I bought this rattan candle holder several years ago, I believe from World Market. It was an impulse buy. I was not shopping for rattan candle holders or any type of candle holders this particular day. It was one of those things you see and you know you must have, so it ended up in the back of the car and on its way home with me. I really did not know where I would use it. I figured there must be a corner somewhere that needs this and I would worry with that later.
It never really found its spot. I tried it here and there. I tried using it for its intended purpose as a candle holder. Nothing was working. So eventually it made its way onto a moving truck and ended up in Savannah where I resurrected it and placed it on the corner of the dresser in my bedroom. We needed something else to make this work and that something was not going to be a candle. Take a look at what I did.
Here, a picture of the round glass enclosure inside where you would place a candle. I tried that a few times but I did not really like the look. It sits low on the ground and you could see the candle. I did not like that. For my taste, it would need to be set high on a piece of furniture or stand of some kind so that you could enjoy the look of the candle through the rattan without actually seeing the candle.
I found this little faux boxwood topiary and I thought, hmmmm, I think I have the perfect pairing for this.
I placed the topiary planter into the center of the rattan candle holder where the candle would ordinarily be placed, and what do you know. It fit perfectly. I removed the glass enclosure which was there to be used with a candle. We did not need that and it interfered with the topiary planter base.
Everything "centered-up" pretty much on its own. I really did not have to do much adjusting at all.
Next, I grabbed a roll of brown Kraft Paper which I generally keep on hand. Serves a multitude of purposes. Great to put down if you are doing a small painting project. Handy to wrap a package in for mailing. Can also be used to secure items inside a package that is being mailed. And then, of course, there is the way we used it for this project.
I removed the wrapping and rolled off sections of paper about two feet wide and then just tore an approximate two foot section of paper, crumpled it and starting building my base in the interior of the candle holder.
Continuing along with the same size sections of brown kraft paper and filling in around the interior of the candle holder.
I continued around with the same procedure until the candle holder was filled to the top. Then I just pressed down on the paper with my hands to give it a more sturdy feel inside the candle holder. At this point the paper with approximately 2 - 3 inches below the rim.
Time to add a decorative touch to finish off the project and that touch came from a bag of Spanish moss. You can buy this stuff anywhere. Any of the big box retailers have it. You can get it from Michael's, even Lowe's or Home Depot. One bag goes a long way which you will see.
I opened the bag of Spanish over top of the paper in the candle holder. This can be messy to work with and I found that opening the bag like this and working the moss out of the bag, right on top of the paper was a smart idea.
Around we went until we had used the entire bag of moss. I slipped the last of it from the bag and then dropped the bag into the trash. a little time spent zhuzhing up the moss to make an attractive presentation, and we were done.
A really fun project that turned out perfectly. I was very pleased with the final look. The choice to fill the candle holder with brown kraft paper was a good one because, as you see in the picture, the paper blends in with the rattan so unless you are really looking, you don't even notice what we have done. All you see is an attractive bit of room decor.
A shot from further away to give you a little perspective and to see how this fills in this corner on the dresser.
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