Wreath season isn’t just for the Martha Stewart’s of the world anymore— fancy free, whimsical and wild is in. Don’t be afraid to build a wreath entirely by hand this holiday season and really get creative about it. Use the below steps as your DIY formula (rather than a hard and fast recipe) and remember the golden rule: anything goes!
(Brag your love of gardening with the Organic Life 2018 Wall Calendar, featuring gorgeous photographs, cooking tips and recipes, plus how to eat more—and waste less—of what's in season.)
Harvest
Go out into the woods and sample nature’s wintry bounty: Pick for texture, pick for color, pick for beauty and originality. Make sure you gather something to be your base (the foliage that will make up the bulk of your wreath) and plenty of bling (think grasses, cones, seed heads and feathers). It might help to envision a color scheme before you go out (is classic your thing? How about a shades-of-brown wreath? Why not just really dark greens and blues?) but more important is gathering lots of stuff as you go. (Read more about some of our favorite plants to forage for holiday decorating.)
Build the backbone
To make the actual wreath frame, use willow or a vine like wisteria, grape or bittersweet. Cut some long, flexible tendrils and wind them around and around (and around) each other until they make a strong, unified circle. Don’t worry about making it too perfect in shape— it will even out as you add plant material and besides, imperfect is interesting. If you aren’t into building your own, purchase a wire wreath frame from any craft store.
Attach the base layer
You’ll need plenty of material to hide (mostly) whatever you build your wreath frame with. For a traditional evergreen wreath use pine, spruce, fir or cedar (in a pinch you can use hemlock too). Gather clusters of greenery and wire them to the wreath frame, going in a consistent direction around the frame, hiding the stems of the previous cluster in the greenery of subsequent clusters. Remember, you don't have to use the same material all the way around.
Related: 4 Tips To Help You Forage For Holiday Greens Without Hurting The Environment
Strategize
Now that you have the base, you need to choose which way is ‘up’. Is your wreath going to be a perfect, symmetrical circle? Or do you have some lumps and bumps to work with? If you haven’t got a perfect circle, think about how you can embellish or pretty-up that oddly shaped corner. Remember, asymmetry is in: off-center, three sided wreaths are definitely desirable!
Consider decking out your wreath with some citrus windows or stars:
Add interest from big to small
Add big things like fern fronds or fallen leaves first, and little things like seed heads and berries last otherwise they’ll get, well, buried. Tie everything in to the frame with as little wire (of the very fine, green sort—like this) as possible.
Related: How To Make A Succulent Wreath
Keep on adding
There’s really no limit to what you can add to a wreath. Feathers, cones, shells, dried flowers can all be part of it— especially if you have a hand woven wreath frame with lots of crevices for lodging things.
Hang and display
Loop a little circle of wire around your wreath’s frame (and try to hide it as best as you can amongst all the foliage) to hang from a nail or window latch.
Related: 12 Plastic-Free, Zero-Waste Holiday Decor Ideas We Love
