NEW bottle brush trees had silver, cream, bronze and gold hue variations, so I mixed the two boxes to fill out my mantelscape in the living room. There are so many creative ways to decorate with bottle brush trees and putting them on a mantel are just a few ideas. They make some of the best Christmas decor! I’ve even used them on my kitchen shelves and as elegant place cards.
Shop: Bottle Brush Trees
On each side, I flanked them with some smaller faux trees. I love how they contrast in texture of decorating with bottle brush trees. To me it had a very Anthropologie feel… they are so perfect on top of your holiday mantel.
The one tree had a great white clay pot, but the other had a bright red container, so I covered that with a wood-look paper from the scrapbook aisle and secured it with hot glue. It makes for the perfect, compact Christmas trees in a sweet little whitewashed pots. I might tuck some loose sprigs of greenery around later, but it gets crispy so fast, that I’ll wait until it’s closer to Christmas.
I love how my deck the holiday mantelscape with these bristly little trees make feel a bit like a boho forest. I’ve used them in all kinds of my holiday decor including some DIY Christmas centerpiece ideas, and my Christmas table. They make for such a festive tablescape! I’ve even left mine up through January before.
If you can’t find bottle brush trees you like, and don’t want to bleach and dye your own, or spend the extra cost you can make paper versions with fringing shears! Check out this post on how to make your own paper trees.
What I really love is how the bottle brush tree colors match my rug when I didn’t even plan it that way! It was a really easy mantel to pull together too. It pretty much involved opening some boxes and plopping them down. Sometimes, that’s my favorite kind of decorating! All I need is a little faux snow! They go so well with my bread slice mirror!
