Another new tree...sort of :)

A couple months ago my friend Christie forwarded an image from a blog she was reading. The image featured a bedroom wall painted w/ trees-a design the home owner sketched out, projected onto the wall, traced, & then painted. I LOVED the look, & decided it was just what my bedroom wall needed. I referenced some sketches I made in Colorado & free hand painted some birch trees onto one of the walls. The result was great! Just what I was looking for :)

Now fast forward a couple weeks. I had a small tree out in my backyard which at one point had been hit by lightning. It was cracking up the side, was half dead, & basically just needed to be taken down before part of it fell into the house, or I had to call in the professionals to take it down. I figured I could take some of the branches, cut them into small rounds w/ different thickness, & create an arrangement on the adjacent wall.

Here's what to do:
1. Take different width branches & cut them into rounds. Vary the size & thicknesses of each round. I used my miter saw, but whatever saw you can cut a 90 degree angle with will do the trick
2. Lay each piece out to dry, mine took two weeks
3. Making sure each piece is dry & clear of sawdust, use heavy duty mounting squares to adhere each round to the wall. The qty of squares for each piece depends on the size of the round. The largest ones I had used 4 & the smallest 1
4. Here comes the easy part-arrange them however you like & you're done!

The final result ended up looking better than I could've imagined! Modern, whimsical, & a great paraody between the painted trees on the wall & the sections of real tree on the wall. Plus, & this is the best part, it was practically free! Only $3.62 for the mounting squares-can't beat that :)