Festive Fall Wreath Ideas

Rake in the compliments with a wreath featuring brilliant autumn leaves. This works with maple, oak, sweet gum, hickory, dogwood—whatever is putting on a show in your yard. You can also make it with preserved leaves purchased at a crafts store or online (try save-on-crafts.com or drieddecor.com).

How To Make It: Colorful Foliage Fall Wreath

Start with a store-bought grapevine wreath. Pick an odd number of white mini pumpkins. Attach pumpkins to florist picks, and then work the picks into the wreath, making sure to space them evenly. Secure pumpkins to the wreath with wire. Using additional florist picks, attach seasonal greenery (we used smilax) and bittersweet (available at your local garden center), filling in the spaces between pumpkins. Add an assortment of fall leaves to wreath with picks and wire for a colorful finish.

Create a dazzling kaleidoscope of colors on your tabletop by mixing bunches of blooms and foliage in a rainbow of hues. The savory scents of the dried herbs will subtly enhance the aroma of a special meal. To illuminate your table, just add a glass hurricane and candle to the middle of the wreath. After displaying it flat as a centerpiece, you can hang it from a pretty ribbon to enjoy it from a different perspective.

How To Make It: Dried Flowers and Herbs Fall Wreath

Tamale wrappers create a hot look that's sure to spice up your entry. Simple corn husks are folded into loops for a ruffled effect that softens the straight lines of the paneled door. A bold chartreuse bow echoes the greenery in the pedestal urns.

How To Make It: Corn Husk and Ribbon Fall Wreath

It's cute as can be, but don't call it pumpkin! It's actually pumpkin-on-a-stick eggplant (also called scarlet Chinese eggplant), which turns a brilliant red-orange color when it matures and begins to dry. Look for it at farmers' markets or in the floral sections of large supermarkets, or grow it yourself from seeds.

How To Make It: "Pumpkins" and Acorns Fall Wreath

Your fall decor is incomplete until you've hung something colorful on the door! Make this seasonal broom badge by grouping millet, dried hydrangeas, salvia, rose hips, and sorghum.

How To Make It: Broom Door Badge

Foliage in shades of moss, burnt orange, crimson, and rust come together to create this seasonal door decor

1. Start with a 15-inch-diameter green moss wreath.
2. Using florist picks and wire, wrap the wreath with green, yellow, red, and orange leaves. Tip: For extra-vibrant and long-lasting color, buy artificial foliage.
3. Add in bittersweet branches for pops of red and touches of texture.

No longer relegated to the field, humble cotton burs top a straw base to yield a surprisingly elegant accent for your door. Crown it with a purple burlap bow for a regal yet rustic touch, or swap in a festive gold or red bow to carry the look through the holidays.

How To Make It: Cotton Bur Fall Wreath

Looking for something unexpected? This hanging basket is filled with yellow pansies and marigolds, but also has seasonal herbs too.

Find a lined hanging basket at your local hardware or crafts store. Fill it with empty plastic bottles and good-quality potting soil. Yellow garden pansies and radiant marigolds to give the arrangement bright bursts of color. Add baby kale for a dose of purple in between the yellow. To make this basket functional, add cilantro (growing along the handle), golden lemon thyme (on the bottom left), and Italian oregano (on the bottom right.)

Ribbons of burlap create a rustic background for iconic fall plants that are bundled into sheaves to form decorative accents.

How To Make It: Indian Corn Badge

Simplify front door decorating with a store-bought pinecone wreath. Give the wreath a personal touch with colorful leaves, fall flowers, and bittersweet. 

To give your door knocker a simple seasonal touch, zip-tie two crookneck gourds together, and then zip-tie them to a foam-core oval about 5 inches long. Cover ties with ribbon. Working at an angle, hot-glue sprigs of coontie palm, croton, holly fern, asparagus fern, and abelia to cover the foam core. Loop wire through one of the back ties, and hang above the door knocker. The hardy foliage will last about two weeks in cool weather and can be replaced.

Give your front door a bold update with a bright red wreath made with (nonedible) bittersweet. Be careful to dispose of seedheads in the garbage rather than the compost bin, as bittersweet is invasive in the garden. For a similar look, use rose hips, which are more eco-friendly.

To make this classic wreath from bright pumpkins and gourds, first cover a 20-inch foam form with sheet moss, using a glue gun to hold the moss in place. Loop a 3-inch-wide burlap ribbon over the wreath to create a hanger long enough so it can reach the top of the door and allow the wreath to hang at eye level. Insert wooden florist picks into the bottoms of pumpkins and gourds, and hot-glue the connection to secure. Once the glue has cooled, stick pumpkins and gourds into the wreath. Fill in with more moss, using a glue gun. To hang the wreath, secure the burlap ribbon with an upholstery tack hammered into the top edge of the door.