With the holiday season fast approaching I decided today was the day to step up and execute one of my back burner project ideas and it turned out splendidly!!

I have been obsessed, to put it mildly, ever since Pam over at RetroRenovation.com published this story about Lori’s vintage Evergleam “Peacock” flat aluminum christmas tree.  Click over to Pam’s site and behold the site of this gorgeous tree.

Oh my word, I have never seen anything so beautiful as that vintage tree.  I had to have one.  HAD TO HAVE ONE.

However, I am quite familiar with the value of old aluminum trees and I knew that if the kitschmas’ gods ever allowed another of these wonderful woddities to  surface, it would command astronomical $$$$.

So I decided then and there, November 29, 2012 that I was going to make one of these.  I concocted my plan and promptly put it on the back burner.  I just get so darn busy at holiday time making wreaths and such, it has taken me all these years to finally say, today is the day!!

I had during this down time managed to procure a bundle of 12″ vintage aluminum tree branches.  My plan was to make a smaller version that could be hung on a door or the wall, and here we are, ta da!!!!

I am just tickled gold!

It was actually a pretty simple project and once I got started only took me a couple of hours.  Here is how I did it.

I scooted over to the hardware store this morning and grabbed a wooden dowel, 1 1/8″ in diameter.  It was about 48″ in length and cost about $5.

Then I measured and drew a line halfway down each side, then made a mark every one inch.

Before I began drilling the holes for the branches I made a mark on my drill bit so I would know how deep to go (and how deep not to go).

I drilled every inch gradually angling the holes as I got to the top.  I kept the extra length to the pole in case I screwed up and needed to keep going as I figured out how to get the top holes angled almost parallel to the pole.  Then I inserted all the branches to see where I needed to cut off the pole.

Well, that turned out pretty good but it’s the wrong color.  I really wanted it to be gold, just like the vintage Evergleam tree.  It took about 2 cans of spray paint, but it worked out well in the end.

Now I have a “peacock” aluminum tree.  Oh yes.