Here’s how to make a barbed wire wreath that fits in perfectly with farmhouse style decor!

I’m playing around again with old rusty barbed wire. I am loving finding creative ways to upcycle this wire into some Farmhouse decor for our home. A few days ago, I made a Barbed Wire Wreath – here’s how I did it. 

If you’re wondering how to make a wire wreath, here’s how to create some special farmhouse barbed wire decor that will add the perfect touch!

We have quite a bit of old barbed wire hanging around – whenever fencing is replaced, we coil up the old wire and just hang it in the barn. If you’re looking for old weathered barbed wire, check at farms in your area.

Farmers always have old barbed wire from wire fences and I am pretty sure they would love for you to take some of it! I also found out that Amazon carries barbed wire!

So, here’s what I’m working with – a coil of the old wire, some cutting pliers and some tie wrap. You will want to wear leather gloves for this project; heavy gloves are a must! The barbs on the wire can hurt your hands and arms and leave you with scratches. Safety glasses are also a good choice!

 

Make a Barbed Wire Wreath

First coil the barbed wire into a rough circle. If you have to, create a template like we did when we made our Barbed Wire Star.

When you coil it, wrap the end around the circle of wire a couple of times. Leave a few inches to make a handle from later. See the photo above to see what I mean.

 

This is a pretty rough looking circle! But that’s OK – I can fix that up so it looks a lot better. As long as you can get the wire into a basic circle, you can make this work.

Using the Tie Wire

Time to grab those wire cutters and the tie wire. I’m going to use both of these to tighten up the barbed wire circle. Make sure your pliers have a cutter on them! Cut a piece of tie wire about 3 inches long.

 

Grab the circle of wire and bend the piece of tie wire around it. You can pick anywhere really around the circle to get started. Once you get the wire bent, use the cutting pliers to cinch the wire right.

When you have the tie wire tightened, you can cut off the excess or just bend it backwards into the barbed wire. Once finished, you really won’t be able to see where you reinforced the wire.

Do this three or four times around the wreath. Wherever you have loops of wire that need to be brought into place, just repeat this step.

 

Making a Hanger for the Wreath

Remember that tail I left when I wrapped the wire into a circle? Now is the time to bend that wire tail to make a hanger. Just use the cutting pliers to twist the wire and form a loop.

Fold it back onto itself or wind it into the circle of wire. If you need to straighten the hanger, just use a hammer and give it a good smack to flatten it.

Want to keep the wreath really rustic looking? Add a burlap bow and call it done. Or decorate it according to the season!

Decorating the Barbed Wire Wreath

I wanted to add a few things to the wreath just to dress it up a little bit. Right now, it’s late summer so I’ll decorate it accordingly. Come Christmas I can just change out the decor to fit the season, by adding greenery, maybe some moss and berries.

I grabbed a couple of grape bunches and a few flowers from our local dollar store. I just want to add a little something so the wreath doesn’t look quite so stark.

And here it is finished…right now it’s hanging in our new mud room. If you want to add a country touch to your home, why not make a Barbed Wire Wreath like this one?

Adding more of a Country Touch

You can add ribbons; weave them in and out of the wreath for a pretty display. Or use scissors to cut ribbons, make a large bow and fasten to the wreath using the tie wire.

You could also incorporate both twine and burlap into the wreath decor; both add a real touch of country.

It’s rustic looking and can easily be changed out, depending on the season. It’s an easy DIY afternoon project – take a look at the Barbed Wire Star we made. Add some farmhouse decor to your home!

Want to read more?

Take a look at how we transformed the ugliest stairwell you have ever seen. We cleaned it up and made it country – perfect for our farmhouse.

Got that ugly 70’s wood paneling? See what we did – it totally changed the look of the house.

Here’s what we did to totally update an old lime green counter top. You’d never know that colour is underneath there.

Need extra storage but stuck with sloped ceilings? Here’s how we made a closet in our loft – tons of extra storage space now!

These cute little Mini Book Ornaments are a fun DIY Christmas craft.

Barbed Wire Wreath – an easy DIY metal art craft!

 

Barbed wire art is becoming a Farmhouse decor favourite and I love the way it looks. Especially using old, rusty barbed wire! And since we have some old rolls of fencing laying around, we figured out how to make a barbed wire Star to hang on the exterior wall down at the barn.

You can use these tips to create your own custom metal wall art.

 

Sometimes you can find old barbed wire for sale in thrift stores or farm supply stores. But, if you know any farmers, ask them if they have old livestock fencing they are willing to part with.

How to Make a Barbed Wire Star

The tools you will need include:

large board, measuring tape, string, pencil, 2 inch screws, drill, barbed wire, tie wire, cutting pliers

First we had to make a template. Graham is way better at figuring out this kind of stuff, so I was glad he was so willing to help! Here’s how he figured out the measurements.

 

 

Making a template for metal art

Use any board you have laying around for this project. You just need to make sure the board is big enough for the size of star you want.

You can even reuse the board after the farmhouse star is finished. The board will have a few holes in it, though.

Measure the width of the board and divide by two. Make a mark at the center point to work from in the next step. IF you have a large enough protractor for your circle, use that instead of the following.

 

 

How to make a perfect circle using string

Using a drill, place a screw in the wood at the center mark. Tie a piece of string to the screw and make a loop at the other end.

Put your pencil in that loop and pull the string tight. Keeping the string tight, draw a circle on the wood.

 

 

Go all the way around until you have made a complete circle. Now you can remove the string line and pencil.

Get your drill ready. Grab some more screws. It’s time to create the star.

 

 

The Barbed Wire Star Pattern

Figure out the equal distance between five screws in the circle. Here’s how you can do that.

