Two of the things I enjoyed creating the most for our Palm Sunday event were two large faux floral chandeliers. I took step-by-step photos of the process, and they pretty much speak for themselves. I absolutely love adding LIGHT to as many of my creations as possible, and this one did not disappoint. Most items with the exception of the lights, came from Hobby Lobby at 50% off! I made two, but I will put my faux floral recipe below for just one chandelier.

Recipe for one 30” grapevine wreath floral chandelier. The finished measurement was 45” in diameter.

·1 – 30” grapevine wreath ($14.99 each regular price) – Hobby Lobby

·Heavy Jute Twine – Hobby Lobby

·Chandelier Chains – 4 pieces per wreath with locking clips (I used gold) - Amazon

·2 - strands Grand Mini Warm White Twinkle Lights – Modern Display

·4 – Green Boxwood Garland – Hobby Lobby ($9.59 each sale price)

·4 – Green Mini Ficus Garland – Hobby Lobby ($10.19 each sale price)

I wish I had written the rest of the greenery stems and plants down, but I can tell you I used a total of 5 different types of greenery – Generally depending on the size of the plant, I used two full plants on each chandelier.

If the plant is not very full, you will need more than two.

It’s important to use different varieties of color and shape to add definition, dimension, and depth.

I used dark greens, lighter greens, dusty greens, round leaves, pointed leaves, short leaves, and long wispy leaves. I always cut all the greenery and the flowers into smaller pieces. I never just glue an entire plant or stem in one place.

For the flowers I used creamy white hydrangeas, real-touch Easter lilies, greenery with tiny creamy white flowers at the tips, and real touch tulips. A total of 4 different types of florals.

These were all decent quality from Hobby Lobby, especially the real-touch Easter lilies and tulips – the tulips are in the wedding section and I bought 4 bundles.

I started with a 30” grapevine wreath. I’m picky about the shape of my wreaths, and I wanted both of these to be perfectly round. I had to go to two different Hobby Lobby stores to find two that I liked.

I began by tying four pieces of heavy jute string spaced evenly on each grapevine wreath. After the event, I decided to use a set of real chandelier light chains to make these easier to hang next time. I found the chains on Amazon. I left the heavy jute twine attached and clipped the four pieces of chain directly onto the twine. I also glued my knots of jute with a hot glue gun to keep the square knots from coming untied. Adding the real chain will make hanging them so much easier in the future. If I know I’m going to use something again, and I figure out a way to make it better the next time, I try to fix it or repair it before putting the item away. That way, it will be all ready to go when I need to use it again.

The next step was wrapping two strands of “Grand Mini Warm White” twinkle lights evenly around each wreath. I connected the light strands together end to end so that I only had to plug in one end of the lights to illuminate the entire wreath. I got the twinkle lights are Modern Display in Murray, Utah and you won’t find a better-quality twinkle light anywhere.

They are good for use inside or outside. I took a little figuring out to get the spacing perfect for the lights, but once I got the first strand on, the rest went on pretty fast. They are currently sold out of this color, however, they will be getting more soon. https://moderndisplay.com/products/5mm-led-grand-convex-green-red-lights-50-lights?variant=50967063265598 I zip-tied a heavy-duty white extension cord for each chandelier, to the frame of the pop-up tent, and ran it to the outside of the walls to plug these in at an electrical outlet.

Normally I make my base of greenery on a floral chandelier or wreath using bits and pieces of many different types of stems. However, these were so large that I chose to use two different types of greenery garlands to make them thicker, cover more area, and look like a growing vine. This saved time and ended up costing a lot less. I wound each garland style on one at a time, taking care not to overlap the tiny tendrils on top of each other. I wanted the little wispy tips to hang as if they had grown that way on a vine around my grapevine wreaths.

Once I had the wreaths wrapped in their greenery garlands, I cut and divided each individual type of greenery and flower into smaller pieces and glued them in place one type of plant at a time. Before gluing, I set the cut springs in place where I wanted them to be, and then went back and glued them permanently in place using a hot glue gun. Be sure to clean up all your glue gun strings! You need to make sure you are pushing the stems with the glue on them down into the grapevine wreath to secure them in place.

This is particularly important with a floral chandelier because what you are gluing will be flipped to hang upside down in the top of a tent or from the roof of a patio. One word of warning about hot glue and hot summer days. Hot glue will melt on hot summer days, and you will have your bits and pieces of greenery and flowers falling to the ground if this happens. If you intend on using these in hot summer temperatures over 90 degrees, I suggest gluing and then hand-wiring each stem in place as an added precaution. Not a fun task, but better than a bald chandelier by the end of your event! 😊

I also placed every single glued stem so that not one drop of hot glue got on the lights or the electrical cords. The last thing you want is to have the protective insulation on the cords melt and cause a fire. And you also don’t want any light covered in glue. I made sure to make each light point outward peeking out from the greenery and florals. If you use wire to secure your stems in place, be sure to avoid wiring your light cords. The thin floral wire could slice through the cord and cause a fire hazard. This project took me a full 24 hours of crawling around on my kitchen floor because I needed to see my work from above making sure everything looked evenly balanced, and that each wreath looked as similar as possible.

In each set of pictures, the wreath on the left has the newest layer of greenery, and the wreath on the right is awaiting its newest layer. This way you can see a side-by-side comparison of how much each layer adds to the overall look of the finished piece.

Because we plan to use these each year for our Palm Sunday event, it did not make sense to try and make these using real flowers, but you could as long as you use water tubes on all your stems.

Once we got them hung up, I was pleasantly surprised at how realistic they looked! Hobby Lobby has really stepped up their game with some of their floral and greenery options. I avoid any greenery that has a cheap crinkly sound. These type of leaves will also quickly turn an unrealistic looking color of turquoise if exposed to sunlight. If the florals I purchase have leaves that make them look fake, I cut all the greenery off and throw it away, just using the florals. The rest of the better-quality greenery will fill in and no one will notice that you have cut the floral leaves off. It’s better to purchase more realistic looking greenery or florals to fill in the holes than to use the cheaper looking leaves that often come with the flowers.

If you have a well-protected, covered porch, a floral chandelier would add a lovely touch for your summer enjoyment! Give this project a try and let me know how it turns out! Flowers bring LIGHT into my soul, and flowers mixed with added twinkle LIGHTS are a piece of heaven on earth.

My wish for you this week is to make or acquire something lovely for your outdoor living area! We are in an extreme drought situation here in Utah. Because of the upcoming water restrictions, we will not be planting any real flowers in our yard this summer. This makes me sad, but I plan to make a faux floral chandelier to hang above our outdoor seating under our covered patio to add some florals to our waterless summer. The trick will be to hang it at the perfect height so that I can still see my hummingbird feeders. Praying that Harriett and her hummingbird family make it back safely from their winter in the South.

The weather here in Utah has been all over the place, so pull your coats back out for the coming weekend, but praying we’ll get some much-needed moisture to help fill our reservoirs.

Love Ya, Les 😊

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Floral Chandelier