Tap into your inner Christmas crafter
Follow this five-point step-by-step guide to make a showstopping festive floral tapestry using garden materials
When you’re decking the halls for Christmas, all you need to do is take down a picture from the wall or find a gap above the mantelpiece to create space for a showstopping floral tapestry.
If you have a garden you won’t have to buy lots of bits and pieces to create your festive wall covering.
By getting cuttings of evergreens, berries and other garden materials, you can keep decoration costs to a minimum.
The tapestry can be customised to suit your style and space, using whatever greenery you can forage.
Whether you favour a Scandi-style Christmas or you prefer a more traditional approach to holiday decor, a festive floral tapestry will help tie your decorations together and offers an alternative to the popular fireplace garland or even Christmas tree.
As well as traditional evergreen sprigs, other additions from your garden might include holly berries, mahonia flowers, dogwood stems, helleborus blooms or other architectural beauties which you have dried in the summer, such as allium flowerheads or large sprigs of lavender.
Hessian bows, dried orange circles and cinnamon sticks also add a richness to many displays.
Rebecca Stanton, stylist for Dobbies Garden Centres (Dobbies.com), offers this five-point step-by-step guide on how to create a seasonal floral tapestry, using foliage from your garden.
For this one she has used eucalyptus, conifer, pine and hydrangea heads but you can use whatever greenery you have.
What you’ll need:
l A metal grid l Snips l Twine (preferably in green so it blends in with your tapestry) l A selection of baubles l A mix of foliage from your garden
What to do:
1 Place grid against the wall where you’d like to display your tapestry. Start to build a base layer of greenery, securing it to the grid with the twine. If you have long pieces of foliage, you can weave the stems into the grid to hold them in place.
This is where you can decide the shape of your tapestry.
Stanton recommends adding some length to the bottom of your display to allow it to drape on to the mantelpiece, creating a dramatic effect. 2 Once you have your base layer complete, begin to add different textures of greenery to your display to create a fuller look.
There are no rules here, simply choose the tones you prefer and use your judgment to balance out the colours.
Stanton suggests using green foliage in a mixture of tones, textures and sizes for a more interesting tapestry. Experiment with different placements and once you’re happy, secure the foliage with twine. 3 Add in some natural details, such as pine cones and dried hydrangea heads to break up the greenery.
This is where the tapestry begins to take shape and you can really make it your own. 4 Once you’ve added your extra foraged details, you can begin to add Christmas baubles to your tapestry using some twine to secure them.
Stanton recommends using a complementing colour such as on-trend rust as it will really make the display pop and lift it in dark places.
However, you can use whatever shades you prefer if you want to customise this to match your interiors and Christmas style.
Keep adding baubles until you’re pleased with the result. 5 Once you’re happy with the decoration and you have added all of your baubles, you can secure your tapestry to the wall using a picture hook and then sit back and enjoy admiring your festive masterpiece.