Upgrading My Christmas Wreaths (2014)

 I really enjoy the look of Christmas greenery, so when I came upon a few evergreen wreaths, I decided to decorate them a bit and add them to my dining room decor (I made them to match the wreaths already hanging in my dining room and living rooms).  I like these wreaths, but they need a bit more 'oomph', so today's post will show you how I fixed them up.

(You can click here to read about my dining room Christmas decor)

Remember my posts about the evergreen garland I use to fix up my trees?  Well I found all of the garland for the kitchen and dining room trees, the three wreaths pictured here and all of my miniature pine trees in a great big box while treasure hunting.  Total price: $5!

Now let's get started!

The Wreaths

Pictured here are the three wreaths as I left them last year.  I used chocolate, gold and champagne ornaments from my dining room display to dress them up a bit.  When I ran out of ornaments, I stopped.  I was really pregnant at the time with Little Man and not in the mood for any outings, so I just made a note of what I needed and left it at that.

After Christmas day had passed I happened to be at Dollar Tree where they had all of there holiday items marked half-off.  (If you think buying everything for $1 is fun, .50 is even better!)  I remembered my notes and stocked up on packages of gold ornaments, then stashed them away with my holiday decor.

(If you want to read more about my holiday notes, click here )

Dollar Tree Clearance Ornaments

My secret weapon: Chenille Stems!

(Also know as pipe cleaners)

I like to cluster the ornaments into groups of three.  

Odd numbers always look best, and it's much easier to add three ornaments at once.

You don't have to worry about the color of the chenille stem, it will be hidden by the evergreen branches.

I simply string them onto the chenille stem, in no particular order.

Then I twist the chenille stem so the ornaments cluster together and stay in place.

I decide where I want the cluster to be positioned on top of the wreath and wrap the chenille stem around to the back.

Moving the little evergreen branches out of the way allows the cluster to be wrapped more tightly, and hides the color of the chenille stem.

I give the chenille stem a few twists on the back, then trim off the excess.

Then I flipped the wreath back over and repeated the process until I had the desired amount of ornaments in place.  Once all of the clusters had been added, I fluffed the evergreen branches so that the wreath looked full and balanced. This also helped to ensure that any visible chenille stems had been hidden.

And there you have it, a much happier looking wreath!

I feel so much better about these wreaths now, and the dining room feels less 'thrown together'.
And, I think the total cost for this project was around $3. Yay!

I hope you enjoyed this how-to post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2014