One of the easiest and most effective ways to bring a little festive cheer to your home is to create a wreath for your door or mantle. Lily West florist Jes Howard shares her step-by-step guide to make one for yourself.

Words Zoe Rice

1. Create a base

Choose your material and start intertwining piece after piece, until you have your desired size. “We like to create our wreaths using willow or vine when they are still fresh and malleable,” Jes says. Once the base has dried, it will harden into the shape you’ve mapped out.

2. Pick your products

Decide which look you’re going for with your Christmas decor and follow the theme. Jes says you can go traditional with holly and lots of red and green, modern with dried and preserved plants in natural colours, or think outside the box with bright colours. “You might want to get some spray paint to give it a different look,” she says.

3. Attach your stems

Poke the stems through the willow or vine and secure with twine or fine wire. Jes shares a trade secret: “Bulkier items that might need a little more help staying put can also be hot-glued for extra staying power,” she says.

4. Feature or full?

Some wreaths have plants and flowers the whole way around, while others just have a feature spot over a quarter or half the wreath. “Both can have an amazing impact – it depends on what look you are going for.”

5. Tidy up

Get the scissors out and trim any loose and unruly stems poking out. Now’s the time to fill in any gaps and perfect your creation.

6. How to hang?

Add some hessian or ribbon to the top of the wreath. “It can really enhance the look and enables you to hang your beautiful wreath
for all to see,” Jes says.

This story first appeared in the November 2019 issue of SALIFE magazine.