Desk Decor featuring a DIY Tassel Garland

Panoramic pic of my new desk

New desk, who dis? I'm officially two weeks into my new role and I am so excited! Naturally, I'm still getting settled in my new space. One of the first things I made sure to do is decorate my desk. We all love the look of a bland cube or office desk (said no one ever). Boooring!! If you're like me, your environment around you, the style and how it makes you feel matters a lot. The reality is you spend most of your day at work, so you might as well make that space as cozy and comfortable as possible. It will help with productivity, stress, and might spark conversation with coworkers sitting nearby.

My desk decor was pretty simple. Included 3 key elements: a message board, a picture board, and a tassel garland, which I made. I'll show you the first 2, and then I'll go into detail of how I made the garland.

1. Message board
I have one of these at home and I just love writing love notes to myself. I decided to get another one for work because, let's face it, I'm pretty witty and funny, LOL. Well, I am! I thought this would be a fun way to express myself at work and keep myself (and my coworkers) entertained. And who knows, maybe my coworkers will look forward to my messages as I change it out from time to time.

My first message on the board is self explanatory. I'm the newbie in the office, i.e. fresh meat. My immediate team members know I'm new, but not everyone knows - but hopefully now they'll know, lol. I paired it with this cute faux plant that I got at TJ Maxx for only $5!

These boards are typically around $14.99, but I got this one at Kohl's on sale for about $12. I prefer the black background boards because it's modern and looks cleaner. What I especially love about this board is that it comes will special symbols that you can use to flank your text (for example the 4 corners around "Fresh Meat"), as well as a few words in cursive. 
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2. Picture Board
​This was a MUST have for my desk. Pictures make me happy, especially pics of my travels. I found this hexagon push pin board and thought it was the perfect architectural piece for my desk. It's large so can fill the entire space on that side of my cube. 

I got this set at Target for $6.99. It's two-sided; one side is cork board, but I preferred the black for the same reason I liked the message board - it looks more modern and makes a nice contrast to my colorful pics. The set originally came with 3M adhesive strips, which obviously won't work in a push pin cube. I got creative and used small file clips and push pins to hang it up. Looks good!

3. Tassel Garland
​Ok, now the fun part! These tassel garlands are becoming increasingly popular, and honestly I really like the look. But when I went to buy some, the price was like $10. If y'all know me, you know that I'm thrifty, and that my mantra in life is "I can make that!" LOL. For real, when you look at the construction of the garland, it's not complicated at all! So, in true Living Life to the T fashion, I decided to make my own. 

Let me lead with this: this garland only cost me about $3.50 to make! Here is what you'll need:

Materials:
1. Silver stringing wire (which I already had in my craft box; bought at Michael's)
2. Two balls of yarn in colors of your choice ($1.77 each at Walmart)
3. Scissors

Step 1. Measure how long you want the garland to be and then cut the wire. My wire is thin, and although I knew that the tassels would not be heavy, I decided to double the wire (in order to fold it over) for reinforcement. 

Step 2. Take your first ball of yarn and string it back and forth flat on the floor. The length is totally up to you.  I wanted my tassels more on the thick side, so I strung mine back and forth about 20 times.

​Regarding the length of each pile (i.e. from end to end), keep in mind is that you will be folding the yarn over the wire. So whatever length you would prefer your tassels to be, just double it when you are doing this initial stringing. (Trust me, it will make sense in a minute). Once you make your first pile of yarn, then go ahead and cut it off from the roll. ​

Step 3. Now, fold your first pile over the wire. Secure it to the wire by cutting another small piece of yarn from the roll and tying it to the top close to the wire. Once you have a good knot, feel free to cut off the ends of that piece.

Step 4. You might notice that the yarn has loops in it. That's ok, because this is when we cut of the looped edges. Take your scissors and try to cut the bottom of the tassel as flat as possible. Take some time to pat yourself on the back because you now have your first tassel!!.

Step 5. Repeat this process with the second yarn color. I decided to do a black-green-black-green pattern. Just be sure to determine how many total tassels you will need based on the length of your wire and make enough to comfortably fill the space. I made 8 tassels in total, 4 in each color. Don't worry about spacing too much because you will be able to slide the tassels and adjust their position once you hang the garland up.

And that's it!! Easy peasy tassel garland! The best part is, you'll likely not use all the yarn, leaving you with leftovers for your next project!! Score!!

​I love how it all came together at my new desk!!

If my post inspired you to make a tassel garland, please let me know! I'd love to see how you put your spin on it!

Until the next adventure,
​~T