3 Ways to Dye Bottle Brush Trees

If you’re new here, you might now know that I LOVE a good rainbow color scheme! I do, and so adding that to my Christmas decor has been a fun project this year. I LOVE the look of a forest of colorful bottle brush trees, but buying them in the pretty colors can get expensive. Also, since I love a look for less, so here’s 3 ways to dry bottle brush trees.

3 ways to dye bottle brush trees

Let’s start with the video so you get an overview on what I did. Then, I’ll dive in with more details below:

If the video doesn’t work here, you can watch it on YouTube here. P.s. I’m trying to build that page up, so if you’d subscribe, I’d be so grateful! I started my channel in January and love being able to create videos to show what I’m making. Thank you for the support!

SUPPLIES

• gel food coloring, normal food coloring works too!
• latex paint. I used Beloved Pink, Ballet Rose, Lamplit,  Country Weekend, Frosted Sage, and  Watery
• Rit dye. I used coral and petal pink
• White bottle brush trees. Mine are from Hobby Lobby, I got some medium and large. This size of bottle brush trees were out of stock at my store, but I would have love to use them! You can also get them online at Amazon or eBay, just make sure you’re buying natural sisal, not plastic ones (they won’t accept the dye).

method 1- food coloring

What- use gel food coloring to dye bottle brush trees.

Pros- most people have food coloring at home, so this can be a low cost solution! It gives a soft pastel color. You can create a bunch of colors with mixing the food coloring.

Cons- this takes the longest to dye the trees. Some colors, like orange and blue for me, didn’t dye the trees well

Instructions- mix water with gel food coloring. Dip the brush in and take out when it’s the color you like.

Note, after taking these pictures, I tested normal liquid food coloring (you know, the cheap stuff you can get from the grocery store). That worked as well! You just have to put in a lot of drops so it’s concentrated enough to dye the bottle brush trees.

method 2- latex paint

What- use latex (or acrylic) paint to paint the bristles

Pros- you can use any color at the store! You can also paint plastic bottle brush trees!

Cons- Can be messy.

Instructions- get the tree wet. Use a paint brush to paint the bristles the paint color of choice.

What not to do- I also tried dipping the tree directly into the paint. That was a huge mess and wasted a bunch of paint. Lastly, I tried mixing water with latex paint and dip dying the tree. This didn’t work (the tree stayed white).

Note- spray painting the trees would also work nicely! You can do the painting method with plastic trees (the dying won’t work with plastic trees though).

method 3- Rit dye

What- using Rit dye (usually for fabric) to dye bottle brush trees

Pros- the color is so vibrant! It is fast. Rit dye comes in a ton of different colors. 

Cons- The cost can add up- at $5 a bottle it’s a little expensive to get started (though I’ve found a bottle goes a long way).

Instructions- mix dye and water in a container. Dip the bottle brush tree until you like the color. Don’t leave in too long if you want a lighter color.

For all of them, once you’re done, let them dry on a paper towel or a rag you don’t mind dying or painting overnight.

after

I have a good collection of colorful bottle brush trees that I mixed in with my newly dyed and painted trees. My living room is where I am focusing my decorating so they’re currently in a window ledge in there.

They look really cheerful next to the rainbow DIY art and the pink sofa! I have the Christmas tree in the other corner. It needs some more decorating (then I’ll show it later this week!), but it looks so festive with the rainbow forest! Oh, and how cute is that holly jolly pillow?!

I’d love to hear- is this a project you’d try?! It was so easy- though a little messy! My son loved helping and we both had so much fun creating our little forest! I love that every year I’ll have these to pull out of storage.

Side note, I’m doing 25 posts between now and Christmas on holiday crafts. They’ll include a video and a blog post. Today is day three. I’ve also done a gingerbread house doormat, and rainbow nutcrackers.

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