Elf Zoe decorating the tannenboing

We love the shape and colors of the modern CB2 Christmas ornaments and as we added more and more of them, we decided to take the ribbon out. Instead, we used a thinner, nearly sheer chartreuse ribbon to hang a few ornaments down the center. I like how this fills in the center of the tree, and it gives a fuller, more random feel than it does when the ornaments are hung in neat little lines around the edge of the aluminum spiral.

We used the orange, white and green CB2 christmas ornaments

In this image, you may be able to see some of the ribbons we used to hang down the center of the tannenboing.

Aluminum Christmas tree with modern ornaments

I think my husband is a genius to add the up-light under the tannenboing. It lights the tree and the ornaments so beautifully, and it casts the most dramatic shadows on the ceiling. This is our favorite tannenboing style so far (I found these ornaments on CB2 last year when we were helping Flying Fish install and decorate their tannenboing). I ordered the white and green last year and was thrilled when they offered the orange again this year (they also have a fun teal ornament).

Tannenboing in our mid century home

I hope tannenboing owners will send me photos of their styled tannenboings so I can share them here with everyone. Tis the boing season!

My family was so kind to me. My husband and I pulled our flat packed, space saver Christmas tree out of the garage and had the tree up in about 15 minutes (granted, he’s done this a few times now – so he’s a pro). But then, he started playing around with this old can light that we’d put in the living room – and it looks so great! I love the way the up-light really makes the aluminum spirals pop – and the shadows on the ceiling are out of this world. We love it! We haven’t decorated the boing yet (heck, we don’t even have art up on the walls yet) but still – we love the look of our very modern Christmas tree in our warm, old mid century home.

Tannenboing just went up

Shadows and tannenboing

Outside looking in at the boing

Check out these little cuties! Thanks Jane (and Ross) and the folks at Comet Coffee for including us in your green, gingerbread Christmas!

I saw that recently Etsy wrote a short article promoting one of their crafting events. The article featured some great paper lanterns and had links to other creative paper ornaments. Here are a few of my favorites, with links to the Etsy sellers. Enjoy!

Paper Ornaments

Black and White Paper Star

Blue Flower

Urchins by Kissa Design

We loved the ornaments so much, that we recommended them to Flying Fish (the colors were just perfect for their restaurant) and we bought 60 for ourselves as well. Can’t wait to get our modern Christmas tree up this year.

Attached are some photos of the tannenboing at Flying Fish decked out with the CB2 asteroid ornaments. So great!

We hope that old (and new) clients will send us photos of their modern Christmas decorations from last year, or as they get them put up this Christmas season. It is always so fun to see how they are decorated.

Julie Hand Sanding a Tannenboing

My dear, dear friend, Julie and I just spent 12 hours hand sanding eight tannenboings. That’s right, 12 hours! This, after I’ve already paid a company $120 for two hours of sanding for EACH tannenboing! This is why there will only ever be 100 of these modern Christmas trees – just too labor intensive (read expensive) to produce. Each tree really is a labor of love – or maybe just labor!

Here is the long story: each tannenboing is laser cut from a huge sheet of metal – that part only takes about eight minutes. But 25 lbs of aluminum is expensive and renting time on the laser is expensive. But the kicker is that the heat from the laser creates these really sharp edges and splinter-like burrs on every edge of the metal. And I can tell you from personal experience, there is a whole lot of edge on every tannenboing! So, after they come off the laser, the fabricator had his team use a palm sander to grind down the sharp edges and metal burrs, which also helps create the brushed finish (which I love – it gives the tannenboing a little sparkle). To get that last bit of sharpness off the edge, there is no way around it, the tannenboings must be hand sanded. Once that is done, they are silkscreened with the logo and sent to me.

In October, 2009, I received a shipment of 100 of these babies. But when I went through them, half of them still had edges that I deemed too sharp. I sent those back to the fabricator for more sanding. They came back in November, but some were still too sharp. Those were separated out and only those that passed the QA test were packaged up. Now, I’m faced with finishing up those final trees. So, while my daughter is at school, my dear friend and I turn up the tunes and spend some quality time with each tannenboing, making sure each spiral is smooth to the touch. Julie jokes about the amount of DNA and fingerprints we leave on each tannenboing. I guess that is just evidence of the human labor put into each of our aluminum trees.

So if you’ve ever wondered why tannenboings are so expensive, or why there will only be 100 of them, now you know. Oh, and that fact that it costs $100 to ship the big boxes! Ugh! It seemed like such a simple idea when I started! The good news is, the tannenboing owners that I’ve heard from really do seem to love their modern aluminum Christmas trees. It feels good knowing that at least 100 people will have this artistic, reusable Christmas tree for the next decade or two. I think this must be how an artist feels, sharing something very personal and special with just a few people. It feels special to me anyway.

So now, dear international tannenboing fans, we may have found a way to get a modern Christmas tree to your door by Christmas! If you’d like a quote for shipping to your area, email admin(at)storetoyourdoor(dot)com(dot)au for a quote.

Retailers find tannenboing appealing, as shoppers can focus on the items on display, rather than on the clean lines of the metal tree. The smooth, aluminum curves of the tannenboing really frame the merchandise and set it off.

Chef Keff, at Flying Fish, loves her tannenboing because the modern aesthetic works well with the contemporary interior and clean lines of her restaurant. And, she can re-use her flat-pack tree for years to come. She paired her tannenboing with colorful, modern, CB2 asteroid ornaments – we love the look so much, we ordered the same ornaments for our tannenboing at home!

Buy your tannenboing now.

Last year, my daughter and I made some modern paper ornaments that looked like they would have fit right onto a 1950’s Christmas tree (we found a great tip on Design*Sponge). In fact, we loved our hand made Christmas ornaments so much, we also hung them from the lights and in front of the windows. They were very festive.  Curbly also has a feature on these cute, and easy to make modern ornaments, and I might add, they also have a nice feature on tannenboing – thanks very much Curbly!

So, if you are like my family, you might have your mom (or grandmother’s) mid century furniture, but you don’t have to have your mom’s old school aluminum Christmas tree.

Have a modern Christmas!