Christmas 2011/ Decorating some more

Continuing Monday's post on decorating the apartment. This is what our kitchen table looked like when I took out all the ornaments:

I completely forgot I bought these three boxes of ornaments last year.

Decorating a small apartment is a great opportunity to get creative. Find the surfaces, nooks and shelves that can hold various bowls, scented candles and festive decorations. I am a big proponent of less is more, so I always select just one area of the room.

Ikea mini tree

Bowls filled with ornaments or decorative plates have become popular in the past couple of years and are always a perfect solution for a small space. I still prefer to hang my ornaments though.
I bought the Ikea mini tree stand featured in the top photo. It's small and sturdy.
The one in the bottom photo is tempting too.

Ikea mini tree

This tree stand fits perfectly on the mini shelf in the kitchen. The lights are battery operated and I've hidden them inside the big Santa ornament.

This basically takes care of the kitchen/living area.

The bedroom chest of drawers is where I put my larger arrangement. Last year I took out our mini tree, this year I opted for something more DIY and pink ;-)
I picked some branches about a week in advance and let them dry in the basement for a couple of days.

Then I bought some acrylic paint and some glitter. The paint wasn't all that expensive and proved to be easy to apply and very saturated. One coat was enough.

Though in a pinch an old bottle of nail polish would do the job too. DIY is all about being creative and thinking outside the box.

If you've ever used glitter spray you know how messy that can get. The following option does take more time, but the glitter doesn't come off afterwards. Take some glitter and mix it with varnish. Mine was some sort of DIY acrylic varnish. Again, clear nail polish is an excellent replacement and I've used it in the past.

Make sure you use a substantial amount of glitter for a good coverage. I used an old ice-cream lid as my mixing palette:

And here are my branches after they've been painted. The one in the 4th one from the left is painted in glitter only.

The finished result. I used sellotape to secure the ornaments.

This takes care of decorations. Next up: gifts and all about gift wrapping.