The Holiday Decorating Hack That Calls For Chicken Wire And Garland

Garlands effortlessly change the ambiance of a room, especially during the holidays. It turns a bare room into a festive, cozy space and elevates the rest of your Christmas décor. The only issue you might encounter when hanging up a garland is insufficient support for it to stay upright. If you place it on your China cabinet or fireplace mantel, you don't want it to lay on top; it looks best hanging off the side. While you could use tape to prevent it from sliding down, sometimes it's not strong enough. Instead, you can use chicken wire and a thumbtack to hang your garland from any place easily.

The chicken wire creates the perfect foundation to hold multiple strands of garland, especially if you enjoy DIYing your own Christmas garland. Plus, it's thin enough to hide between the branches and leaves that you won't be able to tell it's being supported by anything, making it look like it's floating. Using the chicken wire and thumbtack works best on a wooden mantel, alternatively, you can use command strips to keep the chicken wire in place if you don't want to nail anything into your mantel. This decorating hack is an excellent problem solver you can use every holiday season — you only need chicken wire from Amazon and thumbtacks or command hooks to set up a striking garland.

Before setting up your garland, plan where you want the chicken wire to sit on your fireplace mantel, then cut the chicken wire into a long rectangle so that you can fold it into layers to make a square. Leave a part of the wire unfolded to nail it into the mantel. Repeat the step to cut a section for each end. If you're using a command hook, this would be the time to attach it to the surface. Repeat the step with as many wire pieces as necessary, spacing them out over the length of your mantle.

After your chicken wire pieces are attached to the mantel, it's time to arrange the garland. Start on one side of the mantel and work your way to the other side. You can insert branches through the chicken wire so that it hangs along the side. Or, you can lay the garland flat on the mantel and fill the chicken wire with additional branches, such as berries, pinecones, or dried fruit, to give it a fuller look. Continue arranging the garland and filling the wire until you're content with the finished look. Give your garland a sparkly look by intertwining twinkle lights throughout.