Corn Huskin’, Lottery-House Style

Last weekend, while I was Pinteresting about, I came across this corn husk wreath on the Better Homes and Gardens website.

I was instantly enamored, and knew this sunburst-y goodness was going to be my next DIY project. So, with a gorgeous Saturday afternoon as a backdrop, I got cracking on our perfect fall wreath. Since I was flying with a photo only and no instructions, I made a couple of mis-steps in the process, resulting in an insane number of trips to the store for what amounts to a pretty basic project. You know, like accidentally selecting the giant Indian corn husks instead of the tiny ones (1 trip to the store), underestimating the number of teeny corn husks we would need (3 trips to the store), starting with the wrong wreath base (1 trip to the store), and running out of hot glue sticks mid-project (1 trip to the store). The environment is not thanking me today for all that wasted fuel. Cue embarassed face.

Anyhoo, if you’re ready to gussy up your front door for the season, here are the easy step-by-step directions.

You’ll need:

1. A 12-inch straw wreath
2. 30 small Indian corn husks (you’re looking for the ones that are around 4 to 6 inches tall)
3. A hot glue gun and at least 15 glue sticks (my best estimate – I can tell you that 3 was NOT enough)
4. A spray bottle with water
5. 10 lb fishing line
6. A wreath hanger (and some spray paint if you don’t like the color)

If your Michael’s has only black wreath hangers, like ours did, your first step will be spray painting your wreath hanger with some oil-rubbed bronze spray paint.

Next up, you’ll want to try a dry-run lining up the corn husks in a circle shape. This step is also good for figuring out how to make the varied colors work together in a pattern you like.

Alright peeps, it’s time to grab your wreath and get your glue gun started.

Go hog wild, making sure to add LOTS of glue under each corn husk as you attach it to the straw wreath. Here’s ours at the halfway mark… around the time I had to bail for more glue.

Once you’ve made it all the way around, it’s time to fluff up your husks. Ours were super dry and crunchy, so to keep them from snapping off, we dampened each husk first with some sprayed-on water. Here’s a pre-fluffing shot…

And a post-fluffing pic. Huge improvement, right?

Now you’re ready to hang your wreath! To avoid damaging your wreath, you’ll loop a piece of fishing wire through your wreath and tie the ends off tightly. Then twist your fishing wire once (giving you a figure eight) and loop the top section of your fishing wire over your hook. Ironically, this part is super simple, although it sounds confusing, and was impossible to photograph since the fishing line was clear. Leave me a comment if you need more clarification, and I’ll be happy to help! With the logistics out of the way, let’s stand back and admire our handiwork, shall we?

All told, my wreath set me back about $37 ($1 per ear of corn, plus $4 for my wreath and $3 for my wreath hanger. We already owned the fishing line, and if you really want to count the glue sticks, I’d say we used about $.90 worth). So while it definitely wasn’t a super cheap project, it was fun, easy, and will last for years to come!

Linking to French Country Cottage,  Fridays on Remodelaholic, Ask Anna & Home Stories A to Z