It feels a little weird to jump into a Christmas wreath tutorial without an explanation of where I’ve been for the last…oh, eight months. In May I ripped out and remodeled our laundry room, and I don’t do big projects and blogging at the same time. Then summer came and the kids were home, and I don’t do hanging out with my kids and blogging at the same time. Then the kids went back to school and I started a new job with our local Children’s Museum. So now, a blog that was only a hobby to begin with has been downgraded to…I can’t even think of something lower on the priority list than a hobby.
But when Jamie at That’s My Letter approached me about working with her and *The Home Depot on a DIY Workshop project, I thought, why not? Sounds like fun. I like working on a team, I like a challenge. I like DIY Workshops at The Home Depot. I’ll update my readers between now and when the project goes up. Then the whole summer went by. Then the fall. And now The Home Depot is into Christmas stuff so we’re into Christmas stuff and half a year has passed from me without a peep.
And yet. And yet I still get comments from you guys on the blog. Daily.
Questions about putting together this and finishing that and how do I get rid of that vinegar smell when I oxidize a piece of furniture? So I know you’re still there and I know that you know that I’m one of those unreliable bloggers, but that when I show up in your feed, you go ooh, I haven’t heard from her in a while! So, Hello! Here I am. And I’ve got a cool project to share with you today.
The Home Depot has teamed up with a few bloggers (The Friendly Home included) to bring you a special Christmas DIY Workshop treat. As you probably know, The Home Depot offers DIY workshops at all of their locations for people of all ages and experience levels. There are three types of workshops offered — Do-It-Yourself (DIY), Do-It-Herself (DIH), and Kids. The workshops cover everything from decor projects (like this one) to making easy home repairs and operating tools through demonstrations and step-by-step instructions. You can find out more about their workshops here. If you’d like a live demo on making your own Christmas Wreath Trio at The Home Depot, you can find out more and register for that workshop here.
Let me give you a word of warning about this project. When you put three wreaths together, they’re heavy. I didn’t weigh mine but, like, my arm got tired when I was hanging them from my door. And I’m no weakling. But what I discovered after I hung the wreaths on my door is that they’d probably work better on a front door that doesn’t get much use.
Like, when I was growing up, we used our garage door almost exclusively. The only time we opened and closed our front door was when my mom put a new wreath on it or when the Girl Scouts came to the front door to sell cookies. That is a situation where these wreaths would be perfect. A door that is far from the road and needs a big pop to be seen, and a door that doesn’t get opened and closed much. Because these wreaths are heavy and they create kind of a ruckus every time you open and close the door.
For this project, we were supposed to go to the Depot (that’s what we call it in our family), choose three wreaths, wire them together, decorate them, and hang them. Well…I’m not super into decorating anything. Building things? Yes. Decorating them? Please. When I have that kind of leisure time in my life, I use it to sit down with a beer and a good movie or a book. Or I build something useful. I’m all about function, not so much about form.
So when I saw already-decorated wreaths sitting next to the plain wreaths for only $2 more, I was like…uh, did they say I couldn’t use these? Because I’m using these. Especially because they were decorated with pinecones and sticks and juniper sprigs and berries. I had imagined myself walking around the neighborhood, collecting bits and pieces of nature to decorate my wreaths but the Depot just saved me hours. And very scratched-up hands.
I did, however, want to add lights and a little bling. I found these awesome Martha Stewart lights that I had no idea existed, (I may have had a where have you BEEN all my life? reaction in the store, actually). Each strand runs on 3 AA batteries. They’re LED so I expect that the batteries will last a while. And, the coolest part, they’re on an automatic timer. I feel a little late to the game here, so feel free to roll your eyes when I tell you this, but these lights go on when you switch them on, turn off 6 hours later, and turn back on again 18 hours later. So, turn them on at 5pm, they turn off at 11pm, and then they turn on again all by themselves the following day at 5pm. And the cycle continues.
Genius. I can build a table or an entertainment center or a giant armoire but I never would have come up with that.
In addition to the lights, I wanted some bling. At first, I was thinking about taking some tin snips to some old beer cans, cutting out shapes and tinsel, and winding those into the wreath for a little shimmer. But then I imagined myself digging through the recycling, rinsing old cans, and cutting myself on the edge of the aluminum as I cut out my shapes. I even googled “beer can tinsel” while I was standing in the Depot. Meh. I wasn’t inspired.
Instead, I wandered around the store, specifically the metal aisle, and found some thick copper wire. Lalalala! This would be perfect and my family could work with it (and complete half the project for me).
Here are the supplies I used.
- 3 decorated wreaths (about $8/each)
- 3 strands of Martha Stewart LED lights (also about $8/each)
- 2 coils of copper wire (about $5/each)
- Suction cup hangers to attach wreaths to my storm door (about $1.50/each)
- Wire cutters
- Needle nose pliers
- Pens and other objects to use as forms for wrapping copper wire
Everything but the copper wire is in the holiday section at the Depot. The copper wire is in the aisle with the screws and sheet metal. If your back is to the screws, you’ll be looking at the metal stuff (at least in my store).
Here are a few things I learned along the way.
- Don’t wire the battery packs for your lights in the top of the wreath. That’s where your hanger is going to go and the battery pack will get in the way.
- Do turn on your lights before you start, to be sure they all work.
- Do keep the lights on as you’re winding them into your wreath — it’s much easier to see where they’re going when they’re on.
- Do get help from your family if you’re playing with copper wire. Scott and my kids had fun seeing what shapes they could create. Copper wire is easy to work with and it’s a fun family activity.
Here’s how this triple wreath creation went down.
Lay the wreaths upside-down on a flat surface and wire them together.
Prepare your lights (add batteries, turn them on, uncoil the wires) and wire the battery packs to your wreath form. I put mine at the top of each wreath so they’d be hidden, but I should have put them at about 10 or 2 on the wreath, to make room for the wreath hangers at the top.
Flip all three of the wreaths over and weave your lights into the wreaths.
Decorate. We made little copper coils and funky shapes (including Christmas trees, an angel, and a cat — or dog, depending on whom you ask).
I’m not the only blogger who’s got a trio of Christmas wreaths hanging on my door. In fact, The Home Depot teamed up with a whole bunch of us and you won’t believe the creativity you’ll see in some of the other wreaths. Here’s a list of them — check them out!
- Chic Little House
- Live Pretty on a Penny
- Décor Adventures
- Don’t Disturb This Groove
- C.R.A.F.T.
- Balancing Home
- A Pumpkin & A Princess
- Tried & True
- White House Black Shutters
- Décor and the Dog
- NewlyWoodwards
- Boxy Colonial
- Wills Casa
- The House of Wood
- Shades of Blue Interiors
- Hertoolbelt
- Build Basic
- Making Home Base
- That’s My Letter
- Remodelando la Casa
- The Friendly Home
- Fix This Build That
*This post is sponsored by The Home Depot. The Home Depot provided me with gift cards to cover the cost of materials for this project.