Stylists and designers and decorators have been putting Christmas trees in urns for as long as I have been in the business, which is like forever in dinosaur dog stylist years, and I reckon long before the word stylist was even bandied about.
I've gathered a bunch of images for you pinched from Google, a round up for your enjoyment and inspiration. Feel free to credit them for me.
It makes sense since chopping down a tree and bringing it into the house, is perhaps the most basic expression of using something from nature or the garden as the unexpected element being used in the house, the house being the expected element. Back in the 1990's the whole inside/out trend was in it's heyday. Decorators loved using the word juxtaposition.
Decorators were schlepping moss, twigs, birch trees and branches, dirt, sand, river rocks, autumn leaves, Galax and lemon leaves, dried flowers, rose petals, grapevine, and curly willow into house. Floral designers would throw it on dining tables as centerpieces, the idea of dining in close proximity of dirt seemed edgy and radical and beautiful. And it was. Just like an indoor picnic without living bugs.
Using containers meant for planting and potting flowers outdoors also became en vogue. The more moss covered they were the better, and Martha Stewart advised us to use a concoction of dirt and buttermilk to turn our pots into petri dishes to cultivate the green stuff. Tricksters like me simply hot glued moss to everything. I covered a Chanel bag with moss with a white gardenia adhered to the clasp for a bridal photo shoot, and covered another one entirely in hot pink decapitated rose heads.
The fiberglass urn was a godsend. A collection of them (and the coordinating pedestals and plinths) became the tools of the event designers trade. Concrete and plaster were still used, and terra cotta too, but nothing beat the ease of hauling fiberglass up and down freight elevators. The art of faux finishing flourished, and those urns and such would shock and awe as this petite stylist would hoist one on her shoulder, filled to the brim with flowering branches or baroque hedonistic bouquets heady with opulence. Some teamster type working in the hotel would stop dead in his tracks to marvel at the strong girl carrying a huge urn.
I kept alot of my props and equipment when I left New York and my design business there. And as things always do, stuff that was once special and hard to get, comes mainstream, and volia there's Martha at K-Mart offering urns and containers to the garden variety home decorator. We pros bought them too, because the price point was far better than the prices we paid at the wholesale prop vendors, florist supply shops, and garden centers. We scoured flea markets and antiques shows like Brimfield too searching for that just-perfect awesome urn with just the right amount of patina and crustiness.
I love the way a Christmas tree looks in an urn. Using a faux-fake-artificial tree is alot easier than using a heavy real tree. Table top size works best if you are intent on having a real tree.
Eddie Ross and Martha have great tips on their web sites in the how-to department.
Moi? This year I just shoved my tree in the urn and let the lower branches hold it in place. Of course I don't have children or a tree climbing pet to bother it. King Charles Spaniels rarely mess with decor, except to enhance a chair, a sofa, a bed, a bench, a throw, or a cushion with some artful lounging and poses.
When a tree is elevated in an urn you get the extra bonus of hanging space for the ornaments on the lower branches. Even when I don't use an urn, I tend to elevate a Christmas tree to get this extra display real estate.
Visual Vamp tree sans urn but still elevated on Tiffany boxesTable top trees in urns are a good way to start. and yes every big box store and catalog sell a tree already lighted and already in an urn. Just fluff, and add ornaments. Antique style feather trees look swell in urns, and retro style tinsel or aluminum trees look wonderful in urns or placed in big retro style pots. Huge flower pots work well to, gilded or painted your favorite color, or if a terra cotta is your thing, use as is. Even a huge box would work, and you could always gift wrap it, or use the iconic darlings like the Tiffany box or the coveted orange Hermes box.
I am sure none of this is news to you, so if anyone has potted their Christmas tree in an urn, tell us about it, and/or send me a photo because you know I love to show off readers homes and projects.
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