New Wreath: Urban Meets Glam!

As Summer slips into Fall, I find myself looking for ways to infuse a little warmth into my spaces.  We have a pretty big, nearly empty, wall in our front entryway.  I repainted my living and dining rooms this summer a beautiful soft gray and I’ve been trying to figure out how I want to dress up this empty wall.  I had an idea for a new wreath floating around in my head, so I decided that would be a good place to start.

My style tends to lean toward the “dressy” side of life.  But, we are also a pretty laid back family.  One of our objectives in decorating this house has been to play a little with our decor.  In our last house we picked a “look” and did our whole house in it.  I liked it, but styles change as people change.  I like to think that we’re having a lot more fun decorating this house.

With that idea in mind, as we are s-l-o-w-l-y finishing our living room, we are ending up with an eclectic mix of “Urban meets Glam”.  And, so far, I’m lovin’ it peeps!!  OK. Enough side-tracking.  Back to my new wreath…

I started with a basic flat wood wreath form.  I wrapped it with some gorgeous gray yarn.

I picked up a bunch of wood circles and a few packages of round mirrors at a craft store.  I primed the wood circles with white primer and then added a light touch of gray spray paint, purposely letting some of the white show through to keep the circles a little more unfinished looking.  Once dry, I hot glued them onto the base of the wreath, leaving about an inch of space between each circle.  Then I hot glued the mirrors onto the wood circles, overlapping and covering the spaces between the wood circles.

Now the basic wreath was finished.  So far, so good.

Although very pretty on its own, I wanted to hang it in my front entry and I knew it would look a little lost on my big wall.  It needed a little weight.  And, since I’ve always wanted to live in a downtown loft, I decided to create a little urban loft feel of my own by using some basic wood boards and a little stain.

First, I cut some boards I had into various lengths.  Because this was going to hang above a console in our entryway, I knew I wanted my finished piece to be between 36 – 40 inches long.  Beyond that, I basically played around with different sizes and lengths.  When I finally got a pattern I liked I tried the wreath on top to see how it looked.

Me likey!   I attached all the boards together with two smaller strips of wood, wood glue, and my nail gun.

Next came the stain.  I decided to use two colors I already had on hand, partially because I was trying to spend as little money as possible, and partially because I was too lazy to go to the store.  Now, I have to be honest, at this point I wasn’t entirely sure this was a great idea.  The two colors I had on hand were Ebony and Red Mahogany.

I wasn’t sure how well they would work together.  I started with a thin coat of Ebony.  Using a foam brush, I basically brushed a small amount on and then wiped it off right away with a paper towel.  After this first coat, I had a cool gray, weathered look.  So far so good.  Next came a coat of the Red Mahogany.  After a few quick coats, I let it dry of an hour or so.  This is what it looked like at this point.

I almost went with this look, but then we decided it needed to be darker.  Most of our furniture in the living room and dining room is dark wood, so we figured a darker piece would look better.  I couldn’t be happier with that decision.  Here is a look at the final result.

I absolutely LOVE this piece!  I wanted it to look like I had found an old hunk of wood flooring that I decided to glam up a bit.  I love the way the two elements play off each other.

This wall sits opposite of the wall where my Ruffled Linen Art is hanging, so they relate well to each other.  Here’s a look with the console.

And here’s one of the whole entryway.

Yes, I know there’s still a lot of empty wall space.  Don’t worry, I have plans for that too.  One project at a time.  Here’s a few more looks, just for fun!

 

After a vacation, a bout with the stomach flu, and a stint on jury duty, I’m excited to be back with my blog.  I have many more projects I’m finishing up that I can’t wait to show you and even more ideas I’m trying to organize.  We are just starting our second week of school here, and I admit I like being back in the routine.

Have a fabulous day!

Tagged as: DIY, wreath