Scary objects (Help)

So, my 10 year-old cockatoo (umbrella) is scared of new things in my home (shocker, right lol)

Here's the thing- she spends most of her time in the living room and she has that area memorized. Consequently, anything that is medium-large and new freaks her out because she knows that it doesn't belong. That having been said, when entering unfamiliar places, she is much less scared of similar objects, as long as they are already there when she first is introduced to that place (presumably because she has no standard for comparison with regard to what "should" be in there).

I am working on making her a tree perch and even though she has used them in boarding facilities etc, I am afraid she is going to freak out if one shows up in my living room ("THIS MONSTER DOES NOT BELONG").

Because I was working on baking the perch in segments, I had some logs on a chair and as we walked across the room towards her other perch, she freaked out and flew off of my shoulder. This happened 4 times before I moved the logs to another room....She seems to fly poorly and honestly, she prefers not to (unless she is scared). The logs were about 5 feet away, and we couldn't even walk past them! lol

I know that slow exposure and time are the keys to success, but my space is fairly limited, so it is hard to put something in the room while keeping it 10 feet away from her.
I want to slowly introduce new objects etc, but I worry that she will injure herself in a moment of panic---the other day, she flew and ended up hitting the window a bit (not because she thought she could go through it, but because she gets so panicked that she reacted like a person jumping to their death from a burning building!)..Yes, she is fine and yes, I am sure. I know all about the dangers of flighted birds and windows.

I have NO idea how I will manage to put up my Christmas tree or the tree-perch in my current home (historically, I would have put it elsewhere, but the space that I would like to use for both of these objects happens to be within her main stomping ground).

Does anyone have any thoughts? Sorry for the long post. I thought about setting up the tree-perch at my parents house and introducing it to her there (as she is less familiar with that setting and therefore, less likely to harbor preconceptions about the space) but I am not sure that she will generalize familiarity to the same object once she and the perch are moved back to my home ( "safe" and familiar setting).

They're so smart, right? Is any part of your home unfamiliar, like bedroom? Put the perch there while she's caged first? She'll see it from a safe place and can come out in her own time. Curiosity will win the day I think.

If I put it in the bedroom, she won't be able to see it from where her main cage is, unless I walk her to the doorway. She does sometimes go into the bedroom that I have in mind, but it is like a world of mystery when she does enter and she looks around at everything because it is still unfamiliar. I guess she might not notice it in there if I kept her out of that room for a while and then we just looked at it from the doorway for a few weeks lol. Thanks!

Sounds like a heightened anxiety level. Some species are less tolerant of change, and I believe this is true of cockatoos.

The Christmas tree is going to be a challenge! Perhaps you can slowly acclimate by first bringing it into the room horizontal and leave it that way for a while. Perhaps bringing it in and eventually elevating/decorating ought be done with her out of the room. Bring her in after each step and cuddle her while entering the room.

In some cases they never accept something new. I have a beautiful 5' manzanita playpen in the corner of my primary bird room. They are tolerant of the presence but won't fly to it or allow me to place them on a branch.