A couple months ago when we went flower picking, I had the idea to dry the flowers out and use them to make something down the road. I kept thinking I’d make a summer wreath, but when summer turned to fall I thought that making a dried floral fall wreath was even better! This wreath is such a testament to the summer meets fall season and I am thrilled with how it came out! I’ve broken down the steps of how I made this below if you’d like to try it yourself, or if you want to get this look a bit quicker I found some very pretty fall floral wreaths below!
If you’d like to dry flowers yourself it’s pretty easy. All I did was bunch together similar sizes and kinds, bundled them with twine then hung them upside down from a hanger (there is a picture of this below). Keep these in a relatively dark and cool place and you can forget about them until you’d like to use them! They typically take 1-2 weeks to completely dry out, the bigger they are (like sunflowers) the longer they take.
What You’ll Need:
- 1 Grapevine Wreath (I used a 24″)
- 1 Stem Yellow Artificial Seed Pods
- 1 Stem Natural Colored Artificial Seed Pods
- Dried Flowers (I used a variety including zinnias, cosmos, snapdragons, veronica and sunflowers) These can be done yourself, ordered online or purchased in store.
- Faux mini foam pumpkins and/or gourds
- Floral Wire
- Floral Tape
- Scissors
- Twine or Ribbon to hang
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So besides the dried flowers, I used a 24″ grapevine wreath from the craft store. FYI, this is a BIG wreath which was what I wanted (I like big wreaths), but if you have a smaller door try an 18″. The 24″ grapevine wreath was $28 and I got it at 50% off with a coupon from a craft store. I also found the 2 stems of artificial autumn floral that look like seed pods from the craft store and I believe they were 40% off of $14.99 at the time. Then I picked up a bag of white mini pumpkins and green squash for $10 and was able to make them attachable by pushing floral wire through the bottom then adding a little bit of hot glue at the insertion point just to keep the wire in place.
You could certainly use artificial flowers for something like this, or you could even purchase dried flowers online or from local retailers (like Roxanne’s Dried Flowers in Pittsburgh or a craft store). Or you could even purchase a fall floral wreath that is already made! Below are the ones I found that have a similar style, so if you like this DIY then you’ll probably love these. Either way you’ll get a really gorgeous wreath that looks perfect alongside chrysanthemums and pumpkins.
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This is everything I used pictured here aside from the dried queen anne’s lace and another branch. Make sure that if you are using any artificial flowers or in my case the faux seed pods that you cut the smaller branches off of the main stem. That way you can spread the color all across the wreath and really don’t need very much to do so. This was a pretty large wreath and 2 stems plus these dried flowers were more than enough! I think the faux pumpkins added a really nice touch and really made this wreath feel like fall.
Directions:
Once I had all my materials ready to go, I started to improvise and initially had something completely different in mind. I started by sticking the yellow pods directly into the wreath first and sort of cascaded them down one side. At this point, I knew I wanted to make each material fade into the next. So after the yellow, I added the natural color pods by scattering them at about the a quarter of the way down from where the yellow started, then carried them down further around the wreath. After those were done I began to bundle the flowers and add them in the same way, starting to trickled them in at about a quarter the way from down where I started the natural ones and cascading them down further.
It’s important to wrap bundles of the smaller flowers with floral tape because when using real dried flower they will be brittle and can break easily. Wrapping them provides a stronger stem to stick through the grapevine wreath. Also, having one skinny flower here and there wouldn’t yield the desired effect overall. The sunflowers however are thick enough to stick through and are large enough to be placed on their own.
Finally I wired the pumpkins and gourds and then began attaching them to the wreath by threading the wire through the grapevine and wrapping it until secured. This was probably the longest part, and I used the same method of trickling them into where I left off with the other materials then continuing up the side.
I just love the colors in this wreath so much! There’s something about the muted colors from the dried flowers alongside the earthy tones of the autumn foliage that goes really well together. And whether you use this inside or out, this colorful take on a fall wreath will really dress up whichever space it’s in!
Here are the ready to purchase wreaths again below, as well as all the supplies you would need to make this dried floral fall wreath! I still need to get some photos of the wreath on our front door with the layered doormats and pumpkins. Fall is probably my favorite time to decorate a front porch, there is just so much you can do with it and I tend to decorate mine a little different each year based on what kind of pumpkins and mums I find! If you try this DIY out or if you have any questions make sure to tag me on social! And Happy Fall!!
Supplies to Make a Dried Floral Fall Wreath:
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Ready to Purchase Dried Floral Fall Wreaths:
