Ribbon Wreath DIY: Add Cascading Ribbon

Take your wreath from drab to fab! Dress up any old plain wreath by just adding ribbon! See how to do it in this easy ribbon wreath DIY tutorial!

This is going to be a short and sweet ribbon wreath DIY tutorial but sometimes that is nice, right?! I am not sure if I should really call this a hack, but that is how I am thinking of it. It is such a great tip on how to transform a wreath that I had to write a post about it!

If you follow my blog, (by the way you can subscribe in the sidebar!) you may recognize this DIY rope wreath as one of the two that I made for my front doors. Since I am doing some coastal summer decorating, I had to steal one of them off the front door to use because it fit in so perfectly! Ha!

I wanted to include the wreath in my coastal mantel décor, but it just was looking too plain by itself. Also, I wanted to incorporate some of the coastal colors that I was decorating with so I came up with this idea as a solution. I can’t take all the credit though as I have seen this done before. However, I wanted to share this ribbon wreath method with you as well since it is too good not to share!

Really all I did was find some different colored and patterned ribbons to add to the front of the wreath in a cascading look. It is a super simple way to “level up” your wreath. 🙂

What kind of ribbon to use?

Honestly, you can use all kinds of ribbon. There was so much to choose from! I ended up using 10 different ribbons on this wreath. I was also going to add in the navy yarn like in the picture but I did not like it in the end, so I took it out.

Some ribbon can get expensive, so I looked at the Dollar Tree first for my ribbon. I found three rolls there; the burlap with white dots, the gold striped ribbon and the blue turquoise beaded ribbon. Score! You do not need a lot of ribbon for this method so the Dollar Tree ribbon worked perfectly. 

The rest of the ribbon I found at Hobby Lobby while it was 50% off of course! 😉 In addition to getting various colors, I wanted to incorporate different widths and textures of ribbon. So I found some sparkly ribbon, some cloth ribbon with a crocheted look and the fuzzy blue ribbon. I think the combination of all the diverse ribbon is what makes this simple method give such a dramatic effect.

How to choose your colors for the ribbon wreath

Like I said previously, I was going for a coastal vibe to my cascading ribbon wreath. So I chose colors like turquoise, teal, blues, soft greens, tan and creams for my ribbon. An easy way to choose colors for your ribbon is to match an accent piece of décor in the room you are decorating in. For instance, I also found some new pillow covers while I was at Hobby Lobby, so they worked as a template to choose colors from.

Another great idea would be to use a piece of art or picture. You don’t even have to buy it! You could find something you like at the store and just use that to get the colors from. 😉 This ribbon wreath DIY method would also be great to use for holidays! How beautiful would a fall wreath be using oranges, reds and yellows? Or a festive Christmas wreath? My mind is swirling with all the possibilities!

How to add ribbon to a wreath

Line up your ribbon across a counter and measure with a tape measure to the determined length that you want.

I wanted my ribbon to fall to about 3-4 inches below my wreath so I measured my wreath height (plus the 4 inches) and doubled it. I cut the length of the ribbons at 51″. This figure was based on 25″ for my wreath height, then doubled and an extra inch for the ends to be cut at angles. After you cut all your ribbon lengths, cut your ends at an angle. I did not angle the ends of the ribbons that were more intricate like the beaded or crocheted ribbon.

Line up all the ribbons with the wider ribbons to the back and the narrow ribbons to the front. Tie them all together directly in the center with a string or piece of twine. I then tied a loop from which I would hang the ribbon on the wreath.

We hung the rope wreath on our DIY shiplap mantel backdrop using a nail and a wreath hanger fashioned from a wire hanger. It is actually a genius way to hang a wreath, thanks to Mr. Wonderful, of course! He is always full of great ideas! This way you don’t even see the wreath hanger. Let me know if you all want to see how we made it and I can post something!

Then I just hooked the twine onto the wreath hanger. You could also tie it to the nail itself, or command hook, if you are using that to hang your wreath. Lastly I hot glued a starfish at the top for an added coastal look. Check out my Instagram reel to see a video of the process! And while you are there, don’t forget to follow me! 🙂

Let me know what you thought of this wreath hack! Are you going to try it?