Life as a LEO Wife

Spring is on its way! There are several places in my home where I hang seasonal wreaths, two of those are in my living room. As I was planning my spring decor, I realized I didn’t have a really pretty wreath to hang for the entire season. Today is our Sustainable Pinterest Challenge and the theme for this month is floral. Thinking about that, the perfect wreath clicked in my head- a floral bike wheel wreath! So in this post I will be sharing how I made mine so that you can make one of your very own.

You could make this wreath with real flowers, but using faux flowers is way more sustainable. You won’t be cutting flowers and greenery, killing them. One additional note – cut your faux flower stems as long as you can. That allows you to use them over and over again in multiple projects. I’ve used these same garlands and flowers in more than ten projects. Talk about sustainable!

Supplies needed for a floral bike wheel wreath:

• bike wheel wreath form (Dollar Tree)
• spray paint (optional)- I used Krylon metallic copper.
• greenery garland (I used one from Hobby Lobby that my mom actually got about 19 years ago (wow!) and one from Michael’s from a grab bag full of stuff for $2.50!)
• faux flowers of your choice (I used white dahlias and pink and purple peonies.)
• floral wire or pipe cleaners (Wire would be best, but I had pipe cleaners from Dollar Tree with tinsel type things on the wire, so I cut the tinsel off so that I only had wire left.)
• wire cutters

Spray Paint the Wreath Form

Spray painting your wreath form is optional. The form I bought from Dollar Tree was black, but I wanted a brighter color. I used copper as an accent color for fall, and I loved it. So, I used Krylon metallic copper and spray painted my form. One coat of that paint easily covered the black. If you can, let the wreath form dry overnight. I started working with mine after 3 hours of drying, and some came off on my fingers when I was trying to hang it. Major bummer!

Attach the Greenery

Once the wreath form is dry, you can begin adding your garlands of greenery. You can use other greenery stems, but I’ve found that garlands work well on wreaths because they cover more area easier. First you need to decide how much of your wreath you’d like covered with flowers. I chose to cover about 55% of mine, extending just a bit past 12 and 6 o’clock. Go ahead and cut some pieces of your wire so they’re ready to go. I used about 3-4″ pieces.

Lay your garland on the wreath, moving it around until you’re happy with the look. With a garland you will probably need to fold it and double it back on itself. That is why it’s so easy to cover a lot of the wreath with garland.

Use your wire to wrap attach the garland or greenery to the wreath in various points. With my first garland, I placed wire in three places, at the top, bottom, and in the middle of it.

Lay the next garland on top of the one you just attached. My second garland was only a half of one because I had already used a section of it on another project. Arrange the greenery the way you’d like, then attach it to the form with wire.

Once it’s on, move the greenery around, mixing the two garlands together so they look like one cohesive piece.

Add Flowers to the Bike Wheel Wreath

Now that your greenery is exactly where you want it, you can begin to add the flowers. It’s easiest if you start at the top of the wreath, adding flowers there first, then continue to the bottom.

Use the wire cutters and cut the flower you want to use from the bunch. The length of stem you will cut will depend on where you’re placing it. You obviously don’t want to leave the stem long enough that it would extend past the greenery. I left the leaves on my stems to add to the greenery. Use more wire to attach the flower to the wreath. My first flower is about 2.5″ from the edge of the greenery at the top of the wreath.

Since I used two different colors on my wreath, I alternated adding one purple, one white, all the way down. Continue adding flowers with wire to the wreath form until you’re happy with the look. I added three purple flowers and two white to my wreath.

This is a close up of a section of my wreath, showing the alternating colors.

Move the flowers and greenery as needed until you’re happy with the positioning.

That’s it! Your floral bike wheel wreath is ready to hang!

It’s that easy. It took me about an hour to make my wreath once the paint was dry. I think using garlands are a huge part of the reason that it was so quick and easy to make. I really hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that you will make your own wreath. I’d love for you to follow me on social media using the buttons in the sidebar and tag me in a photo of your wreath! I will be moving my wreath to its special spot soon, but until then here are a few photos of my wreath:

Before you leave, check out all of my St. Patrick’s Day tutorials and free printables! If you’re looking for something specific, you can use the search box in the sidebar to find it.

On to the Link Up!

Click on the name of the blog to head to their main blog page and on the name of the project to head straight to the project itself!

Julie from Sum of Their Stories | Floral Bag Upcycle w/ Upholstery Fabric Samples

Gail from Purple Hues and Me

Terri Steffes from Terri Steffes | Watercolor Floral Bookmarks

Ann from Apple Street Cottage | Denim Flowers – 2 Ways

T’onna from Sew Crafty Crochet | Crochet Flower Facial Scrubbies

Julie from Treasures Made from Yarn | Crochet Flowers

Allyson from Southern Sunflowers | DIY Door Hanger Craft Idea

Mel from Decor Craft Design | DIY Painted Upcycled Mug

Donna from Modern on Monticello | Wine Box Flower Arrangement