How To: Make a Post-it Note Christmas Tree

We were delighted to see Abby's LA Post-it Note Christmas Tree yesterday while we had this post already in the works. Last year we (Wes & Kayla) were living in two separate, super small spaces and had absolutely no spare square footage for a real tree. Behold our economical, zero-maintenance wall alternative — complete with illuminated tree toper...

The Layout
Our Post-it Note tree is a bit more pixelated than Abby's example but we liked the digital look. First, plan your layout (on a Post-it). The architectural half of our little duo determined that two equal rows per tier would create a more believable tree shape — rather than every row being shorter than the one below it. The width of our tree was determined by the huge radiator we planned to stick it over.

The Topper
We decided our tree could not be complete without illumination on top. Our Designer Emulation Mini Lucellino light was the perfect solution for a modern interpretation of the angel topper. We built a simple structure out of scrap chipboard to the exact size of one sticky note, covered it with green Post-it to blend in, and attached it to the wall with lint-covered double stick tape (for easy removal).

The Ornaments
After briefly considering to decorate our tree by drawing ornaments on the Post-its, we decided simply to add random colored Stickies and keep the whole thing blank, emphasizing the pixel concept.

Our tree used 85 Post-its, plus a few more for ornaments. Abby's example probably uses several hundred for a more organic, feathery shape. However you chose to make your Post-it Note tree, just have fun with it. We liked ours so much we left it up through February!

More Post-it Note fun on AT:

Post-it Wall

Look! Post-it Decor at Bri & Chad's

Ikeahacker: Post-it Lamp

Comments (10)

I think it's clever and perfect for the office!

Yeah I agree it's a great office idea, at home I would still find a way to fit a real tree in.

I like the funkiness of Abby's tree much better than the one here. Very cute idea.

I think I may do this at work

It's nicely done and the battery light at the top is a nice touch. Even so - and not to be a Grinch, but - it seems wasteful.

It's not too wasteful...less so than a real or fake tree. And if you were really worried about it, you could always reuse the post-its.

It would be cool to write things you are grateful for on the post its or things you love about the holidays, or throw a holiday get together and have friends write messages on it, etc.

The kindergarten teachers at the school where I worked last year did something similar in the hallway with post-its, but in a star shape. Each one had a quote from a child about something they were proud of doing or thankful for - sharing a toy, reading a book, other simple things.

I tried this. and i stuck them down with stocky tape. and it got really really hot the next day and they all fell off the wall. :( so now i am building a soft drink can tree. :)

Yeah Abby's is way better, it definitely has the texture of a real tree. I too am surprised someone drew out the plans for this design... it seems like a 1st grader could probably eye ball it. I'm just not a huge fan of fake trees, even ones that look obviously fake... But it's definitely hard for me to understand because I live in Oregon! We definitely have a lot of access to tree farms and even natural ones if you wanted.