Thrifted Vintage Ornament Wreath Tutorial

It’s no secret, I am a huge lover of all things vintage. It’s even better when I find them at a thrift store because it feels like I’m rescuing some long forgotten gem. “I’ll take you home with me where you’ll really be appreciated!“

During one recent trip to the thrift stores of a neighboring small town (small towns have the BEST vintage selection at thrift stores, in my opinion) I came upon something I have been on the lookout for the last 3 years…

wooden vintage Christmas ornaments.

You might have seen the first vintage Christmas ornament wreath that I made with ornaments that my Grandma (who knows how much I love antiques) gave me. The box was labeled “secondhand store” and I am so relieved that my Grandma thought to give them to me before giving them away. Family vintage treasures are even better than thrift store vintage treasures!

Since then, whenever I make a stop at a thrift store (which happens more than you think), I always keep my eye out for wooden vintage ornaments. They don’t pop up often, and I wanted to do another wreath like my first one. You know how it goes. If you don’t snatch something up when you see it at the thrift store, chances are you’ll never see it again!

After years of looking, God smiled upon my thrifting search: I spotted five ziploc bags full of adorable, kitschy, vintage ornaments. And each bag was just under a buck! I’m pretty sure the words out of my mouth were “Holy cow, I am rescuing ALL of these.”

I got to work right away making another vintage Christmas ornament wreath.

Thrifted Vintage Christmas Ornament Wreath

You’ll need…

• a handful of adorable, wooden vintage ornaments
• floral foam wreath
• white spray paint
• any color tinsel garland
• hot glue gun + gluesticks
• optional: floral wire to make a hook for hanging

STEP ONE

If, like me, you want to save money and go with a dollar store floral wreath, you’ll need to spray paint it to match the color of your tinsel garland. I was using a snowy-white garland, so I gave the green wreath a quick coat of white spray paint. Well worth the $1.00 I spent on it.

STEP TWO

Secure one end of your tinsel garland on the backside of the wreath with hot glue. Then, wrap it around the wreath leaving little space between passes for a fuller look. Secure every few inches with hot glue on the back side. Continue until you have covered the entire wreath form.

STEP THREE

Space out a few ornaments around the wreath. Once you like how it looks, fill in the spaces with more ornaments. Secure them all one at a time with plenty of hot glue.

STEP FOUR

If you’d like, make a hook out of floral wire and attach it to the wreath. I like to wrap a long piece of wire around the wreath and then twist it into a hook and secure, it blends in well with the tinsel garland. You can see exactly how I did it with the tutorial for the other ornament wreath I made. I also use a 3M hook to hang it on the back of the front door. I don’t know how I lived before Command products!

You just can’t get any cuter than these babies. There’s something about the hand-painted look that tells you how much care and attention was put into them. I have a few left over that I want to do a new, creative Christmas project with. Not sure what yet.

If you happen to be lucky enough to have a collection of these at home or stumble upon them as I did, made yourself a cute little wreath to display them for all to admire. It’s a great way to give them new life and save them from an eternity of gathering dust in a box!