A year later, a DIY wreath

Moving so close to last Christmas made for pretty hectic holidays. I kept staring at the listing photos of our soon-to-be house and wishing it would just hurry up and be ours already. At one point, going a little crazy, I started doodling on one of the outside photos, putting some Christmas decorations up. My favorite part was the idea of putting a huge wreath on the third garage door. But I hadn’t realized exactly how expensive something like that can run, and didn’t really have a plan for how to put one together myself. We moved in 6 days before Christmas and did what we could with decorating, but didn’t go all out. But I have spent a year wondering how I could put together a 4-foot wreath for this Christmas… 

So let’s put together a wreath, and do it without spending the money it looks like it would take to get a good 4-footer capable of matching up to the idea that’s in my head. That means at least starting with materials already on hand, and seeing how things work.

I'm good, but I'm not "free hand a perfect circle" good.

But my improvised compass worked beautifully.

I still have a pile of drywall around, and even better it’s already kind of green, so that seemed like as good a starting material as any. Taping a screw and a marker on a two-foot piece of scrap made for a halfway decent circle, which I managed to cut out pretty cleanly. It’s 4” wide, I hope that looks thick enough when everything is done. I attached some scrap 2x4 at points to either support places that looked like they were about to fold, or give it a backing to stick off the wall a bit. Ran some picture wire across two of those pieces and just like that, we have a starting point for our wreath. Plus, it continues my scrap materials streak since I’m still using stuff I had around.   

Cut out and supported.

That might help, a little.

It strikes me that drywall probably isn’t up to holding up to the elements over a Chicago winter, so we’ll see how things go. I taped the edges shut, at least, and I’m hoping the overhang above the garage door will give it some protection. A wire frame is probably better suited to a project like this, but only if you can find one in the size you want to work in. I could not, so I went with what I had.  

A test-hang overnight on the garage shelves worked fine, so I think we’re good to move on. If we can find the time, a quick trip to check out the Christmas village at Menards will hopefully yield some cheap options to cover this thing. Then I just have to figure out how to actually hang it over the door. Figuring things out as I go, just the way I like it.