Outside In -- Branches as Decoration

I'm a bit obsessed with branches. And rocks, and to a lesser extent, shells. As decor.

I have a funky over-the-shelf, under-the-stairs space in my living room that looked lovely when empty but always ended up filled with overflow stuff. When my dad called and told me that the unseasonable snow had broken some branches off their Ash trees I thought "poor trees", "poor parents" and "free branches!". Not necessarily in that order.


On my next visit home I picked a number of likely candidates and made my husband load them into the car. When we got home I trimmed the branches to fit, mounted them, added some lighting, and for the final touch, a couple of faux birds that I'd been hanging onto for the right project.

Here's how I did it:
First I choose which branches to use. I put the thickest trunks towards the front, thinner in back to encourage the illusion of depth. I measured the height at the points I wanted to place the branches. Then I cut the bases of the branches flat, marked where the sub-branches needed to be cut and cut those with a hand saw.

At first I tried wedging them into the space, but my cat jumped up and knocked the branches over, so I added bases to help keep them upright. I drilled a narrow hole in the base of each branch and screwed a thin piece of wood to the base.

The finishing touch (other than the birds) was the backlight. I took a long florescent light, wrapped it with an amber gel (from a film production store) and put it on a timer so it only comes on in the evening. The birds were Christmas ornaments from Z Gallery.
Fitting them into the triangular space was a bit tricky. I probably could have measured more accurately, but it works and the minor errors are really only noticeable to me.