Are you looking for an easy & cheap winter DIY to spruce up your home? You’ll love this pine cone garland! It’s simple, costs next to nothing, and looks AMAZING! If you love farmhouse style, you need to give this a try!

Oh-So-Easy Winter DIY Project!

I’m so excited to share this pine cone garland with you! A few years ago, I put together a post with Rustic Farmhouse Christmas Decorating ideas, which included this pine cone garland on the porch at Cottage in the Oaks blog.

It has been on the back burner for a DIY project all this time. I thought I wanted to do it for Christmas, but I changed my mind – there’s plenty of Christmas DIYs and decor; winter is where it’s a little lacking.

So I patiently waited for December 25th to pass before I started the DIY project, and I’m so glad I did.

I LOVE it as winter decor, and I think you will, too. And honestly, you can use it for fall, Christmas or winter, and the pine cone theme will fit in perfectly.

You can put it up in September and keep it up through March if you want! That’s bang for the buck!

And, it’s easy and it’s cheap. Win, win, win.

Winter Decor Inspiration Coming Your Way

If you plan on using this pinecone garland to fit in with other winter decor and you need some inspiration, I have more coming your way! 

If you are looking for some ‘instructions’ for what to include in your winter decor to make it cozy and you love farmhouse style, this post covers all that ground and gives lots of examples!

If you want to see how I went from Christmas decor to winter decor, here’s a post with all of my Before-and-After pictures, so you can see it all concretely laid out! This is also in farmhouse style!

I also created a DIY tree that I decorate seasonally which can easily be adapted to fit in with your pinecone theme. Here, you’ll see it with acorns, but you can also create the same project with snowflakes, pinecones, jingle bells, heart – whatever the season brings!

 

Steps to Create Pinecone Winter Garland

To be as thorough as I can, I’ll talk you through the project first, and then I’ll list out a condensed version for quick reference.

Supplies

1| Large Pine Cones (anywhere from 6-18, depending on how many you want and the size of your branch pole. My pole was about 6 feet and I used 7 pinecones, spaced about 4-6 inches apart.)

2| Branch Pole (Mine was about 6′ but measure your area first! I got mine from my yard, but you can buy a birch pole at stores like Hobby Lobby, etc.)

3| Ribbon of your choice (eventually the ribbons will be looped and stapled. Keep that in consideration when you choose the ribbon color, texture, and width)

4| Embellishment of your choice (bows, faux berries, etc.)

5| Glue Gun

6| Jute String or twine (for loops to hold branch)

7| Nails (or another way to secure loops for branch)

(If you have another hack to hang your branch, you can omit the jute string and nails)

8| Stapler

Steps to Create Pine Cone Garland

1| First, decide how many ribbons of pinecones you want.  You can space them out 6-12 inches, or anything that is your preference.

I chose 7 pinecone ribbons. You may need more or less, depending on the space you are filling and the size of your branch pole.

2| Then, you want to cut ribbons in varying lengths. Keep in mind that you’ll need to loop them around the branch so leave some room for that. My ribbons were in the neighborhood of 5-12 inches.

3| Lay them out on the counter or table as you cut, so you can see how the varying lengths look. This can also help you decide if you need to cut longer or shorter ribbons with each cut.

4| Once you have them all laid out, use your glue gun to glue the ribbon to the pinecone. You can attach the ribbon at the top, if you want on adding an embellishment. That’ s what I did. You can also glue the ribbon to the back if you want as well.

Be sure to mix up your pine cone size and your ribbon length, so you don’t have all small pine cones next to each other, etc. There’s a lot of forgiveness in this project, so you can easily swap things around until you attach them to the branch.

5| Let the glue dry, and then attach your embellishments to the top.

I cut up a little tree and some faux white beads to attach to the top of my pinecones. You can use whatever you like!

Be sure to hide where the ribbon meets the pine cone, if you glued on top. If you glued onto the back of the pinecone, adjust your embellishment on top to your liking.

 

6| While this is drying, go ahead and hang your branch. The way I did it was to put a nail in each side of the header of my porch, where it wouldn’t be visible.

Then, I took a piece of jute string and tied a loop, taking into account how low I wanted the branch to hang as well as the diameter of the branch.

Make sure the loop is big enough for the branch to slide through, but not so big that your branch hangs too low.

Hang your jute string or twine loops on your nails and then slide your branch through.

***I opted to hang my ribbons on the branch once the branch was hung, instead of attaching them first.

My reasoning was that in the process of hanging the branch, I didn’t want the pine cones ribbons swinging all around and getting banged up, if things didn’t go smoothly. 

Plus, I really wanted to eyeball the ribbons as they were being hung, so I could make adjustments in size and length.

7| Once your branch is attached, start hanging the pine cones. If you have an odd number, do the center pine cone first, and work your way out. Make sure the center one doesn’t hang too low, as that’s where most people will walk.

If you have an even number of pine cones, find your center, and attach your cones just right and left of center working your way out, evenly spaced.

Begin attaching pine cones to your liking, varying length as you attach.

To attach, just loop the ribbon around the branch pole and staple. From the distance that your pole will be hanging, the staples should be virtually invisible. If you’re worried about the staples being seen, you could also use your glue gun.

***If you use a glue gun, just loop the ribbon loosely enough so you can slide it off if you want to recycle or reuse the branch for another project.

Or, you can cut them off, but just be aware, they may be too short to reattach at another time.

Once you have them all attached, slide and adjust as needed.  That’s it!

Below you can see the condensed version of the project, for easy implementation after you’ve read through all the specifics!

Easy & Cheap Winter Decor DIY Project: Pinecone Garland

DIY Pinecone Garland

Print

Materials

• 1| Pine cones (6-18 depending on the area you are filling)
• 2| Branch pole
• 3| Ribbon
• 4| Embellishments
• 7| Jute string or twine
• 8| Nails

Tools

• 1| Glue gun
• 2| Stapler
• 3| Hammer

Instructions

1. Determine how the length of pole for space you need and how many ribbons you want.
2. Cut ribbon into varying lengths, according to your preference.
3. Attach pinecones to ribbon by gluing ribbon to top or back of pinecone.
4. Glue embellishment to the top of pinecones, hiding where ribbon and pinecone meet.
5. Place nails on each side of the header of the porch. Tie loops with jute string or twine and hang on nails. Slide branch pole through loops.
6. Wrap ribbons around branch pole, evenly spaced, with shorter ribbons in the center. Staple to secure. Ribbons should be loose enough to slide and adjust location if needed.
7. Adjust ribbons to liking and enjoy!

Easy + Cheap + Versatile = DIY We Love

This project can easily be modified for other seasons, using hearts for Valentine’s Day, snowflakes for Christmas or Winter, jingle bells, ornaments… so many possibilities.

I love using the pinecones for the versatility of seasonal use, as well as the super-rustic charm it gives. It’s easy and cheap, too. All the wins!

If you make this project, I’d love to see it! Please tag me on Instagram @100affections so I can check it out!

Thoughts? I’d love to hear them! Leave a comment!