Nature Inspired Fall Wreath

Hello friends! Tomorrow, September 23rd marks the first day of Autumn and to say I'm happy about that is a HUGE understatement, this is by far my favourite season... and, to top that off the bugs are all gone! That's a win, win in my books! :D
I can't think of a better way to welcome in my favourite season than by participating in a fall wreath blog hop... I am quite excited to be joining some of my favourite Canadian bloggy friends, each of us is sharing our own unique version of a fall wreath, so inspirational.
My "wreath" isn't really a wreath, not technically... if we wanted to be very specific this is actually a fall swag and to complicate this a little bit more, while it is inspired by nature it's also inspired by "junk". So, instead of trying to fit ALL of that into the title, in an effort to simplify I'm calling this, Nature inspired fall wreath. I hope you like it as much as I do.
This pitchfork, is my junk... we've had this handsome fellow for quite some time now and truth be told, I can't believe that I haven't used it before now. It's rusty and rustic, just how I like it. I knew I wanted to use it, but how?
I cleaned the pitchfork with soap and water, once it dried I lightly sanded and oiled the stock, then I sealed the metal parts with Minwax paste finishing wax, I really wanted to keep that awesome rusty patina and darken it a bit... the wax worked perfectly. I began the swag by simply laying on the faux foliage, I used the wheat as my back drop and added the rest of the foliage on to the front of the pitchfork.
Then I started to layer, really there is no one way or a magic formula to this, not in my case at least. I just used what I bought at Michael's and scrounged around my house for things that looked fall.
Every once in a while I stood the pitchfork up on a chair to make sure it was staying symmetrical, I'd stand back and to see if it needed more filler, or if it needed to be balanced by adding more to one side or the other.
I really wanted to use them, but I needed to contrast them with something... vintage sheet music worked perfectly, just the exact contrast I needed.
Here is the finished product, I hope you like it
I decided to hang it on our front door, I hid the hanging jute behind some burlap strips and used a heavy duty tack to anchor it into the top ledge of the white door trim. It's heavy and I didn't want it banging on the glass when Mr. Mans flies in and out of the door, I used some heavy duty two way tape on the wooden handle to keep it secured to the glass.


Come see how I made it and how it looks on the porch... I think it adds just the right touch for our front door.
Laurie @ Vinyet Etc
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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