DIY Christmas Wall Hanging

There is nothing that I love more than minimal Christmas decor. I love bringing in the natural elements and when I saw this photo from A Quiet Style I knew I wanted to do my own spin. Natural glass ornaments filled with ribbons and florals in a huge statement piece that could be hung above a mantel, dining table, or just on a wall!

This was a tedious project. I didn’t hit my deadline and felt like a failure. THEN, when I was already discouraged and disappointed, it all crashed down to the floor shattering into a million pieces. I was d e v a s t a t e d. If you follow my instagram stories you may have seen some tears. I was trying to hang this solo, I don’t recommend it! This is a two person job when it comes to hanging. Shout out to the best Perkins on Parkway intern, Michael, for helping me clean up my shattered ornaments in my moment of distress.

But I took a breath, picked up the pieces, and moved forward, and it ended up better than I envisioned. Christmas miracle? I think so. I love how delicate the final product feels. Also the glass ornaments and the reflective quality they have are simply lovely in person (although plastic might be the safer choice).

Supplies:
Glass (or Plastic) Ornaments
Velvet Ribbon – Khaki Color Here, the exact seafoam color I purchased is sold out, but here are a few alternatives (seafoam, gray, blush)
Bells
Dried Florals in your color scheme
Faux Floral Evergreen Picks (use these if needed! I live in Texas where we don’t have very many pretty green items, if I was back in Seattle (my home town) I would’ve foraged outside!)
Nylon Thread
Wooden Dowel
Gold Wire
Glue Gun
Scissors

Directions:

1. Start by filling your ornaments with you dried florals and ribbon. Cut to size and insert. For my wall hanging I ended up using 18 ornaments, scale up or down depending on how large you want to make yours. My trick for getting the velvet ribbon in was to roll it up (like a snail) and then pinch it to insert it. Once inside the ornament, shake and it will fall into beautiful layers.
2. Do not replace the silver toppers that come standard with the ornaments (we are going to make something better!)
3. Cut a length of wire about an inch long. Bend it into a U shape and flare out the ends. Insert this into the top of your filled ornament and secure with a dab of hot glue on each side.
4. If you are using faux evergreen floral you are going to want to remove the shorter elements from the branch and break it down into a comparable size to your ornaments.
5. Lay your dowel on the ground and start planning your placement. I found that it is easier to plan on the ground instead of figuring it out in the air. I wanted to go for an arch shape, but I think doing varying heights could be fun too. Start laying your ornaments, layer in the evergreen florals, then add the bells. Once you have a configuration you are happy with, you can start assembly!
6. Set up a station where you dowel is secure and you have mobility on both sides to start tying your ornaments. I used my counter stools with some books on top and secured both sides of the wooden dowel with tape so it wouldn’t roll off.
7. Now is where the project gets a little tedious, prepare yourself to tie many many knots. Start by tying one end of thread to the ornament that you want to hang at the lowest point of your wall hanging. Tie the thread around the gold wire and double/triple knot it. Then you are going to tie the top part of the string to the wooden dowel in the middle. You are going to layer in the rest of the items from here.
8. I repeated the same step for all of my additional ornaments. Then I layered in the seven evergreen faux floral picks and ended by adding in the bells. I used 13 bells total.
9. The string at the top of the wall hanging is adjustable. As you go you can adjust the spacing. Because the ornaments are quite wide you are going to have some overlapping string to get the shape you desire at the bottom. In my opinion you can’t really tell once it’s up, so don’t worry about it.
10. Overall its a pretty straightforward project, just get ready to tie a lot of little knots! The nylon threads can be pretty tough to tie, my tip there is to always ensure you have a much longer piece than you need. It is a lot easier to tie with excess than too little. If it is too short it is almost impossible!
11. Now to hang, for my piece I hung it from the ceiling as I didn’t want to compromise my fireplace finish. I use two small hooks and screwed them into the ceiling. I then use the gold wire, measured out 38 inches (enough for the piece to hang at the desire length, to create a loop and wrap around the wooden dowel) and made a loop on one end. On the opposite side without the loop I wrapped it 5 times around the dowel and attached the wire to itself on the top. I then attached both loop to the hooks in the ceiling.

So there it is. I love this piece so much. I hope you love it as well. Can’t wait to see what you make.