[DIY] Felt Ball Christmas Garland

I am loving the soft textures of winter home decor this season! Our loft can feel a little cold and industrial, so I am on the lookout for soft pieces that add texture to our steel and brick dominated space. We have been visiting West Elm on a regular basis this past month and I am enthralled with their soft fur blankets, knitted pillows, and felt Christmas decorations. Especially anything involving felt balls – I am obsessed with these fuzzy bundles of colorful fun. I am very pleased with the plush, casual wintry feel this felt ball Christmas garland adds to our home.

I tried to think of where my felt ball garland idea originated, and JZ swears it came from looking at West Elm’s burlap and felt decorated Christmas trees. I liked the general look, but wanted something a bit lighter. I thought it would be something I could make myself for less money, but the cost savings didn’t really end up working out. However, I did appreciate the flexibility of choosing my own colors and incorporating different sized balls.

I ordered my felt balls from Ornamentea, because I liked the ability to mix and match sizes and colors; however, I later found this cute Christmas pack on Amazon. I chose the 50 count 2 cm Flora and the 50 count Snow combo 1 and 2cm pack for this project. I was trying to make about 6 feet of garland, and I thought the 2 cm size would give me enough visual weight. In the end, I actually had quite a few 1 cm white ones left and made a couple more mini strands.

Supplies:

• 1 Large needle
• 80ish 2cm Felt balls
• 2 yd Craft thread

After gathering my supplies, I measured the length of the wall for my garland, and I decided to make three long loops. I wanted the garland colors to be random but equally distributed so I mapped out three lines to make sure that I had roughly equal numbers of each color in no particular order for the individual loops.

Once I was satisfied with the layout, I started stringing the balls on the craft string. I saw some garlands that tied knots around each ball to hold it in place; however I found that they generally stayed put without a knot. Truthfully, I did not want to spend the extra time tying lots of little knots, and I like the flexibility to move things around as needed.

Here is the finished product:

I think I will hang this over the buffet table for our Christmas party, but for now, it’s decorating our otherwise plain Ikea lamp!

I know this is not an astounding project, but I like that it is easy and allows for a lot of customization with the different sizes and color. Plus, it was a fun little afternoon project that turned out looking as good as the store bought versions, unlike some of my other DIY attempts. 🙂