Now we’ve waved goodbye to summer. I’m starting to prepare my home for the colder months ahead. The leaves are starting to fall from the trees; there is a riot of color with burnt oranges, fiery reds, and golden yellows.
I always love the move from one season to another as it feels almost like a fresh start. In this case, the summer clothes are being packed away, and my jumpers are reappearing on my shelves. But my clothes aren’t the only thing that changes; the decor around my home shifts, too.
Your front door is the first thing anyone sees when they walk up the path, so I love tying it in with the season, and wreaths are one of the easiest ways to do that. Plus, they’re a lot of fun to make and give you an excuse to forage in the garden or fields around you, if you have them.
6 Cheap & Simple Fall Wreaths To Make This Weekend
The wreaths below use materials you can forage on a walk, pull from the pantry, or pick up cheaply at a craft store. Some take under an hour. Others are a Saturday afternoon project with a cup of coffee and a hot glue gun.
Burgundy Dried Leafy Hydrangea Wreath
Dried hydrangea is the classic fall material. Panicle hydrangeas produce those long cone-shaped clusters that fade from white to pink to burgundy and dry beautifully, keeping their shape for months.
Cut them in late summer or early fall, once the blooms feel papery to the touch and you can see little red flecks appearing on the petals.
- What you need: dried hydrangea stems, fall leaves, dry floral foam, a conical hanging basket
- Find it: hydrangea from your own garden cut and dried in late summer, or a craft store, baskets from a garden center
- How to make it: cut the foam to fit the basket, then push in the hydrangea stems and leaves until it’s full
Bittersweet Vine Wreath
Bittersweet is the fall wreath material everyone falls in love with. Those orange-yellow capsules that split open to show waxy red berries against a bare twisting vine are gorgeous, and the vine bends beautifully into a wreath shape without any coaxing.
- What you need: bittersweet vine, real or faux, a grapevine wreath base, floral wire
- Find it: real vine from a garden supplier, faux from a craft store, grapevine bases from either
- How to make it: wind the bittersweet around the grapevine base, tucking and wiring the ends as you go until it’s fully covered
Pine Cone Wreath
Pine cones are the free craft supply that’s sitting under a tree somewhere near you right now. One thing worth knowing before you bring them indoors: cones from the tree are often full of small insects that will crawl out onto your kitchen counter a day later.
Bake them on a foil-lined baking sheet, checking often so they don’t burn. This doesn’t remove the sap. It melts into the cone, leaving the surface smooth and shiny rather than sticky.
- What you need: a 16-inch wreath form, burlap ribbon, 50 pine cones, acrylic paint in orange, yellow, and beige, matte Mod Podge, gold and copper glitter, floral wire
- Find it: pine cones from your yard or a park; the rest from a craft store
- How to make it: wrap the form in burlap with a hanging loop, paint the tips of 40 cones, brush the tips of the other 10 with Mod Podge and glitter, then once dry, wire each cone onto the form, layering and overlapping as you go
Wheat Harvest Wreath
For a fully harvest-themed wreath, flint corn is the star. Native Americans have grown it for well over a thousand years, and it was the only Vermont crop to survive the “Year Without a Summer” in 1816 because its low water content made it freeze-resistant.
- What you need: two types of crafting wheat, a wooden craft ring, hot glue
- Find it: craft stores or floral suppliers
- How to make it: trim the stems and glue the wheat pieces onto the ring, overlapping as you work your way around
Apple Boxwood Wreath
If you want a completely old-fashioned autumn wreath, fresh apples give you exactly what you’re looking for. Small crab apples work well because they’re only about an inch and a half across and pin easily into a base. Even better, if you can find them, are Lady apples.
If you’re pairing apples with a fresh boxwood wreath, hang it in the shade. A south-facing door in full sun is the fastest way to kill a boxwood wreath.
Real boxwood lasts up to two weeks before it starts to look tired and brown, and daily light misting buys you a bit more time.
- What you need: fresh or faux apples, a boxwood base, floral wire
- Find it: apples from a farm stand or grocery store, boxwood wreath bases from a garden center
- How to make it: pierce each apple through the center with wire, then push the wire ends into the boxwood base and twist to secure. Use fresh apples for one season, or faux ones if you want it to last year after year
Ombré fall wreath
Autumn colors have always had the ability to stop me in my tracks; they’re just stunning. This wreath combines those colors that lean into the ombré trend that was so popular in hair for quite a while. It’s probably the hardest on the list to do, but a little patience goes a long way. Put on an audiobook and let yourself get creative.
- What you need: a wicker or grapevine wreath base, a mix of faux florals and foliage running from deep burgundy through red and orange to yellow (roses, dahlias, gerbera daisies, hydrangea heads, celosia, berry picks, and a few Japanese maple leaf sprigs), floral wire or a hot glue gun, wire cutters
- Find it: wicker wreath bases from a craft store or garden center, faux florals from the same, buy a broad mix of stems in your gradient colors rather than one bunch so you’ve got enough variety to blend
- How to make it: lay the wreath flat and decide where your gradient will run, roughly two-thirds of the ring covered, leaving the rest bare. Start with the darkest burgundy blooms at one end and wire or glue them into the base, working around and gradually swapping in redder, then orange, then yellow stems as you go. Layer the bigger flowers first, then tuck the berries, leaves, and smaller filler pieces into the gaps to hide the wire and the base. Finish with a wire loop on the back for hanging
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Kylie Lang is a nationally syndicated travel journalist with bylines on the Associated Press Wire & more, a lifestyle writer, and the founder and editor of Your Lifestyle Library (yourlifestylelibrary.com). She holds a BA (Honours) in History from the University of Kent and is a member of the British Guild of Travel Writers.