Our Spring Door Wreath
If you'd like to learn how to make your own floral wreaths at home then this is the article for you! I made this pretty spring wreath in about 20 minutes, and although it may not be perfect, it's still quite beautiful on our front door! And... I saved over $30 by making it myself!
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I've used the same spring/summer wreath (with little pink and white flowers) on our front door for more years than I can count. It was really time for a change! I guess I've just been so busy over the last 10 years that I hadn't even thought about it until this week.
So, while I was out running errands I stopped by my favorite craft supply store to see if they had any pretty wreaths I could pick up. I was hoping they'd have something special for Easter.
But after about 5 minutes of browsing through the store (scanning every decorated floral wreath available for purchase), I quickly realized that I was on my own. The average price tag was $39.00, which was much more than I wanted to pay!
Fortunately, I have had some experience with flower decorating and knew basically what to do next. I said to myself "it's okay, you can do this!" And as you can see from the picture above, I purchased some silk flowers and went home and made this beautiful wreath. My total cost was under $10.00!
Ever since I put it up on our front door I've been wanting to share it with all of you - so you can save money and have a pretty wreath on your door too. Wreaths are pretty and fun, and an inexpensive way to decorate for the seasons and holidays, especially when you make them at home.
Here's the items you'll need:
Scissors or wire cutters
Brown or green floral tape to match the stems (if you want to get real fancy)
Hot glue
Recycled twist tie for hanging wreath on the door (like you get from a bag of bread)
Wreath Base...
Grapevine or straw wreaths are the most common, which I already had stored in my garage from a previous wreath I took apart years ago. (Keep this in mind when hitting the yard sales this summer!)
Silk Flowers...
Start by choosing either the main color you want (like blue, pink, white, etc...) or a particular flower (like roses, tulips, etc...), and then add some other flowers that will compliment them well. Selecting varied shapes and sizes works well too. The amount of flowers you need to buy will depend on the size of your wreath base, and whether you want to cover it completely or just give it some color (which is also the cheaper way to go).
Look for silk flowers that are already grouped together with one base stem, they only cost a few dollars and you can get a lot of flowers that are already coordinated! (For the wreath above, I found a set that I really liked so I bought two of them.)
Make sure to look the flowers over good when picking them out - for any missing pieces that may have fallen off at the store. If you get home and still find an empty stem, you can either tuck it behind another flower or cut it off.
Group the flowers together in your hands at the store, if they look good together chances are pretty good they'll look good on your wreath too.
Bows and Extra Decorations...
Ribbon bows add a nice touch to floral wreaths, but that's not all you can add...
Craft stores have tons of little things that might look pretty on a wreath, be creative and use whatever you want! I looked for a small cross (for Easter) but couldn't find anything that would fit on the wreath well. They also had plenty of Easter decorations like flocked bunnies and baby chicks, and plastic eggs. (Since my flowers ended up looking more spring like than for Easter, I decided to go with a pretty butterfly instead.)
Instructions:
Lay the wreath base on a table as you would like it to hang on your door (prettiest side on top or whatever), then add the twist tie to the back of the top so you can hang it on the door when you're finished. (Or, if you want to wait and see how the wreath turns out first, save this step for last - like I did.)
Next, prepare your flowers. Remove store tags, cut flowers to a shorter length (about 4 - 6 inches), with wire cutters or an old pair of scissors, and then wrap stems with a small amount of floral tape if desired.
You can even cut off the leaves and do the same thing with them, or use florist stems (the ones with a wire attached) to create a single flower or leaf out of everything that was attached to each stem.
After you've got your flowers prepared, group them together by color or type.
Start with one group of flowers and stick them in the wreath one at a time, in whatever pattern you want. Then, work on another group and another until they are all in the wreath. (If you have some flowers leftover you can also put them in a vase and use them somewhere else in the house.)
If you'd like to add a ribbon bow or some kind of decoration, you can either place it in the wreath as you did with the flowers (attaching a leftover floral stem with some tape if needed), or just use a little hot glue.
Now, take a step back and see how it looks. If you don't like the way you placed some of the flowers you can carefully pull them out and move them around until you're happy with it.
Wreaths also make great gifts all throughout the year... especially for holidays. I hope this has given you the encouragement to give it a try, I know you can do it!
Just be creative. If you do make your own wreath, send us a photo! :o)
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