Paper Wreath

About a month ago, I finally painted our family room.  I went neutral with a color called "urban putty."  Very far from the shades of blue we had in our old house.  The neutral is growing on me but I just feel like everything in the room blends into the walls.  The throw pillows are the only pop of color in the room but I am trying not to let that bother me.  

My friend gave me some old, rectangular windows that I thought would be perfect above the couch.  I originally thought I'd put a boxwood wreath in front of the windows to give a little bit of color in the room.  Then, I looked at the price of pre-made wreaths and even just boxwood garland to make my own, and changed my mind because I couldn't justify spending that at the moment.  So, I decided to make a paper wreath.  Yes, something neutral to blend in with my neutral walls...

(I ended up staining the exposed wood with a vinegar/steel wool stain)

I have a few old books from my grandparents and I was excited to find this one because of the turquoise page ends.  I thought the turquoise would show up when the wreath was all bunched together.  I was proven wrong!  I had read a few do-it-yourself tutorials online and most said to use a grapevine wreath and to simply poke the pages through the wreath.  Welllll, my pages were too brittle and kept tearing.

A week later, I finally bought a styrofoam wreath, sat down with my hot glue gun and went to town.

I folded pages in an "S" shape and bent the bottom down to hold the shape.

 

 
I glued layer by layer. I filled in spots here and there as needed. I probably ended up with 3-4 layers.

I twisted a loop screw to the top of the wreath.  I wanted to find a colorful chevron ribbon to tie it with but couldn't find that at the store.  The loop is easily accessible so I can add different ribbon patterns as I please!

 It is a nice accent feature in the room.  I've read that paper wreaths are more of a winter decor but I don't care.  This baby will stay up for the spring & summer…until I get sick of looking at it!  One day, I think it would be fun to add color to the paper but I am not ready to do that yet.