Give your tree a makeover

The mission: Buy the worst tree on the lot and give it a makeover. The tree: The Douglas fir was found at a large home store lot. It was short and as skinny as Kate Moss, with broken limbs, a top branch that veered off at a crazy angle and a hole right in the middle. It was by far the worst of the lot, and still Lowe's wanted full price, $19.97. The makeover plan: Keep it inexpensive. Make it look as sophisticated as possible and hide the figure flaws. In order to do this, fashion tricks would be employed. For height: The tree was taken out of the tree stand, which was big and clunky, and placed in a pedestal urn. This gave the tree some desperately needed height and elegance. Using an urn or a small table to elevate a small tree also helps control the amount of floor space that a tree commands. Once trees are surrounded by presents, they gobble even more square footage. Keeping the circumference small and elevated really helps to control the spread. For width: This is not a problem many of us have — wanting to add girth to our silhouette — but this tree was so slim that it needed the visual widening that horizontal stripes provide, so lengths of ribbon were draped around the limbs to give them additional width. Feather drops were hung from the branch's tips to additionally widen its silhouette. The young tree's branches were so flimsy that feathers were about the only things light enough to hang from the tips. Broken branches: The tree was also lopsided and did not have branch symmetry. Imitation greenery, including bright green branches topped with glitter, were cut apart and wired to the tip ends with green florist's wire to help give the tree a symmetrical shape and fill out bare spots. The gaping hole: Right in the center of the tree was a large hole. Solution: Fill it with a bird's nest. This little nest set the color palette for the tree. Green and gold ornaments and ribbon were used. It was a subtle color combination — not the usual multi-hued riot of colors. This helped to make the tree look more sophisticated. The twisted top: No tree topper for this bent branch. A fan of peacock feathers was wired to top. The spread of the fan helped disguise the errant directional leanings of the branch. The cost: The tree was the least of it: $19.97. The ornaments, ribbon and other decorative bits were purchased at Walmart for less than $50.