Decorating your front door for Christmas is easy when you go with a wreath, but if you want to try a shabby chic style, then there are a few design principles you can keep in mind to make it easier. The following ideas will allow you to easily create a festive holiday wreath with either a rustic or vintage shabby chic style.
Shabby Chic Christmas Video Tutorial
Incorporate Vintage Ice Skates
A very popular decorative element for any Victorian, old-fashioned or shabby chic Christmas style is to use old ice skates. Remember the skates do not need to be functional for this purpose. The ones you get might not actually be vintage, but you can usually find old skates at thrift stores or second-hand stores. If not, check stores with Christmas decorations, and you might find imitation skates that work well for this type of wreath.
There are a few different ways to do this. You can go with a traditional wood wreath that is heavy enough to support the skates hanging in front of the wreath, or go with something else entirely. For example, you can get a small, old window frame that you can hang as a wreath on your door. Hang the skates in front of the window frame and it really creates a unique vintage, shabby chic-style design for your front door.
If you’re using twine or ribbon to hang the skates it’s a good idea to first hang them with a thin wire and then cover the wire with the decorative material. Secure the skates well – the last thing you want is to open your front door and find the skates fallen to the doorstep!
Mix Classic Shabby Chic & Traditional Christmas Colors
You can also go more basic with your wreath by starting with a foam wreath and covering it in any fabric that is white, silver, light blue, light green, or a fun novelty fabric that shows off your family’s personality. For a very vintage look you can leave it solid with just a bow or an angle attached, or add some other elements like pearls, lace, or a few old ornaments.
Another super simple option is to wrap pink or white straw garland around the wreath form, then attach antiqued metallic ball ornaments around it.
You can easily create a wreath with any type of shabby chic materials or ornaments by sticking to a unified color scheme, which makes all the variety of materials come together into something that can look really nice. This is often the most successful style to try for new crafters or anyone that gets overwhelmed with all the gorgeous options available in the craft stores and then wonders how to bring it all together into something that actually looks beautiful.
Use Distressed Wood Ornaments
Part of the shabby chic style is having wood in a lighter color that looks distressed as if it is genuinely vintage furniture. You can incorporate this in your wreath by first covering the wreath form in the desired material, then gluing on or wire attaching wood ornaments. Use all ornaments that look to be distressed or vintage in a Victorian style. You can try to cover the wreath entirely with ornaments, just scatter a few, or have one large ornament near the center and some smaller ones off to the side.
A wreath is a really easy way to personalize your home’s Christmas style. It also makes a great craft project that you can work on well before the hustle and bustle of the holiday season sets in. It can be a fun family activity to design, shop for, and create a wreath that will serve as a warm welcome to your guests and can actually put a smile on your own face every time you open your front door.
