Spray Paint Is Your Friend!

Need to get a jump start on your holiday decorating prep but you don’t have what you need? Use spray paint to refresh your silk flowers!

One thing you would think a former florist would have would be a seemingly endless supply of decorating materials.  Sadly, due to space constraints after we moved to Florida, I had to downsize my “cave of wonders”.  What is a Cave of Wonders, you ask? It is what my designer called all the areas where we stored everything at the shop.  The cave of wonders was vast, it held a lot.  It even had a branch location at my farm and in a couple of off-site storage units.  I had a lot of material to work with! I couldn’t always find what I needed but I knew it was there somewhere!

one small area of the backroom of the flower shop

How I came to Be Pine Pick Challenged

When we first decided to move to Florida permanently, I hadn’t given much thought to what I would be doing with my time.  Starting a blog and continuing to create things was barely a seed in the back of my mind.

Honestly, the process of downsizing and relocating took a lot longer than I had planned.   It was overwhelming and I wasn’t always thinking clearly when dealing with the process.  When I sorted thru the flower shop supplies, I wasn’t thinking about the future.   I just wanted to get the pizza building cleared out.

Pictured below is the jumble of boxes my friend helped me move from the back of the pizza building into one of the buildings on my family homestead on a hot summer day.  The boxes sat there for several months until I could get back to continue dealing with everything.

If you are wondering why my floral supplies ended up in the back of a pizza building, the back story can be found here: Sprout, Grow Bloom

Fast forward to a sunny autumn day in Florida and I decide to work on a project involving pine picks. I had forgotten that the pine picks were buried in that mess! Which is how I ended up standing in my living room looking at all the stuff I had pulled out of the Christmas tubs and saying “Who took the pine picks?”.  I immediately tried to blame Gracie.  Gracie gets blamed for a lot.  Gracie is the dog.  She always says she didn’t take whatever it is I am looking for!  She has such a sweet face!  Of course she is innocent!

After spinning around the room a few times, certain that if I just kept looking the pine pics would miraculously appear, I decided to run out to a couple of local stores to see what I could find that might work.  I came back with some really cools things but no pine picks.  I finally realized there was a box (or 2, maybe even 3) of pine picks and pine sprays still at the farm in the glass house.  I believe I may have shared that experience here:  

But having pine picks approximately 1100 miles away, didn’t really help me when I was in the decorating zone and wanted to decorate NOW!

You will be happy to know that I did manage to bring the pine pics to Florida when I finally completed the Thyme to Let Go process. 

The Solution – Use Spray Paint to Refresh Silk Flowers

After my return from the store and muttering about how I couldn’t believe someone hadn’t packed the pine picks, I decided to look around the house to see what I might be able to turn into something that would work as a pine pick.  I happened to glance up and see this bundle.  It is a neutral bundle of what looks like dried grass.  I had brought it to Florida thinking it had a beachy vibe.

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Since this is me we are talking about, I had 3 bundles of this.  I decided I could sacrifice one bundle for the good of solving the pine pick dilemma.  The bundle also had cute little tallow berries to add interest.  I separated the bundle into individual picks.  

By now, you are probably thinking, but Kim they are brown…. brown…. not what a normal person would use for their Christmas decorations.  This is where our friend, spray paint, comes in!

 

We used a lot of spray paint at the flower shop.  I did bring quite a few cans of it with me.  In fact, my husband just asked why I had so much spray paint!  He asked if it was because Petals & Porch Post had so much spray paint!  I think there might have been a big box of spray paint in that last load of “stuff” from Illinois!

Back to the story : I decided that Hill Green might work.  I was going for a more coastal feel.  If you want a more traditional green, there are several shades of green available.  I included a link to Design Master Herbal Green at the end of the post.  I will admit, it does seem to be a little pricey.  One can of floral spray paint does go along way, though.

I shook my can of Hill Green paint and stepped outside to spray.  That is how easy it is to use spray paint to refresh silk flowers!

Voila!  It worked!  The next step was to add a little pine and pine cones to the tallow berry seagrass picks .  I separated this pine spray to get the material  I needed.  This pine spray also had tallow berries so I was able to incorporate them also.

To finish the pine picks, I used brown floral tape to attach the pine/pine cone pick to the beachy grassy pick.  Floral tape comes in several different colors.  I used brown for this but you could use green.  To get the floral tape to adhere, simply gently pull it to stretch it as you wrap it around the stem.  Don’t pull too hard or the tape with break!

Now you are ready to start designing with your pine picks! 

Coastal Holiday Oval Dough Bowl

If you have been following me for a bit, you already know I keep a dough bowl on my gathering room coffee table!   I love to decorate it for the seasons.

Autumn

Christmas

To make the Coastal Christmas Holiday dough bowl display, I removed everything from the bowl and dusted it. I placed the battery candle in the center.   I then layered the pine picks in and then added the Christmas ornaments and  shells . I kept it fairly simple.  As it gets closer to Christmas, I can add more elements such as silver glittery pine cones or metallic painted shells.

The pine picks can be used where ever you  need a little touch of Christmas!

Save This Pin For Later!

The following pin has all the steps I used to transform the seagrass brown silk bush into pine pics as well as instructions for making the dough bowl centerpiece! 

 

Other Uses for the Pine Picks

I used the pine pics for several different Autumn projects .

 Simple Ways to Add Interest to Vignettes

Chalk Painted Candle Holders

 

 

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