This weekend I set out to build and style a DIY wooden flower box for Christmas. This doesn’t have to be for Christmas! You could easily DIY one for any holiday, season or home decor with fresh or artificial flowers and stems. I had seen some in Homegoods but I wasn’t crazy about them at all. I didn’t like that 1. they were made of really thin wood 2. they had candle holders fixed inside them and 3. the floral arrangements themselves.
It seems that when I am out, and see something I love, I take a picture of it and I always say to myself “I can totally make that”. But then life gets busy and before too long I don’t have the excitement to follow through. This time, however, the game was different. I knew I wanted a box to either put on my island in the kitchen, on the sofa table or on the dining room table. You can check out the video at the end of this post to see how I put it all together.
This could be anything I wanted it to be, since I was making it, and completely customizable. I ran to Home Depot and picked up some pine boards. I chose select pine and bought (2) 1″x4″x6′ boards. The 4″ boards are never true to that, they are always 3.5. And they are never 1″, they are always 3/4″. I don’t know why they just don’t say 3.5 ” or 3/4″. I am sure there is a reason! You don’t have to choose Select, I just didn’t want to mess with looking for the best boards, etc. Select pine is straight and smooth and I love it! It is a little more expensive so go for the regular pine if you’re up for it!! You can have them cut all your wood at Home Depot and you can use wood glue and clamps for this project if you don’t have a nail gun! Where there is a will, there is a way!
This is how I did it! (And I don’t even have a fancy workshop!)
- If you want to add any character to your wood, now is the time. I took a hammer to a flat-head screwdriver and a nail set and made all kinds of wormholes and imperfections. I wanted it to look like the wood had been around a while.
- Now it’s time to stain. If you roughed up the wood, make sure to get the stain deep into the imperfections. It will really stand out and add that patina to it.
- Time to assemble. Place the bottom of the box on the floor. Add wood glue to one of the edges and attach one of the sides. Make sure it’s all even and add some brad nails along the edge making sure it’s even as you go. Start at one end and move down, adjusting along the way.
- Repeat on the other side. You will now have a “U” shape.
- Add the end pieces to the box by adding glue to the edges of the “U” and nailing the ends on.
- Wipe off the excess glue as you go. I use baby wipes and just toss them in the trash! Someone reading this may gasp, but it’s just what I do!
Now it’s time to add the flowers!
You will need floral foam, hot glue/glue gun, moss from floral department, Christmas stems and any other floral you would like. Oh, and coffee. Lots of coffee.
- Dry fit your foam inside the box. Cut the pieces to fit from one side to the other.
- Hot glue the foam to the box square by square.
- Pull apart the moss and start gluing sections of it to fit on top of the moss. Now the box will look full to the top with moss.
4. Cut the stems apart with wire cutters so you can arrange the stems individually how you like them.
5. Start arranging and rearranging until you like it. Add the flowers last.
These particular stems were very droopy and have these little sugar crystals on them. I will be placing this on my sofa table to I wanted it to hang down over the side. You can pick anything you want to put in this box. During the holiday season the Christmas floral is pretty much always 50% off at Hobby Lobby and if you do purchase it at full price and it goes on sale the next week, you can go back in for a price adjustment!
I hope you are encouraged by the simplicity of this project to go out and create something new and spectacular for your home! I would love to see it if you do! Check out this video to see how I did it! Happy Decorating!
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