How to Make a DIY Floral Basket

A pretty floral basket with DIY handles planted with real or faux flowers, makes a charming centerpiece for Spring and Easter, or a thoughtful Mother's Day gift. 
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Can you even believe it's the last week of April? It feels like my time is currently being measured in the number of boxes I've packed! Did you know we're moving? You can read all about it here.

If you're new, welcome! I'm Cindy and I have a passion for home decor and sharing easy decor tips and tutorials with my readers. My goal is always a warm and welcoming home that feels cozy and inviting and I love to show you how to achieve the same look and feel in your home! If you're visiting from A Stroll Thru Life, welcome! I just love Marty's summer basket ideas!

Today is Pinterest Challenge when I gather with some of my favorite blogging friends and we show you how we decorate our way using a Pinterest image for inspiration. I had to miss last month so I'm happy to be back! Thanks so much to Cindy of County Road 407 who leads our group.


Inspiration image

This month's inspiration image is courtesy of Emily of La Cultivateur. I love Emily's blog and style and am always inspired by what she does. This lady has a true gift for floral displays! And even though Easter is over, I think this type of centerpiece can stay out for several more weeks. If you remove the bunny and eggs, it's easy to transition to a Mother's Day centerpiece floral basket!


I stayed pretty true to the inspiration image this month because most of my decor is currently packed!

In fact, if we're being brutally honest here, I will admit that I went out and bought the bunny and tote just for this challenge (they'll be going back to Hobby Lobby!) because I needed something to decorate my Easter table! If you read Emily's blog post, you'll see the full table centerpiece where she used a large stone rabbit. 

I picked up the florals and moss very inexpensively from the Dollar Tree.

How to make a DIY floral basket

My very favorite thing about Emily's image is the beautiful basket with the handles created from branches. You can use any basket or tote that doesn't have a tall handle to make a Spring inspired DIY floral basket. I think the long and narrow basket Emily used is perfect because there is lots of room to add flowers.

I knew I wanted to recreate that look for my own basket (which is actually a metal bucket). If we weren't currently packing our home, and if my mom-in-law lived closer, I would have planted my basket with real flowers and given it as a Mother's Day gift. So keep that in mind if you're thinking of trying this DIY!

As it is, I kept everything faux so I could easily disassemble the floral basket.

Supplies I used



Adding branch handles to a basket

To create the basket with branch handles, I went into my backyard and clipped some slim branches from a tree, removing most of the leaves. You need something that is pliable, and a dead branch will just break if you try to bend it.

I thought one piece of floral foam would be enough, but it didn't fill the tote so I had to come up with something else because I wasn't driving back to the store! I had some pieces of styrofoam in my craft supply that helped to fill the bucket. It doesn't look pretty, lol, but no one will see the inner workings anyway! I hot glued the styrofoam onto the base of the bucket to keep it in place, and then glued the separate pieces to one another. This is a great example of working with what you've got!


For this type of basket, with the branch handle, you want to poke the branches into the foam as close to the sides of the basket as possible, and push the branches as far into the foam as they'll go for stability.


You'll want to overlap the branches slightly on the top. I secured them together at the top with a piece of raffia . I repeated these steps with two branches of lovely small purple flowers, again tying the overlapping branches together at the top.


The beauty of faux stems is that they're wired, so I was able to bend the stems to mimic the arc of the real branches and they stay right where I put them!

Weight the basket

Because the base of my floral basket is all lightweight foam, I needed to weight the bottom to keep it from toppling over. I used some small river stones and just poured them into the basket. If you're planting real flowers into soil, you can skip this step.


Add flowers to basket

Finally I poked the stems of some purple flowers (they reminded me of hyacinths) into the foam and tied some additional yellow flowers at the top to give it that airy and light feel of the inspiration image.


I used a bag of Spanish moss to hide all the foam, and added a few eggs, moss and feathers on top.


I did add a little bunny as well as some Easter themed items, because my plan was to use this set up for my Easter table this year. It will be so easy to transition just by removing the eggs and bunnies, and like I said, what a wonderful gift this floral basket would be for mom! 

To make it work as a Mother's Day basket, you could fill it with some of her favorite things like:


SHOP MOM'S DAY IDEAS



I hope you're inspired to make your own DIY floral basket! Let me know in the comments.

SHOP THE DIY

Let's head over and see the direction my friends went with the inspiration image. Lora of Lora Bloomquist is next and I know you'll enjoy her Spring basket centerpiece. Click the links below to check them all out!

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Comments

  1. Cindy,
    Your basket is just beautiful. I love the floral handle. So cute.

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  2. HI Cindy, The handles are perfect! Never thought of that! Looks great! laura in Colorado

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    1. Thank you Laura, it's unexpected but so easy to do!

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  3. What a beautiful centerpiece, Cindy. I love how you created the flower handle. Miss is always part of any flower arrangement. Good Luck with all the packing.

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    1. Thank you Carol, yes moss is a must! We are making headway with the packing but have a long way to go!

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  4. I love that you used a metal bucket too and I adore how you created a handle with flowrs. So pretty

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  5. I've always wanted to bend and attach limbs in a floral arrangement but never have because I wasn't sure how. Now I know! Your entire centerpiece is magnificent and full of joy. So much to see in all your little details. Thank you so much for joining us. I love how yours turned out. Happy Spring! pinned

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  6. I absolutely LOVE your arrangment. I also smiled in agreement regarding your borrowed decor. As we enter into month 5 of renovation I am so ready to have my things back in the house. :)

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    1. Thank you Laura! Oh gosh, it will be so much fun to move into your home completely!

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  7. Fantastic floral arrangement Cindy! Such a cheerful table to gather around and I really love the table runner! So elegant!

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  8. I absolutely love how you created the handle/arch, Cindy! Great tutorial on how to do it, too. Perfect centerpiece for Easter to Mom's Day!

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  9. Cindy, I'm glad you created more of an Easter basket, too! I went with a rabbit and I think that rabbits just say springtime, and not just Easter. Love the little touches you have with the quail feathers, eggs and the egg cups for breakfast!

    Enjoy your pretty table,
    Barb :)

    ReplyDelete

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