Give a decorative brass French horn modern appeal by turning it into a wreath, with the addition of some faux Christmas stems and berries.
French horn wreath: Materials and supplies
To make this wreath you’ll need:
- Vintage brass French horn
- Wired pine bough
- Two small eucalyptus stems
- Two small stems of white berries
- Wide ribbon (to hang the wreath from)
- Glue sticks and glue gun
I made my wreath with a 12-inch French horn that I found at a thrift store for $5.99.
If you’re willing to hunt, you can still find old horns like this one at secondhand stores, but be warned: They’re nowhere near as plentiful — and rarely as cheap — as they were just a few years ago. You might have better luck finding one at an antique store or on an online marketplace like ebay or Etsy.
The stems I used all came from Joanns. The big pine bough (originally $12.99) was on sale for $5.19. The eucalyptus and holly picks (originally $1.99) were on sale for 79 cents each. All three varieties were frosted with white glitter that looked like snow.
Trim and separate the greenery
To get the evergreen bough down to a usable size, you’ll want to clip the individual branches apart using a wire cutters.
Then separate the smaller picks into individual stems if needed. Mine were joined together by a little plastic band that I had to slide off.
(I ended up not using the holly leaves or pine stems on the picks pictured above, but I did use the clumps of white berries.)
Assemble the wreath
Once you have all the stems separated and trimmed down to usable sizes, start dry fitting the pine branches on the bottom of the French horn.
If your branches have a wire base like mind did, you should be able to shape them to follow the curve of the horn.
When you’re happy with the placement of the branches, attach them with hot glue.
Next, add in eucalyptus stems and berries, again following the curve of the French horn.
Now would be a good time to marvel at how real your faux greenery looks. Every year I buy a few more stems for one project or another, and every year I’m gobsmacked by how much better the new batch looks compared to the old ones I have.
Finishing touches
When you’re done ogling your faux greenery, glue a mass of berries into the empty spot in between the branches.
Then add a few more eucalyptus branches and random berries to fill in any bare spots and foof the wreath up.
To finish off your French horn wreath, cut a 2- to 3-foot length of ribbon, depending on how far you want your wreath to hang down.
Then loop the ribbon through the French horn and fold the ends over the the door you’re going to hang your wreath off of.
Hang your french horn wreath
I secured the ribbon in place with a piece of duct tape on the top of the door where it was out of sight.
If you’re going be opening and closing your door a lot, duct taping the ribbon might not be the preferred method for hanging. You might want to use a nail or a wreath hanger instead. My wreath is on an interior door that rarely gets used, so I’m confident the tape will hold up just fine.
For loyal readers who might be wondering, the door I hung my wreath on goes into the guest room/office that I have been (very slowly) making over over the last few month. You can glimpse the faux brick wall that I put in (with a little help from my husband) in the photo above. I’ll post more about the makeover after the new year!
In the meantime, I hope you all have a merry Christmas! And as always, thanks for reading!
— Lisa
Very pretty.