Industrial Chain Garland

If Home Depot sold milk and diapers, it might be the only store I would ever have to go in to.  Man, I love that place!  The smell of the lumber makes me weak in the knees.  I probably need professional help.

Now that the Home Depot publishes seasonal Style Guides, I’m even more in love.  They are chock full of inspirational photos and step-by-step DIY projects.  This year’s Fall Style Guide featured a really cool wreath made out of pieces of PVC pipe.  I have been crushing on it hard since the first time I saw it.

How cool is that?  I really enjoy taking something industrial from Home Depot and transforming it into something pretty.  The industrial trend is so huge right now (and one of my favorites), so it’s nice to be able to incorporate it into your home for cheap.  A full tutorial for this wreath can be found here.

Since I had already made a snowman hanging for my front door, I decided to explore ways of bringing in an industrial element into another part of my holiday decor.  After a lot of aisle roaming at Home Depot, I finally decided to add some chain to the garland I was planning for my staircase railing.  My husband rolled his eyes when I brought it home, but once again, I was right and he was wrong.  Nah nah, nah nah, boo boo.

This garland was SO easy to put together and it bring a little funk to ordinary Christmas decorations – y’all know that “traditional” isn’t generally in my vocabulary.  I started with a cheap, nasty, scratchy faux pine garland.  I swaged it on my banister and wired it in place with floral wire.  Then, I followed the same swag line and wired some real cedar garland on top of it.  This is the first time I have ever used real garland, and I love it!  The nasty faux pine bulks it up so that the cedar doesn’t look whimpy, but the cedar hides the nasty faux pine.

Then, I used two sizes and colors of chain from Home Depot.  There is a wide assortment of cut-to-length chain available in the same aisle as the screws, nails and other fasteners.  I ran my garland up my staircase and around the lofted playroom railing, so I had to use about 35 feet of each type of chain.  You can see that I used a small silver chain and a larger white chain.  My original plan was to spray paint one of them red, but once I got home, I decided that the silver and white looked great without paint.  I wired those with floral wire and then tied red ribbon at each place the garland met the railing.

Why didn’t I tie the red ribbon into bows?  Well, there are two reasons: 1) Bows take more ribbon than knots and 2) I thought bows would be too cutesy for the industrial chain garland.

I never would have thought about using chains in my garland if it wasn’t for that PVC wreath in the Home Depot Style Guide.  You better believe that I’ll be checking out the Style Guide each season.  If you have an iPad, you can download the free Style Guide app here and it will alert you when a new season is available.  And if you don’t, you can sign up for the Style Guide email notices here(bottom left of page) and you’ll be alerted when the newest one is published online. If you download Style Guide app on your iPad and enter a picture, you could win a $1,000 gift card to Home Depot!  I could do some serious damage with that!

Here’s a fuller shot of the garland with my tree.  Yes, I have colored lights on my tree.  Yes, it’s full of kid-made ornaments.  Yes, I forgot to add a garland on the tree before the ornaments and have been too lazy to put it on.  Yes, I have a so ugly it’s awesome retro-styled tree topper.  I’m definitely not one of those gals who has a beautifully themed tree, although I do love those.  My kids get such a kick out of hanging up their own ornaments and picking between white and multi-colored lights each year.  So much of my home decor is what *I* want that I enjoy letting them do Christmas the way *they* want – it’s part of the magic as far as I’m concerned.

Have you incorporated any industrial style into your holiday decorations?  Tell me about it!

Home Depot can be found:

• Online at www.homedepot.com;
• On Facebook at www.facebook.com/homedepot;
• On Twitter at twitter.com/homedepot.

The Home Depot partnered with bloggers such as me for their Fall Style Guide Blog Network.  As part of this program, I received compensation for my time.  They did not tell me what to purchase or what to say about any product mentioned in these posts.  The Home Depot believes that consumers and bloggers are free to form their own opinions and share them in their own words.  The Home Depot’s policies align with WOMMA Ethics Code, FTC guidelines and social media engagement recommendations.