For example:

If the diameter of your circle is 20 inches, multiply that by 3.14 = 62.8

Now divide the 62.8 by 5 (the number of points on the star) = 12.5

There is 12.5 inches needed between each screw.

Now anyone better than us at math probably has an easier way to figure out the screw placement, but this is how we did it.

Leave the screws sticking out about 1 inch. You will need this height for wrapping the barbed wire.

Wear leather gloves, you will be glad you did.

 

 

Wrapping the Barbed Wire

Pick any point to start and begin wrapping the barbed wire around the screw. For the first turn, leave a couple inches on the left side, wrap the wire around the screw and continue wrapping in a right handed direction.

You’ll come back to finish off that little piece later on.

 

 

Now just keep wrapping the rusty barbed wire around the screws in a star shape. If you like, you can finish your star with just the one wrap around.

 

 

Or you can do two wraps, which gives you a bit chunkier of a star. You’ll fix up those “loose” looking wires before you’re done.

 

 

We went with three wraps of rusty barbed wire to make the Metal Star even chunkier. To cut and secure the end, first have a piece of wire ready.

Cut the length of excess barbed wire and wrap it a bit around the other barbed wire to hold it in place. Wrap a piece of straight tie wire around all three runs of the barbed wire and cinch it using pliers. Look at the photos, to see what I mean.

 

 

Now you can take short pieces of wire and work on any loose wires. We want to have the barb wire be tight and close together. Wrap the wire around the three pieces of wire at the intersections, where the cross wires meet.

 

 

 

If there are still any loose looking wires, just use another piece of straight wire, line them up and cinch them together. Using pliers will make this part of the project much easier. Use the cutting part of the pliers to cut the excess wire.

Once you are done reinforcing the wires, you’re ready to lift the star from the board. Just use the drill to remove the screws from the board and the star can just be picked up.

 

Hanging the Metal Star

You can use the straight wire to create a small hanger at the top of the star. If you want to keep the look really rustic, you’re done. Hang’er up. It will look great against any kind of wood siding!

 

 

I decorated our star just a bit. I used raffia to tie a simple bow, then added a sprig of red berries to give a little pop of color. The Barbed Wire Star is hanging alongside the Virginia Creeper that grows at our barn.

I might add a few seasonal touches but maybe not. I like the rustic simplicity of having the barbed wire be the focal point. Wouldn’t a huge star hanging high up on our house gables look great? That may be another project!

Experimenting with metal art using old rusty barbed wire has turned out to be a fun craft project. You can do so many things with it – maybe make a barbed wire cross or make a farmhouse barbed wire wreath like this one.

 

More Farmhouse posts

How to Fix Up That Ugly Stairwell – You HAVE to see this “before” picture; that stairwell was scary and super ugly!

Building Closets in the Loft – we needed more closet space and so we turn the loft off of our master bedroom into a spacious closet area.

How to Paint Over Ugly 1970’s Wood Paneling – we had to. We just had to. We brightened up the entire house with this very simple project!

Looking for the prettiest farmhouse porch decor? Check out our post!

These fun Mini Book Ornaments are great for Christmas.

 

 

 

Looking for a low key way to celebrate Christmas with your kids? Here are 5 kid friendly crafts to make together for Christmas decorating and gift giving.

 

 

5 Kid Friendly Crafts to Make for Christmas

In our family, Christmas is about a lot more than getting presents!

It’s about spending time together and creating our own special memories. If you have younger children (oh heck, teens would have fun with these too!), why not try a few things on this list?

 

 

Instead of spending so much money that January and February become really HARD months financially, make your own gifts!

Enjoy several afternoons creating these handmade gifts and decor.

 

 

Spend an afternoon or a few evenings as a family and MAKE Christmas tree ornaments.

Gather supplies at the dollar store or on Amazon. These wood dove gift tags (or tree ornaments) just need some paint and trim.

Then, thread some pretty gold or red ribbon through the hole and they are ready to go on the tree.

Making one of these with each of your kids or grandkids every year would start a great family tradition.

Make sure you put the year on them and after the holidays, tuck them in with your other ornaments.

Reuse them every year and add one each year.

 

 

Make some glittery table decor

Buy Styrofoam cones and cover them with spray glue, then roll them in sparkly glitter.

Make several (or have each child make one) then put them together on a table to make a beautiful decoration.

If the cones are too much, use some ornament sized styrofoam balls instead.

Gather a bunch of them to display in a large glass bowl by your entryway.

 

 

 

Break out the rolling pin and do some baking

Do some holiday baking with the kids – whether you have a whole afternoon to make some Gingerbread Men or you only have an hour to whip up some Fantasy Fudge, everyone appreciates getting some Christmas treats as a gift.

Put half a dozen Gingerbread Men in a bag. Tie it together with some pretty ribbon!

Grandparents would be delighted with this gift.

 

 

 

Make some Paper Angels

Grab some white paper (love this idea of using a music book!), fold it up to make a fan and use gold wire to tighten it.

Fan out the arms and add a pear or gold bead for the angel head. Very pretty!!

 

 

Make some Paper snowflakes

Did you ever make these when you were a child? They look so pretty and everyone is different!

Make sure each child has kiddie scissors and show them what to do.

Tape them on your windows, hang them on your tree or make a garland out of them for a doorway.

Any of these Christmas crafts to make with kids would be a hit, both to make and to receive.

So think about making more of a homemade and handmade Christmas this year. Invite the whole family and spend some time working and having fun together! Put on some awesome Christmas music and enjoy the day together.

So, what are you doing for Christmas gifts this year? Store bought? Homemade?