How to Create Coral Decor

Anyone sick of cheesy wind chimes or even cheesier beach souvenirs can create coral décor on their own. A succession of coral chunks wound with heavy twine add a classy and memory-filled adornment to any yard. With the right kind of collecting, your whole creation can also be absolutely free. It’s easy to create coral décor. Here’s how.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Chunks of coral
• Heavy twine
• Other beach debris
• Tree or eave on which to dangle your creations

1. Collect the coral chunks and other debris from your favorite beach strip. If you don’t live near a beach strip, this is a great excuse to book an exotic tropical vacation.
2. Rinse or brush off any dirt, grime or smelly fish-like stuff stuck to your coral or debris. That is, unless you like how the grime looks and want to incorporate it into your creation.
3. Unwind heavy twine of your chosen color. Twine can be purchased at hardware stores or, as I lucked out with, even found wound around an old stick on the beach itself.
4. Pick a larger anchor piece of coral and knot to the end of the twine. Tie pieces of coral or other small debris up the twine, about two inches apart. The twine should be wound once around each object and knotted at the top to insure it stays in place.
5. Pick a tree or eave on which to hang your creation. Make as many as you have materials for and you can create, as I did, a whole “tree of adornment” or other fine conglomerations.

Tips & Warnings

• The more materials for your creation you can find on the beach, the better. This not only makes the piece more authentic, but also insures you don’t have to spend any money on it.
• Simpler is usually better. Black twine against white coral makes its own subtle yet powerful statement.
• While each strand of coral décor is simple, several of them hung from a few close branches looks amazing. The more the merrier when it comes to simple coral décor.
• Make sure the coral décor is hung high enough where dogs, cats and other fine pets can’t get to it. My dogs devoured my best chunk of coral that came stuck with interesting debris in about two seconds flat when I left it on the table.
• Don’t spray paint the coral, especially a neon orange. That just wrecks it.
• Don’t use frilly, flowering twine. That looks dumb. If you must create with cutesy cord, choose something with an ocean theme.