Holidays > Easter > Decorations for the home > Doily Easter Wreath

To make the doily wreath, cut a base for the wreath out of cardboard. Measure to the middle of one side of the box. Draw the outer circle and the inner circle like a donut.  To do this, tie string or thread around a pencil or pen, and fasten the other end of the string to the middle of the cardboard with a tack or pin. You may want to hold the pin with your free hand to keep it from coming out, or enlist the help of a friend to hold it in place. When drawing the circle, make sure the string is taut, and the pencil straight, so the circle does not turn out lopsided.

Cut the smaller inside circle first, so the box holds it in place for you. The one shown here is 6 3/4 inches in diameter (17 cm). Next cut the larger circle. The one shown here is 14 inches in diameter (36 cm).  Cut yours to fit whatever box size you have. Be careful not to cut the surface under the box. An easy way to make sure of not damaging anything when you cut, is to keep the box as is--not collapsed. Then there is no worry about cutting anything below the cardboard donut. If you prefer for the cardboard base to be covered, see instructions below.

You will need artificial flowers or dried flowers. When buying the flowers, make sure that the flowers can be pulled off of the stalks, or use pliers to cut the branches off of the stalk. Most needle nosed pliers have a small section for cutting wire.

The number of paper doilies depends on the size of the wreath, and the size of the doilies. 16 doilies were used to make this wreath. You can use fewer doilies if the doilies are larger, or if the wreath is smaller.

Fold the doilies in half and arrange them on top of the cardboard donut so that they are evenly spaced, and so that none of the cardboard is showing. (It’s pretty enough to use as is without any decorations!)

If you will be gluing leaves or flowers on every other doily, make sure there is an even number of doilies, or you will end up with two that are together without a gap.

You don’t even need flowers--just leaves and doilies make a pretty wreath, too.

Glue the doilies in place. The easiest way to do this is with a glue gun. Lift each doily without moving it off the cardboard and glue in place. Glue close to the fold so that there is room to lift the doily and slide flowers underneath it. Lift the top layer of the doily and put a dot of glue there, too, to keep it from flopping open when flowers are glued to the top of the doily.

Arrange the flowers and leaves so that they start below each doily, but then are mostly visible  above the doily. Once you like the arrangement, glue all the leaves and flowers in place. A glue gun makes this quick and easy.

Optional covering for cardboard base

If the doilies don’t stick out very far past the base, and if the wreath is going to be hung in a hall or room where the cardboard could be seen from the side, you may want to cover the cardboard base before decorating it. Or if you are a perfectionist, and want the back of the wreath to look as pretty as the front, these instructions are for you!

Cut strips of paper (copier paper is fine) the width of the paper, about a half inch wide ( 1 1/2 cm.). Three or four sheets of copier paper were used to cover this base.

Glue the strips onto the base. Glue stick is the easiest way to glue these on. If you use white glue, be sure to spread it in a very thin layer.

Glue each strip to the front, then fold both ends to the back side--both through the hole in the middle, and over the outer rim. They will not exactly line up on the back side, but don’t worry about that. Just be sure to firmly rub the ends so they are securely fastened to the base.

The inside hole is significantly smaller than the outer rim, so the strips need to just barely overlap on the outer rim, but almost completely overlap on the inner rim.

Keep gluing the strips on the cardboard base until the whole donut is covered. It doesn’t matter if there are bits and pieces showing on the back. Glue the doilies to this back side, since it will be completely covered with doilies. That will leave the nicer side to be the back of the wreath.

Another option is to hang the wreath near a table or shelf. Experiment with adding things near the wreath to make it more interesting. Add a candle with more flowers around the base. Or, you might like adding Easter eggs around the base of the candle, and put the flowers in a vase.  You could even have a basket of Easter eggs instead of a candle. If using fresh flowers around the candle, put them in a bowl of water, or use oasis to make them last longer.

There are lots of places you could decorate with this wreath. You could put it on the front door, over the dining room table, over the mantle, over a bed, or over a shelf or table.

Use any extra flowers not used for the wreath to put around the base of a candle for a simple, but pretty centerpiece. This is especially meaningful for Easter, because Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.”  Then let each person at the table light their own votive candle as a declaration of following the command to “let your light shine before men,” Matthew 5:16.