DIY - Rustic Wooden Garland - An Upcycled Project

While cleaning and organizing the garage, many old items resurfaced, which I had to quickly decide whether to throw away, or use for another purpose. This rustic garland was an upcycled project, which came from something that I had laying around in the garage, which I luckily hadn't thrown away.

My brother-in-law gave me this
staircase railing a couple years ago. He was bringing it to the recycling center, but I thought about using it here in the garage, near the entrance to the house. Well, a few years have passed and I had changed my mind about what I want to do there, so I definitely won't be needing this railing.

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You can continue reading the entire details further below, here's a short video of how this project went along:

During the first cleaning phase of the garage, I used a circular saw to disassemble the railing for easier transport to the recycling.

How to repurpose staircase railing - balusters

However, I couldn't let go of the balusters and instead, I put them inside this bucket. Ha, I've been shuffling that bucket around the garage ever since.

And well, last week I finally had the idea of making a wooden garland after looking at this one here.

This is how it all went:

1. MAKE THE WOODEN BEADS

I used my Makita miter saw to cut the baluster-spindles to create the "wooden beads".
The beads were cut at random sizes, about 1" to 2". Although, I used a stopper (1-1/2") for the square section.

Cutting the garland beads with Makita miter saw

| MAKITA 12 in. Dual-Bevel Sliding Compound Miter Saw |

2. DRILL THE HOLES

Use a drill and a 3/16" drill bit to drill a hole on every wooden bead.

Drilling the holes in every garland bead

| MAKITA Impact Driver | Drill Bit Set | Gloves |

I got a good bunch of beads! :)

3. MAKE THE GARLAND

Cut the string to the length you want. Mine is about seven feet long without the tassels and it has 56 beads on it.

I added a small piece of Gaffers tape on both ends of the string for easier stringing of the beads. However, these beads are big, many times I had to use an awl tool to push the string to the other side of the bead.

4. MAKE THE TASSELS

Two long tassels were created with the same string and using a piece of 7.5" plywood. You can also use a cardboard.

I wrapped the string 30 times around the plywood. Then, I brought a 20" piece of string under the wrapped string.

And tied it to the top end.

Then, using scissors, cut the other end.

Grab another 20" section of string and tie it at about one inch from the top or head of the tassel. Wrap it around about four or five times. Tie it. Then, trim those loose ends.