A Luxe Thanksgiving Wreath

My crafty side came out of hibernation recently and I decided to make a fall wreath for my dining room this year. I’m not really a fan of wreaths lately for some odd reason, but I came across a gold spray painted magnolia wreath on Pinterest that was simple and elegant. Even though I’m a reluctant crafter I have made several wreaths before and found it pretty easy. Well, not this one! It would have been easy had I known a few things ahead of time. Next time, I’ll actually click on the link and read the directions no matter how simple it looks. I pretty much did it all backwards, but figured it out in the end. Now that my fingers have recovered from the sting of the hot glue gun, I love it and would do it all over again.



I used fake magnolia leaves, which is easier since you can shape the branches to fit the wreath. I began by taking the leaves off the branches and gluing them to the styrofoam wreath, but it didn’t look quite right because you could tell they were glued and didn’t have a full natural appearance. It looked so much better once I trimmed the stem and shaped the branch to fit the wreath. Then, I hot glued it to the styrofoam. In retrospect, I should have spray painted the leaves gold first because when the branches slipped the unpainted green underneath showed. I had to spray paint it three different times because of this and hot glue it over and over again until it stayed. I can’t tell you how many times I burned my fingers. But, the hardest part is shaping the leaves just right on the edges of the wreath. Make sure to take a few leaves off the branches to hot glue on the edges of the wreath to get a perfect round appearance, or a perfectly imperfect round appearance.  You’ll also need spare leaves to glue around the sides of the wreath so the styrofoam is completely covered. I also happened to find a few feathers in my attic from years ago that I never used when looking for a wreath hanger. Don’t you have feathers just sitting around in your attic? Well, I never found the hanger and ended up using a Command hook, but the feathers were a great find. I cut them in half and glued them around the wreath and love how it gives it a little oomph.

Here it is on my dining room window.



I took the blinds down recently and the windows just felt a bit naked despite the new drapes. This window used to be visible from the street, but the fence was moved up in front of it after we built the pool because of the equipment on the side of the house. I love that the window is now in the backyard for more privacy. The drapes still haven’t been ironed, but I’ll get around to it before Thanksgiving…I hope. I bought them at Target for a great deal. I’d love to dress them up a little with some trim and maybe a French pleat at the top. My sewing skills are a bit too beginner right now so I ended up gathering up three pleats and clipping the backs for now with old curtain rings.



I still have quite a bit to do in here before I can call it done, but it’s coming along!