Chelsea DeBoer Has A Clever Christmas Tree Base Alternative You'll Want For Your Home This Winter
Traditional Christmas tree stands, skirts, and collars are a must-have every holiday season, for both holding up the tree and providing an attractive base that blends with holiday decor and offers a pretty spot for all the gifts sure to be stashed beneath. While store-bought options are pretty standard, you may, however, be looking for a way to get the look of a more elevated and distinctive holiday tree base at a price more friendly to decorating on a budget. HGTV's Chelsea DeBoer, recently shared a cool DIY on Instagram using some large rounded planters, expanding foam, and a handmade tree stand created by co-host and husband Cole DeBoer that offers a great solution. The result is a sophisticated potted tree look you can usually only find at luxury retailers or professional gardeners.
The DeBoer's stylish trees are great for any location, including anywhere indoors where you usually place your tree or outdoors, here they can flank a door or patio. Even better, the pot you choose to use is completely customizable to fit your decor and budget. Because the spray foam is much less heavy than sand, which is sometimes used in outdoor pots, these trees are much easier to move from place to place.
Creating the base
Chelsea DeBoer found that her existing artificial tree bases would not fit into the narrower opening of her favorite cylindrical planters from Crate & Barrel. Husband Cole DeBoer came to the rescue, creating a new stand out of scrap wood from an old mailbox, which along with some metal pipe, he fashioned into a new, smaller stand. He then fills the remainder of the pot expanding foam, which gives a bit more weight to the pot, and firmly holds the pipe in place so that it will not tip or lean. They are able to simply slide the tree's rod into the secured pipe. This method also makes it easier to slide the tree out at the end of the season and store away until next year.
Cole DeBoer begins by creating the smaller wood brace for inside the pot, which is a challenge due to the smaller opening and round shape of the planter. He solves the problem by creating a Y-shaped frame with three pieces of wood cut at angles that join together with screws. He then drills a hole through the center the same width as his piping, which he threads through to the bottom of the pot, bracing it with some smaller chunks of wood. A firm fit will keep the frame slightly aloft in the planter so that the expanding foam can settle completely around the frame and pipe to help hold everything in place.
Adding the foam
Cole DeBoer uses multiple cans of expanding foam, usually available from hardware stores like Home Depot, where it is usually sold as an insulation material for mending gaps and cracks. For two large planters, it takes the whole family some time and multiple cans to fill up the planters, but the result is a sturdy planter tree stand ready for trees as soon as the foam dries completely — usually around 24 hours. Fill the planter up enough to cover the framework of the stand, but several inches below the end of the pipe. While tree poles vary, look for a pipe that is slightly wider to allow it to easily slide in and out but not so large it allows the tree to lean in any direction.
This great project can use any variety of large planters available at home and garden stores to fit your aesthetics. Concrete planters are great for large trees and will hold the weight at their base, while smaller, more lightweight trees can also be placed inside inexpensive plastic planters. While the DeBoers use their favorite higher-end planters from luxe Crate & Barrel, the DIY can be done with large planters at any price point. This hack also works great for placing trees inside any kind of container including baskets, tubs, and other receptacles, all of which may make conventional Christmas tree stands a thing of the past.