Christmas Wreath Makeover

So it’s the last Sunday in November, and Thanksgiving, for Canadians AND Americans, has now passed…

The official start to the Holiday Season is now!

But I can’t hang out this sorry, beat up, chipped, sun-faded wreath. Especially since about half of the light strings don’t work. What kind of blogger would I be with this eyesore welcoming Santa?

I had actually put it out in our garage sale this past summer in the hopes that someone would take it off my hands – no takers.

Then I set it at the curb for garbage day, and just before it was sent to the landfill my friend and neighbour, Annette, came over and told me I HAD to hang onto it.

This ugger (ugly bugger) is 4′ tall which is a difficult (and expensive) size to come by. She assured me that it could be saved by just taking everything off of it and putting on new.

If I’m being honest, buying all new ornaments for a wreath I was tired of wasn’t high in my Holiday budget, but I conceded and stripped it down by removing all of the lights and balls.

You’ll see a bit of red spray paint here – I’d tried to do a wreath makeover last year by painting out the ornaments – without removing them first (bad idea).

I added two boxes of net lights 1. because I had them, and 2. because if one light bulb goes out the entire strand won’t. I re-used the little plastic u-hooks that came with the original lights, but you could also attach them by folding the greenery over the light strand here and there, or by using small twist ties or floral wire to hold the lights in place.

I was tempted to leave my wreath makeover here – I mean, just getting rid of the ornaments and having a fully-lit wreath was miles above where I was to start with… but then I found glitter spray.

Worth a try right? Nothing to lose?

I took some scrap wood and drilled holes in it to hold the ornaments upright, then I gave each a few coatings of Rust-Oleum Glitter Spray in red and in gold (I sprayed the gold ones with a beige gloss first, then the gold).

Forgive the Instagram photo – but you get the idea – they really glitter!

What a difference!

The glitter has enough texture to hide any chips or drools on the ornaments.

I used the same wires to re-attach the ornaments to the wreath and it looks (almost) like new!

Okay, so the magnolia leaves have seen better days – but I wasn’t sure this wreath makeover was going to work at all, so baby steps.

The spray paint came in at $15 per can (if you are in the U.S. use my link below; you can get it for about $7 through Amazon!) – I bought one red glitter and one gold – and the rest I had here – the beige spray paint, the net lights and the patience.