I love wreaths. No clue why, I just do. Wreaths on walls, doors, gates. The sight of them makes me happy.
Flower wreaths made of metal have been a thing of late in the decor catalogs. I bought one to hang on the wall of the updated dining room, but it turns out that metal marks up the paint like whoa–any contact leaves a gray streak. I considered attaching the wreath to some sort of backing to keep it from touching the wall, but decided that would ruin its essential ‘wreathiness.’ So I set it aside to hang in the living room—wood walls and stone fireplace, so no marking—and tried to think of what to do with some of the wall space. Shelves? An arrangement of small items from the overflow of SF and fantasy artwork I’ve collected over the years? Decisions.
Years ago, possibly a couple of decades, I bought a 6′ silk flower garland of green leaves and assorted creamy white flowers. Roses. Lily. Maybe apple blossoms. I grabbed it mostly because it was marked down from $12.99 to $3.99, and I wasn’t sure what I would do with it. Turns out I didn’t do anything with it, so eventually I stuck it on a shelf in the basement. I’d look at it every so often and debate whether to throw it out. But I still thought it was pretty so I kept it.
A few months ago, I did get rid of an old wreath. Most of it, anyway. The color had worn off the styrofoam berries and some were crumbling to bits, so I pulled them all off and trashed it. The wreath base, however, consisted of a sturdy brown circle of woven rattan maybe 10-12″ in diameter. Too good to toss.
And that’s when I started to wonder. I brought the garland upstairs, piled it on a chair along with the wreath base, then forgot about it as the renovation commenced, followed by the recovery from the renovation.
A couple of days ago, I finally got around to putting together the wreath. I cut up the garland and stuck the leaves and flowers into the base. I thought I might need a glue gun, but turns out I didn’t—I stuck the plastic stems into the woven wood and everything stayed put. Took less than an hour.
Preconstructed wreath
Voila!
I just hung it up an hour or so ago. I like it a lot. I also may be patting myself on the back because, judging from the wreaths I saw at one of the big boxes today, I may have saved myself at least $30. But mostly I just plain like it.