INTERIORS // A Nordic Wooden Garland

How To Make A Nordic Wooden Garland

This year I have found myself getting even more simple with my Christmas decorations. Each year I seem to scale back on filling the shelves with odd trinkets and I am actually finding that my decorations are becoming more and more simple. I love that though. For a while I have been a keen follower of Scandinavian style and their simple way of living. My Hygge life still continues to be a part of real life and actually the older I get the more I am finding I am removing myself of plastic tat. The pull to it all is still very real, so much of me wants to purchase a tree train right now and that is fine but so many of my other decorations now have a different feel.

There are a couple of reasons for me turning to texture and simplicity this year; one is that nothing truly beats a natural product. I love a real Christmas tree, real greenery and berries for decoration, paper tree ornaments and fabric wrapping. All these things not only have a very natural feel to them they are all (excuse the term) "eco friendly". I didn't set out to be like that but I empty out unused Christmas decorations each year to charity shops and Christmas fairs because I refuse to fill the ground with plastic. That is something we must all be conscious of and having now bought and made great re-usable Christmas products (check out my gift bag tutorial and my Christmas Wrapping tutorial) I feel that if I ever am done with these decorations they are completely recyclable or at least burnable (non poisonous).

Anyway that is not the point of this post, this post is to share something I have made: a wooden bead garland. 

As a staple on pinterest when you search for "Scandi. Christmas'" a wooden bead garland is simply perfect as a decoration. I just love the wooded aspect, the texture and colour and in our house these garlands will suit our more minimalist approach to decorating.

I purchased some wooden beads and cotton rope and made my own garland, then I purchased more because I loved it so much and here we are!

What you will need:

I have 3 different sizes of wooden beads and the recipe makes you 2.5m of garland with beads to spare to make another smaller garland.

50 large beads

100 medium beads

200 small beads

6mm cotton rope (get 5m)

To make the garland is pretty simple; choose a bead layout (I went small, medium, small, big, small, medium, small, big ..........) and thread away. Using this pattern I used all the large beads and had medium and small leftover which I could use to make smaller garlands. The small beads made a really nice connection between the bigger ones but go with whatever you like, that is the joy of making your own!

I have found that this is just one of these nice projects you can do at home simply and even the children can get involved. As a *Top Tip* I would selotape the end of the rope (like a shoelace) to make treading easy.

The Results

Well hung around real greenery and draped over our mantle, this garland fits perfectly with our style.

Hope you like it; are you going to have a go??