Wreath From an Old Wooded Wheel

Valerie Burge
by Valerie Burge
9 Materials
$23
2 Hours
Easy

After seeing all the wonderful autumn wreaths on Hometalk, I decided I wanted one too! One day as I was perusing a local buy and sell website I saw an old wooden wheel that I thought could be a perfect wreath base.

Old wooden wheel

The wheel had a few gaps and cracks in it that I planned to reinforce with wood glue. I pried it apart slightly to get the glue in – and half the wheel fell apart. But this was probably a good thing. It allowed me to glue all the loose spindles for a nice tight fit. I used an old dried up precision brush to ‘spoon’ the glue into all the holes and fit the pieces back together. I then attached a clamp and let it dry overnight.

Old broken wheel

I filled the little gaps and cracks with wood filler and sanded smooth. I probably could have skipped this step – but for the few minutes it took to do, I felt it was worth it.

Filling the gaps

I painted the wheel a light grey, using a small precision brush. I used light sweeping strokes, so that some of the original wood colour was still peeking through.  

Lightly painted grey

Because our house is a light grey as well, I did a very light dry brush over the grey, using a darker gel stain. I used a small chip brush and blotted off as much stain as possible onto a rag. Then very lightly brushed over the wheel. Then I left it to dry. Gel stain takes quite a while to dry – It took over 24 hours!

Gel stain for contrast

The next step was the fun part – decorating the wheel. I bought décor items at the dollar store for this. I didn’t want to glue anything onto the wheel. My thought was that the wheel could be changed up with the seasons, provided the items were easy to remove.


So the first thing I did was get my fake foliage layered the way I wanted it – then I zip tied them together, like a bouquet.


Then I laid the flowers face down, placed the wheel on the back and I zip tied the bouquet to the wheel. 

Zip tied the foliage to the wheel

I then hung the wheel using an old coat hook.

Coat hook hanger

I also picked up a cute little owl at the dollar store. I sat him right on the hook. His own little nest!   

Baby owl

I thought the wreath looked a little one-sided - so I added a ridiculously cute owl I had picked up at a thrift store. 

Bigger owl

And there it is, our very first autumn wreath!  

Our first autumn wreath

I think the little bird on the hook is one of my favourite elements. hehe

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  • Bzm11686139 Bzm11686139 on Sep 20, 2019

    I agree with you--the little owl is the cutest thing! But the whole wheel is beautiful. Be sure to post the other ones you make for other seasons.

    • Valerie Burge Valerie Burge on Sep 21, 2019

      Thank you so much, Betty! :) I have a feeling that little owl will migrate to the next seasonal wreath too.

  • Michelle Michelle on Sep 29, 2019

    This is beautiful!!

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