Fresh Boxwood Wreath on a Budget!

I love boxwood.

Truly, I do.

I have been enamored with all things boxwood for quite some time, but my issue with it?

Everything I like is so pricey!!!  Wreaths for $50?  No way Jose.  Miniature topiary for $30?  Pass!

Solution? Make my own boxwood pieces to love and cherish.

Welcome to…

I’m going to share this first one with you now because it’s seasonally appropriate and to be honest, I’m a little behind on all my Christmas blog posts!  Let it be known that the next boxwood project may not be seen until January!  Ok so let’s get going on this first project…

Fresh Boxwood Wreath

My front door was sportin’ the hydrangea wreath up until December 16th.  That was the exact date I removed it for this obviously more Christmas-appropriate one.  Shameful!!!  Truthfully, I was going to buy a fresh pine wreath from Costco like I did last year.  It was $18 and worth every penny.  But I really, really wanted a boxwood one!

Then it happened… I drove past our local nursery and saw it… Buy 1 get 1 free.  You don’t mess with those words, people!  So I went in to see what the prices were like and lo and behold… $7.99.  Yep, that means I got two bunches of boxwood for eight bucks!  I was one happy little camper strutting out onto an icy parking lot with her shrubbery in tow, yes-siree!

Here’s where this gets real good… all Christmas decor was 35% off, so I got some goodies to decorate the wreath with.  Oh AND I totally still had last year’s wreath in the garage (yes, I am ashamed) and remembered how awesome the wire frame on that thing was so I proceeded to rip apart the now extremely dry and brittle pine needles all over the garage floor for the sake of not having to buy a wreath form.

I felt like a genius.  Until I looked at the ground, and my pants, and my jacket and my mittens.  All of which were covered in pine needles.

Oh well… “Better pine needles than glitter,” I thought!!!  Yep, I actually thought that and proceeded to go to the shed in the backyard to get some wire I had purchased for gardening.  No big deal, just two feet of snow on the ground to get through…

Alright seriously though, lets get to some pictures!

So this is what I started with.

And here’s what I did with it:

I have seen these metal wreath forms before, and I have to say I highly recommend them for fresh arrangements like this!  It was so easy to get started with the larger branches of boxwood, and as you can see the metal clasps held everything in place really well.

Once I closed them all up I started inserting smaller (more green and leafy) pieces into the gaps and used the small wire to wrap around as needed.

The decorative bits all had wiring on them, so they were super easy to insert, not to mention they cost between $0.59-$2.49 each, so they were a bargain!  I did add some of the pine cones that were on last year’s wreath as well.  Hey, it’s like they say: “waste not, want not,” right?  Uhhh… not sure that really applies here actually…

Anyway here it is!

I originally started to tuck away all of the loose ends, but found that I loved the more messy and carefree look so I let the boxwood be (somewhat) free.

So what was the grand total?  Well I had the wire on hand along with the wreath form, the boxwood was on sale ($7.99, buy one get one free) and I used one bunch plus a few extra twigs and I spent about another $8 on decorative bits, so $16 for this wreath!

Oh and yes, those are snowflakes you see falling from the sky.  I was THAT determined to get these photos as soon as possible!  I hung this bad boy up at night and it took everything in me not to bring out every lamp and flashlight to get some photos right then and there.  That would have been really dumb, and it was waaaaaaaaaaaay too cold, so I did this instead:

Yep, that was a little Instagram teaser, right there!  Loving the branchy silhouette of the wreath from inside!

Here’s a wider shot of the front entrance for ya, though it’s not great because when I stand directly in front of the door you can see a perfect reflection of me standing there with my giant pom-pom hat and big mittens hoping the neighbours don’t think I’m a total nut job.  It’s not a pretty picture…

Ok, so that’s wreath number… four, now?  There’s the book-page wreath, the hydrangea wreath, the winter wreath, and now this one.  Yep.  Four.  Never did I think I’d make this many wreaths in an entire lifetime, let alone in just a little over a year.  Weird.

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Now, do tell… what boxwood projects do you love or want to try?  I have a whole bunch I’m itching to try over here!

xo