Christmas Christmas Crafts for adults tutorial

How to bleach bottle brush trees

How to bleach bottle brush trees

This year’s obsession is house-shaped tea light holders. We recently put up two long shelves in our living room. They’re really long and high up enough so they can’t be taken over by my 4 year old and his obsession with making displays of his toys.

I’ve accumulated a small collection of tea light holders and I’ve made them into a little village, complete with sweet little bottle brush trees.

I was aiming for a green and white theme but a few red houses have slipped in so I thought I would mix up the colour even more by bleaching a few of my bottle brush trees.

Equipment needed to bleach bottle brush trees:
assortment of bottle brush trees (I bought mine from eBay)
household bleach
plastic container
kitchen gloves
warm water

How to bleach bottle brush trees:

Set up your equipment in a well ventilated area. I used my kitchen as I had easy access to water and an open window.

Put on your rubber gloves. Fill up a small plastic container two thirds full of warm water. I used a plastic measuring jug. Pour in your household bleach to make up a third of the solution and mix.

Carefully dip your bottle brush tree into the water and bleach solution. This is the fun part!

It’s not an exact science so you can experiment. Watch as the solution turns cloudy and keep bringing up your bottle brush tree so you can check the colour change. I dipped my large tree for only 20 seconds, it really does change colour super quick!

The smaller trees I dipped for 10-15 seconds as I tried to get a variation of colours for my display.

When you’re happy with the result rinse your trees with warm water, leave to dry on a paper towel.

How to bleach bottle brush treesBleaching shouldn’t remove the fake snow but you can add more glitter with a little glue when they’re dry if needed.

What do you think? It’s a really easy fix and I love being able to customise shop bought decorations.

4 Comments

  • Reply
    Kate Williams
    November 12, 2014 at 8:13 pm

    They look great, I’m also loving the little houses 😉 Thanks for linking up with Tuesday Tutorials #pintorials

  • Reply
    Tracey
    November 13, 2014 at 11:52 am

    My daughter would love for me to help her make these. Those white houses look amazing too. Tracey x

  • Reply
    Sisley White
    November 13, 2014 at 12:22 pm

    These are very cute. What a sweet idea to make for Christmas.

  • Reply
    Monday happy things - the-gingerbread-house.co.uk
    October 12, 2015 at 9:48 am

    […] of bleached bottle brush trees hanging in the central atrium which I loved. Last year I tried dyeing my own bottle brush trees which was fun but it didn’t stop me from buying a couple to add to my […]

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