DIY: Decorate Your Car for the Holidays

  • Dec 12,2017
Car seats covered with festive ugly sweaters Car seats covered with festive ugly sweaters

The house is decked. The presents are wrapped. And you’re ready to hit the road to see family and friends and celebrate the holidays. Now, your car can match your festive mood with these easy DIY projects. Choose your favorite – or favorites – and get ready to celebrate the season.

Ugly Sweater Seat Covers

Just grab a few holiday sweaters to make your car merry and bright.

Materials:

  • Knit sweaters (XL or larger)
  • Holiday hats (Make sure they have some stretch)

Steps:

Gather materials

Materials for ugly sweater car seat covers

Step 1: Pull sweater over the seat

Pull sweater over the seat

Step 2: Tuck sweater into seat cushion

Tuck sweater into the seat cushion

Step 3: Pull arms to the back of the seat and tie in a knot

Pull arms to the back of the seat and tie in a knot

Step 4: Cover headrest with hat

Cover headrest with hat

Step 5: Now sit back and enjoy the ride!

Christmas Tree Air Freshener

Give a traditional car air freshener a holiday makeover.

Materials:

  • Pine-scented tree-shaped air freshener
  • Mini-ornaments
  • Wide ribbon or small fabric scrap
  • String
  • Scissors
  • Glue or glue gun

Steps:

Gather materials

Materials for Christmas tree car air freshener

Step 1: Loop the string through the top hole and tie a knot. Secure knot with a small amount of glue.

Looping string through top hole car air freshener

Step 2: Create a tree skirt with the ribbon or fabric cut to size. Fold and secure with glue.

Creating tree skirt with ribbon for car air freshener

Step 3: Thread ornaments through the string, securing with small knots. Then, drape the string and ornaments across the tree, like you would garland.

Decorating car air freshener with little ornaments

Step 4: Wrap the remaining string around the base of the tree and secure with a knot or glue. Trim any excess with scissors.

Wrap remaining string around air freshener and secure

Step 5: Your tree is ready to hang!

Hang your Christmas tree car air freshener

Holiday Floor Mats

Protect your car’s interior with a festive touch.

Materials:

  • Mat or rubber sheet (If you can’t find one to fit your car, you can cut one to fit using a utility knife)
  • Outdoor fabric
  • Spray adhesive
  • Fabric paint
  • Water-based polyurethane
  • Paintbrush
  • Stencil
  • Scissors
  • Duct tape
  • Measuring tape
  • Iron (optional)
  • Utility Knife (if cutting mat runner)

Steps:

Gather materials

Materials for DIY holiday car floormats

Step 1: Place the mat on the fabric and cut so you have about 5 extra inches on all sides.

Measuring fabric around car floor mat

Step 2: Lay fabric on a flat, hard surface you can paint on. We temporarily taped ours to a foam board to keep it secured. (NOTE: you may want to iron your fabric first.)

Laying fabric on hard surface to paint

Step 3: Paint your fabric with a stencil, stamps or free-hand. Allow to dry.

Using stencil to paint holiday design on floor mat fabric

Step 4: Spray the adhesive to the top side of the mat and the backside of the fabric and position fabric, smoothing out any wrinkles with your hands.

Spraying adhesive on back of fabric

Step 5: Once everything’s in place, turn the mat over and fold the excess fabric to the back, securing it with adhesive or hot glue. You can also use duct tape to hold fabric edges down. (Don’t worry, no one will see it!)

Securing fabric onto car floor mat

Step 6: Brush a thin coat of polyurethane and allow to dry. This gives your mat extra protection against the elements, so feel free to use multiple coats.

Brushing thin layer of polyurethane over fabric of floor mat

Step 7: Place finished mats in your car. Ta-da!

Finished holiday car floor mats

Festive Headrest Covers

Add some seasonal flair to your holiday road trips

Materials:

  • Fabric (look for fabric that has a bit of stretch)
  • Ribbon
  • Fabric glue
  • Scissors
  • Measuring tape
  • Pencil

Steps:

Gather materials

Materials for festive headrests

Step 1: Measure headrests including width, height and depth. Cut fabric based on measurements. For example: our headrest was 8.5 in X 8 in X 5 in – so we cut our fabric 14 in wide (8.5in wide + 5in deep = 13.5 and we rounded up), 25 in tall (8in tall for front side + 8 inches tall for backside + 5 in deep = 21. We then added 4 inches to have a little extra space – you can always cut or tuck in any excess.

Measuring fabric for festive headrest

Step 2: Lay the fabric face side up (i.e., the side you want to show) and run a thin line of glue around half of the fabric, as shown.

Gluing fabric for festive headrest cover

Step 3: Fold the fabric in half and pat the edges with the glue to secure and let dry.

Folding fabric over to make pillowcase for headrest

Step 4: When thoroughly dry, cut the unglued side open to create a ‘pillowcase’ and turn inside out.

Holding up headrest cover

Step 5: Cut a long piece of ribbon (ours was 35 in) to use as your trim.

Cutting ribbon for headrest cover decoration

Step 6: Pull your new cover down over your headrest and tuck in any excess fabric.

Pulling headrest cover over headrest

Step 7: Wind the ribbon under the headrest and tie a bow at the top to complete your headrest ‘gift’. We added a few lights for an extra festive touch.

Tying ribbon around festive headrest cover

Step 8: Let the holidays begin!

Finished festive headrest cover

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