When cold weather comes, with it comes an overwhelming urge to make my home as cozy as can be. There’s something about string lights that can really give off that cozy feeling, and today’s DIY uses them in the cutest way I’ve ever seen. I first saw this flameless fire pit idea when our print and color designer made one for a trend meeting a litte while back — Julia actually included a photo of it in this Scenes From The Office post! As soon as I caught a glimpse of it, I just knew I had to make my own. If you want to help turn your home into a cozy little winter wonderland, you should make one, too!
What you need
Lace strips (Lace ribbon, cut up lace clothing/tablecloths/curtains – anything, really!)
Tree branches (I found mine outside – just make sure they’re at least 3/4 inch in diameter)
Aluminum foil
Fabric stiffener or washable school glue (I got mine from A.C. Moore)
Paintbrush
String lights
Rocks (Also from outside!)
What you do
1. Wrap each branch in aluminum foil, making sure to cover every bit of wood. This will make sure the lace doesn’t stick to your branches once it’s dry.
2. Apply fabric stiffener or glue to a strip of lace, making sure it’s saturated. The more you use, the sturdier your lace branch cast will be.
3. Wrap the lace around a branch, starting at one end and working your way to the other. Make sure to overlap the lace a little so that there are no holes. Use any many strips as necessary to reach both ends.
4. Repeat until all your branches are covered and let dry. Make sure the lace is completely dry before moving on to the next step. I waited overnight.
5. Once the lace is totally dry, pick up a branch and use a sharp knive (I used an Xacto knive) to cut one clean line into the lace, from one end to the other. Don’t worry about cutting too deeply – I cut through the aluminum foil, as well.
6. Pop the cast off of the branch, and remove the branch. Carefully peel the aluminum foil off of the interior of the lace, and discard the foil.
7. Repeat on all branches.
8. Now for the fun part! Arrange your rocks into a circular shape, filling the middle area with string lights. Make sure to leave the plug end of the lights on the outside of the circle, and make sure you can reach an outlet.
9. Arrange your lace branches into a cone-like shape, touching towards the top. The branches should all balance on one another, holding each other up. If you have trouble getting your branches to stay up, wedge them between the rocks.
10. Add some more rocks and plug in your lights!
We think this flamless fire pit is one of the cutest things we’ve ever seen. If you make your own, feel free to send us a photo to blog@freepeople.com. We’d love to see it!
Photos by Brigette.
More DIY projects we love. :)
This is perfect, we are going to use our gilded branches we just made here for this! http://foxandgypsy.blogspot.com/2012/11/gilded-branches.html?m=1 to m
This is such a cute idea! Really nice for the winter as well :)
oh my gosh! this is great! i’m going to have to find a spot in the living room for this :) thanks
Love that idea!
my oh my! free people blog has the best DIY projects ever! well now i know what i’m going to do this weekend :)
beautiful idea!!
DIY and more:
diyearte by L & S
Gorgeous! Love this DIY! Thanks so much Free People!
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This is perfect for my little apartment! I did end up making mine a little differently. I made a thick cardboard base and hot glued the rocks down. That way I can move it around without having to totally rebuild it! Also, try using the battery powered string lights! You don’t have that extra length of lights sticking out and you don’t need to worry about being near an outlet!!
Thanks for the tips Mallory, yours sounds gorgeous!
This is so amazing! Would never thought of that in a million years!
Thanks for showing this tutorial. It’s cleaver and looks like the kids will love it.
Thanks for showing this tutorial. It’s clever and looks like the kids will love it.
i love this going to make it for my bedroom
I just finished this project last night. I stumbled across this post and decided I would make this little fire pit instead of getting a x-mas tree. Instead of using rocks I balled up christmas-y looking plaids to make the over all feel more holiday and I also change out some of the white lights to orange and red to give it a little more warmth. All my friends love it, thank you for post. I wanted to post a picture, but it looks like I can’t do that. Oh well. :)
looks like sticks wrapped in bandages to me
Wow!!!! very nice post regarding fire pit. This is good post for me.
Brilliant! Such clever peeps! X
That looks really nice, I’ll try to make one myself!
Love this idea! I am going to make this for my kindergarten classroom to go with my Wild, Wild, West theme! Thanks so much.
Adorable!! Thanks for sharing!!
I just made a real stone fire pit this summer: http://julieloveshome.wordpress.com/2013/09/11/how-to-build-your-very-own-stone-fire-pit/
Thanks
Julie
It is a fantastic idea!!!
What is the purpose of the lace? It does look like bandage-wrapped sticks. Why not just use the sticks as is?
I think the purpose of the lace is to make see-through type sticks to give the illusion of ash. Very clever!
I think I would like to paint the branches white. I like the idea of using red, white and orange lights.
Very clever love it love it!!!