Flop to POP: A Wreath Miracle

Have you ever had a vision in your head and then when you executed, it just didn’t work?  It happens ALL-THE-TIME, RIGHT?!  What’s even worse is when it happens with a client. (yeiks!)  Here’s what happened…

The Job

A few weeks ago a client of mine had me decorate her 12′ tree.  She had boxes and boxes of beautiful white and silver ornaments, with a few little red touches.  To add texture, we stuffed some flocked branches here and there and I found some big, lush hydrangeas to add to the grandness of her faux evergreen.  After 2 days of perfecting the spacing, the tree turned out quite nice, don’t you think?

I also added some fresh greenery to the mantel to give it  some dimension:

And fresh centerpiece for the adjoining dining room:

All was lovely in their home …

Until…

I took pictures of the wreath on her front door as I was about to drive away…

Before

I had kept with the white and greenery theme from inside the house but on the door, something was just-not-working.  There was just no WOW factor, no POP when you drove up to their home.  In fact, the wreath and door were being overpowered by those big, grand pots.

Dilemma: NO POP!

Solution: ADD POP!

Our Pinterest world is filled with lots and lots of whites and neural.  It is a very beautiful and soothing way to live but sometimes in decorating, especially for the holidays, you just have to add color!

The Color Red

In the article The Color Psychology of Red by verywellmind.com, they describe red as warm, vibrant, and intense.  It is often seen as an exciting and even aggressive color, but it can also evoke feelings of love and comfort.  Red is often used to grab attention, particularly in advertising and traffic signage.  So…what did I decide to do?

Let’s add RED!

And to tell you the truth, none of that was in my mind when I decided to add red. Tee hee!!!!  Why I chose red was because of those grand planters on my client’s stoop.  They had such a lovely impact against the charcoal and white painted exterior.  And so…off my GMC sped…to find some flourishes that would add a little (or a lot of) red impact to that simple green and white wreath.  I was off to find the POP!

Adding Color and Texture

If you are ever needing to add a bit of color to your wreath, think fake and real!

FAKE ADORNMENTS

Ribbon

I started with the ribbon.  I found some red and white silk ribbon but my client loved the classic elegance of the red velvet ribbon.  So charming.  The texture of the velvet and the way it bends and flows is just so lovely.

Berries

Next I looked at adding fake berries (cuz, real ones would die in 2 seconds or get eaten by birds 🙂 What a mess that would be!)  I purchased a bunch of berry options: big, little, white, red — lots of varieties of size and textures that would give me a great starting point.

Pinecones

I also look for things that you may find in nature, like the pine cones.  I chose a cluster of 3 that had a touch of white on the tips so they wouldn’t get lost in the greenery.  Remember, the goal is to add POP!

REAL ADORNMENTS

Fruit

Finally, the REAL!  The greenery was real but I wanted something else to also be real and fruit is a great addition.  I went to Trader Joe’s and picked up 3 organic pomegranates.  I loved the color which is so close to the tone of the ribbon.  The regular poms were too big so I opted to purchase the organic ones which were perfect.

Once I got back to my clients place, I used hot glue gun for the faux products and I used wire to attach the pomegranates.

After

And here it is!!!!  Doesn’t it look 10 times better?!!!!  I just LOOOOOVE how it turned out!  In fact, I left my client’s house thinking, “I want to do this to my wreath at my house!”

Does your stoop need more POP than FLOP this season?  If so, give me a jingle!

xo, Meliss