Pottery Barn-inspired Winter Wreath

Now that Halloween is over it's time to get in high gear for the holidays, so November is my prime holiday crafting time. If possible, I generally prefer to have all of my holiday-related crafting done before Thanksgiving. It helps with the whole "sanity" front I try to maintain. If I could, I'd do all my holiday cooking in July and my crafting in March. I like to enjoy the time from Thanksgiving through New Year's Eve. I actually enjoy Christmas music and decorations, going to holiday parties, wrapping gifts, and watching all the random Christmas movies on TV. I'm glad that Pottery Barn had their holiday catalog out before Halloween this year. It was very considerate of them to take my crafting insanity schedule into account. I was just flipping through the catalog when I saw this wreath:

Pottery Barn Jeweled Crystal Wreath

So pretty!!!!

And for only $70 you can have a 13-inch one! Hmmm. Yeah, I think not. I'm pretty sure I can make that for less than $70.

This wreath really appeals to me (in addition to being GORGEOUS) because of its neutral color and theme. I usually go with seasonal wreaths, in lieu of holiday wreaths, on my front door. So my winter wreath goes up from the day after Thanksgiving through the end of February.

So, in order to make some gorgeousness happen on my front door for less than $70, this is what I did:

I bought a wreath form at Michael's. I should have measured it, but I think it's about 14-inches or so.

Then I took it apart.

Using wire cutters, I just clipped off the inside wire ring and the outside wire ring. It was pretty easy because they were held by wire pieces that were just bent around them.

And painted it.

Well, I didn't actually "paint" it. I started this project and then realized I used all my silver spray paint on the curtain rods in my bedroom. So I found a silver Sharpie and used that. I just wanted to make sure that the front of the wire was silver, and not green, in case it would show through the snowflakes once they were attached.

For the snowflakes, I just went in search of ornaments. Knowing I would need about 12 (I ended up using 11), I tried to find snowflake ornaments that didn't cost a fortune. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to post about my $70 Pottery Barn-inspired wreath, which cost only $100.

The silver starburst ornaments at the top are from Dollar Tree. The snowflake ornaments in the middle are from Crate & Barrel (they were too cute to pass up) and were $3. And the metal snowflakes on the bottom are from Target. I think they were $2. So for the ornaments, about $25 or less. The wire wreath form was about $3 (I had a coupon). I can safely say, I made this wreath for less than $30.

After removing all the tags and string or ribbon from the ornaments, I hot glued them to my wreath form. I also used thin gauge floral wire to wire them securely to the wreath form. Since they were oddly shaped and they weren't being glued to a flat, wide surface, I felt that reinforcing them with a little wire wasn't a bad idea. So about 10 minutes later, I had this:

My wreath isn't as delicate as the original Pottery Barn inspiration. I had a hard time finding beaded snowflake ornaments that were less than $6 each. So, I just decided to select ones that I liked, within my wreath budget (trying not to go over $30). Right before I made the wreath, I got the new West Elm holiday catalog in the mail, and I think that may have led to my more mod-style ornament selection. I'm in love with those starburst ornaments and thankfully they had those babies at the Dollar Tree!

Here she is on my front door!