Hauntingly Chic: DIY Black Trailing Wreath Inspired by Anthropologie
Welcome to the first blog post in this series of Can I Make It For Cheaper, a segment where I take expensive designer ideas and see if I can make them myself for less! First up: this gorgeously spooky trailing wreath from Anthropologie. I love everything about this super dark, super elegant, faux trailing wreath. With a price tag of $118 USD ($160 CDN), it’s expensive but not actually that crazy for what you get. However, it’s the principle of the thing! Let’s see if I can spend less to get the same effect.
Tools and Materials List
Grapevine wreath (secondhand if you can find it!)
Garden shears
Real juniper branches
Black wire
Gathering my materials
I started with a grapevine wreath base that I found for $8.99 at a thrift store. It was the right size and bulkiness to give me a good base for my trailing wreath.
Faux greenery was outside my budget if I was trying to make this wreath cheaper than Anthropologie could. If faux wasn’t an option, real greenery would have to do! I took a trip into the backwoods of my mom’s property to see what I could find.
My mom and I found a juniper tree that was on its last legs (so I didn’t feel too bad about cutting some live branches off). I felt like this type of greenery most closely matched my inspiration pic, so I clipped a whole bunch of branches and brought them home with me.
Watch all my Halloween dupes here
Making the wreath
I used my black wire to secure the juniper branches to the wreath form. I needed a lot of layers to get the same level of fullness as my inspiration piece.
Then I had to get creative with my live branches to really capture the downward, trailing pattern that I was trying to mimic. I glued smaller off-cuts to the wreath using my super glue and accelerator kit to give it this downward motion + spooky vibe.
When I was happy with the trailing look I achieved, I took the wreath outside and gave it the black pit-of-despair makeover it needed next! I used a flat black spray paint for the perfect effect.
All I had to do to finish was let it dry and hang it on my wall!
Does my wreath look exactly like the Anthropologie inspiration piece? No! Does it still have the spooky essence and Halloween vibe I was going for? Yes! I actually really love my version. It’s dark, it’s elegant, and it’s packed with Halloween spirit. And for a total cost of $42.87 CDN, I can definitely say I made it for cheaper!
What do you guys think? Would you hang this wreath on your front door this Halloween?
