How to a Make Simple Boxwood Winter Wreath

Boxwood wreaths are so adaptable to any season or holiday. They make a great background for just about any style you want. It’s winter, so let me show you how to make a boxwood winter wreath.

A boxwood wreath is a blank slate. The only thing you start with is a green background. The possibilities for making a boxwood winter wreath are only limited by your imagination.

You only need a few “embellishments to give your boxwood winter wreath personality and interest. In fact, for this wreath, I only used items that I already had ~ except for oranges!

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How to Make a Simple Boxwood Winter Wreath

I have had this boxwood wreath for a couple of years. It’s been used for different holidays. Most recently, it had a big red Christmas bow and white lights. We hung it on our sunburst mirror above our bed. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it.

I shared that in your transition from Christmas to winter decor, reusing wreaths is a great option. I started this simple boxwood winter wreath by removing the bow and the lights.

Inspiration for the Winter Wreath

The inspiration for this boxwood winter wreath came from Julie at Restyle Relove. She shared her winter wreath on our most recent Tuesday Turn About Link Party. I liked it so much that I picked it as one of my weekly features.

Julie used 4 embellishments on her wreath:

• dried oranges
• pinecones
• berries
• cinnamon sticks

Oranges, pinecones, berries, and cinnamon are iconic winter elements.

I had pinecones (one of my winter elements I recommend), berries, and I bought 2 large oranges at the grocery store.

Step 1 ~ Drying the Oranges

The first step was to dry the oranges. I Googled how to dry oranges. After reading a couple of posts, I decided on this process:

• heat your oven to 225˚F.
• slice the oranges about 1/4 inch thick
• pat the oranges dry with a paper towel
• place a cooking rack on a half sheet pan

• bake the oranges for a few hours, turning them once or twice. I oven~dried my oranges for about 3 hours. You need to check that they are not getting brown.
• remove the oranges from the oven and set aside until you are ready to use. They will be a little sticky.

TIP: Let them sit overnight. They become less sticky the longer they sit.

Step 2 ~ Laying Out Your Embellishments

For this project, you want to lay out your elements to adjust your design. The orange slices and pinecones are the main elements.

I had 9 oranges slices, but the design worked best with 8 slices ~ 4 groups of two.

In between each pair of orange slices, I placed one pinecone. I have 5 pinecones here.

With the main design in place, it’s time to attach the elements.

Step 3 ~ Attaching your Orange Slices

I did not want to glue the embellishments to the boxwood wreath. That way I could reuse it again for another look.

I used thin florist wire to attach the orange slices. You will also need wire clippers.

Carefully, push the end of the floral wire into an orange slice next to the rind.

Gently pull the wire through the dried orange.

Next wrap the ends of the wire around to the back of the wreath and twist to secure the orange slice. You can clip off the ends of the wire or tuck them into the back of the wreath.

Step 4 ~ Attaching the Pinecones

Again, the floral wire works great to attach the the pinecones to the boxwood wreath. First, work the wire through the “leaves” of the pinecone about 3/4 of the way around.

TIP: Leave plenty of wire to wrap around the tie behind the wreath.

Now I could see that 4 pinecones would work best.

Step 5 ~ Attaching the Berries

This step is the absolute easiest. Any branch of berries you have will work. This one was by our front door during the holidays.

With the clippers, cut off pieces of berries.

TIP: be sure to leave plenty of stem so you can attach the berries to the wreath.

I said this was the easiest step. Just push the ends of the stems into the boxwood wreath. I put them between the two orange slices.

Julie used cinnamon sticks, but I didn’t want to “waste” good sticks. I decided my boxwood winter wreath was done. It was time to hang my wreath.

Step 6 ~ Displaying your Winter Wreath

Rather than hanging the wreath on the front door, I decided to use it in our entry on our mirror.

For a background in front of the mirror, I placed our teak panel (leftover from our teak table redo) for a natural wood background.

Notice the burlap ribbon? I’ll use it to attach the wreath to the teak panel.

All I had to do was feed the burlap through 2 slats of the panel and around the wreath and tie a bow.
The weathered teak panel and the burlap add a natural element to the winter wreath.

Step 7 ~ Adding Cinnamon Sticks

At this point, I thought I did need the cinnamon sticks.

First, I made a couple of faux cinnamon sticks by cutting 5 X 5~inch squares of brown craft paper and rolling them up, cigar~style. I used permanent adhesive to secure them.

I asked Sweet Shark what he thought. My DIY skills must be rubbing off on him. He suggested using the cardboard part of a pant hanger. Brilliant idea!

He used his yard clippers to cut 4 pieces. I added those to my paper cinnamon sticks and voila! With 6 “cinnamon sticks”, the boxwood winter wreath was done. I don’t think you can tell the sticks aren’t real.

I hope you see how easy it is to make a boxwood winter wreath with just a few supplies. My only expense was the 2 oranges ~ about $1.00!! Not counting drying the oranges, assembling the wreath took about 30 minutes.

I love projects like this: quick, easy, inexpensive and you get a beautiful decorative item for your home.

Please Pin this boxwood winter wreath project for your own inspiration. Add anything you want to make it your own and have fun.