Every November starts the same way: you dig the wreath out of the garage, find the bow crushed flat and half the berries missing, and hang it on the same nail anyway. Or you’re standing in the store aisle staring at round wreath after round wreath, none of which fits the oval glass in your door or the narrow gap behind your storm door.
This is not your fault. The wreath is the default because it’s the only front door decoration most of us were ever shown. But the doors below, all real homes decorated by the people who live there, prove that a door can look every bit as festive with a swag, a garland, a basket or even a bow. Several of them skipped the wreath for a practical reason, like a storm door or an oddly shaped window. Here are 12 ideas worth borrowing.
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1. Layered garland that frames the door and sidelights
Suzy of the Worthing Court blog swapped her usual wreath for a swag and built the look around the door frame instead. She layered two garlands around the door and sidelights, 18 feet in total: a pre-lit evergreen base topped with red poinsettias, snowy pinecones, twigs, flocked greenery and red and white ornaments. Two pairs of lanterns finish her Southern-style covered porch.
2. A fresh pine bundle tied with a plaid scarf
On her blue front door, Ann Drake of On Sutton Place hung a bundle of fresh pine instead of a wreath. She wrapped it with a red buffalo plaid scarf and a string of bells, trimmed a few stray branches to tidy it up, and kept the greens under $15. She notes that any ribbon works if you don’t have a spare scarf.
3. Matching swags for double doors
Patti Estep of Hearth and Vine, in Pennsylvania, made a separate swag for each of her double doors. She cut fir and pine branches from a backyard tree, bound the tops with floral wire, and hung two large pinecones from each swag on ribbon, tied loosely so the length can be adjusted. A bow over the wire hides the mechanics.
4. A foraged swag with brass bells
Courtenay Hartford of The Creek Line House gathered everything for her swag on her own farmhouse property: cedar from the tree line, white pine from beside the porch and fir from the bottom branches of the Christmas tree. Red dogwood branches add color, and brass bells on a rope hanger act as both the focal point and the hanging loop.
5. A fresh garland finished with magnolia and dried oranges
Heather of the Southern State of Mind blog says the only thing she bought for her front door look was a fresh garland. She personalized it with reusable ribbon, dehydrated orange slices, magnolia bunches and natural hydrangeas, and the magnolias and hydrangeas at the top read almost like a bow.
6. One oversized red bow
Kendra H. of Kendra Found It went for pure simplicity: a large red bow, 42 inches high by 36 inches wide, hung on the front door with “no wreath needed,” as she put it. It’s an easy look for a modern door, and she reuses the same style of bow inside the house on walls and cabinet fronts.
7. A hanging basket of greenery
The blogger behind Amelia Lawrence Style wanted something different from a wreath on her front door, so she hung a wall basket about 21 inches tall from a wreath hanger. She filled it with faux “real touch” pine and cedar stems and a few pinecones, then added a velvet and striped bow and hanging brass Christmas bells.
8. A door wrapped like a present
The blogger behind Real Advice Gal wraps her front door every year for her family. She covers it in wrapping paper her daughter picks out, tapes a wide ribbon vertically and horizontally across it, and adds a bow in the middle. Everything came from Dollar Tree.
9. Vintage ice skates as a swag
Carol of The Gardening Cook in North Carolina has an oval glass panel in her front door, so a round wreath never looked right. Her solution: a pair of child’s figure skates bought for $3, painted white with shoe polish and laced with red shoelaces. Fir boughs on the back, small fir sprays, holiday picks and a red burlap chevron bow turn them into a festive swag.
10. Vintage skis on the porch, a swag on the door
Christy of Confessions of a Serial Do-It-Yourselfer brought a pair of vintage skis onto her holiday porch as decor, and kept the door itself simple with a swag hung from a removable hook. Mini skates on the swag echo the skis, so the porch and the door feel like one story.
11. A sculptural garland across the porch
Katherine of Pender & Peony built a large fresh garland over the porch roof and columns of her 1960s brick colonial, a porch 13 feet wide and 9 feet high. She combined long leaf pine garlands with magnolia, cedar, Fraser fir and holly, built with chicken wire, and finished it with red-and-pink gingham and red velvet ribbon. The whole entry becomes the decoration.
12. A narrow swag for a storm door
Charlene of A Pinch of Joy has very little space between her glass storm door and her front door, certainly not enough for a wreath, she writes. She made a slim swag from three large stems and a fluffy bow, held in place with a strong magnet hook, and added “Merry Christmas” lettering with a clear removable hook.
Before you hang anything
Several of these ideas use fresh greenery, which dries out over the season. KariAnne Wood of Thistlewood Farm sprays her fresh cedar garland to keep it looking fresh. Nails and screw hooks are sturdy, but renters should stick to removable hooks, magnet hooks or over-the-door hangers and check the lease first. If you use lights, choose products rated for outdoor use and plug them into an outdoor outlet.
For more ways to dress the whole entry, these Christmas porch ideas pair well with any of the doors above, and these garland decor ideas show how far a single strand can go. Pick one shape, keep the colors simple and let the door frame do the work. That’s the trick.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?