How to Make a Fuller Garland

I love the tradition of placing a garland around the front door and I’ve discovered that I can make it much fuller by adding more elements to the garland once it’s hung. I’ll show you how!

The first step is hanging the garland. I don’t want to place any nail holes on the exterior of our house so I use Command Hooks for hanging. I like the larger sizes that will hold 3 or 5 pounds each. I use five across the top and two on each side (placed sideways with hooks facing out), all evenly spaced.

Next, you’ll need to decide what elements you’re going to use to make your garland more full in appearance. I settled on big beautiful Sugar Pine pinecones as my main add-in element accompanied by a bunch of fresh greenery and pinecones collected from our property and some holly I found in the floral section at the grocery store.

To hang the pinecones, I tightly wrapped floral wire around the top of each pine cone, making sure it was tucked nicely under the scales of the pinecones and then twisted the tails of the pinecone wire around the garland, securing each pine cone in place. 

With the pinecones and all of the elements, I take care to place and stand back, place and stand back, on and on, to make sure I like the symmetry of everything as I go.

Now that the main add-in elements are placed, it’s time to start filling in, I like to go with the next biggest pieces, and then on to the smaller and so on, ending with the smaller accent pieces, such as the holly.

To place all of these elements, I find the spot I’d like to place each one and then look for the existing floral wire that wraps around the garland and holds everything into place. Then I take the stem and carefully drive it under the floral wire making sure it’s nice and snug and won’t move.

Keep an open mind with elements. These little brown leaves caught my attention when I was foraging. I loved their medallion-like appearance and their brown color which I thought would add a special little touch that was both dainty and grounding at the same time.

The leaf “medallions” were the last element I added in and I think they added such a great finishing touch!

Sources (some contain affiliate links):

Front Door Hardware: The Hardware Hut. If you’re local to Spokane, you can shop The Hardware Hut inventory at its parent company, Spokane Hardware. You can read all about my process for selecting the hardware here.

Cedar Garland: Costco

Wreaths: Target

Wreath Ribbon: Papermart

Welcome Mat: Target

Front Door Paint Color: SW Languid Blue

Front Door Awning: DesignYourAwning.com