ELIZABETH JOAN DESIGNS

Three years ago, I held a woodland themed baby shower for my darling sister, Erin. The decor incorporated a lot of natural type items like, logs, sticks, and moss. After the shower, I returned the wood back to its rightful home, the great outdoors, but I had an abundance of moss leftover that I had purchased at craft stores.

I came across the large bag of assorted moss the other day in my basement, and decided now was the perfect time to do something with it. So, I chose to make a welcoming, spring wreath for our front door.

 
For the base of the wreath, I used a grape vine form I had purchased at a garage sale. Do you remember the lavender wreath I shared last summer? Well, this is that exact wreath form.

First, I covered the form with moss mat by spreading it across the vines and tucking the edges in.

 
Next, I layered floral moss and reindeer moss on top to add some different colors and dimension.

 
Then, I hung it on our front door with burlap. I added a few moss rocks to the wreath and stood back with disgust. I hated how this looked! Yuck!

 
When I have a creative crisis, the first thing I usually do is call Erin for help. That is exactly what I did. Through a series of text messages, and trying about everything we could think of, we eventually came up with the perfect combo.

Here are a few of the failures I tried. The first one was a bit more glitzy than I was going for.

 
In the second photo the keys look more like a pair of scissors than they do a pair of antique keys.

I was so desperate to get this wreath right, I even attempted taking advice from a two year old. Yo ho, let’s go!

 
After all of those ideas, I was feeling a little discourage. Erin suggested that I maybe add a few sticks or twigs to it. Genius! I grabbed a few from another grape vine wreath and inserted them into the wreath I was working on.

This was looking so much better, but wasn’t quit perfect yet. It was still missing something.

 
That’s when I remembered, I had a cute little butterfly that I inherited when our grandmother passed away. I don’t know the significance it had to her, if any, but she always kept it in her jewelry box. Once it was in my possession, I had been doing the same. So, after retrieving the monarch from my box of jewels, “that’s what my 4 year calls it,” I placed it on the wreath and it was like magic. The wreath finally looked complete.

I am so happy with the final result of this wreath. Our Grandma’s butterfly, adds such a special touch that makes it the wreath that much better.

 
Erin thinks it still needs more, but I told her “no.” Leave a comment and let us know what you think.

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If you liked this, you may also be interested in:

Book Page Wreath

Lavender Wreath

You’ve probably heard that one of the least expensive ways to make a big impact on a room is to change up the paint. And it is totally true! It is amazing how a gallon of latex paint and a little time can make a not-so-great wall color fabulous. Take our breakfast nook for example. Here she is showing off her new coat. (Color is Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter.)

And here is what she looked like before the makeover.

Not that I have any problem with the yellow and burnt orange walls (no judging here,) but the colors did not really match our style or taste. To each their own, right?

I love how the new paint color brightens the room, yet now has a more soothing effect than the previous ones. It could be considered the perfect greige!

Here are a few other views from the room. Don’t be scared though. Quite a few things are still on the to do list.

Eek!

Yikes!

Ahhh… That’s better.

Here’s some of stuff that we still would like to change…

So, have you had any experience with the awesome paint color, Revere Pewter? Any thoughts on some cool budget-friendly, industrial lighting? We would love to hear from you!