After successfully staging my home, I’m helping my friend stage her house for selling. So far, we have spent very little money by reusing pretty items that she already had or by making decorations with supplies from the local thrift store. You can do this easy project yourself with great finds from the thrift store or around the house.
I want to share with you how I made this pretty rose-filled vase for her bathroom. I started with a rectangle vase; having each rose the same height makes for a lovely contemporary effect. It would also be a lovely centerpiece for weddings or other special events.
Supplies you’ll need for this project:
- Artificial roses, tulips, or other pretty flowers
- Clear, short square or rectangular vase
- Floral foam or Styrofoam
- A small amount of moss
- Hot glue gun
- Wire cutters
At the thrift store, I bought a clear, rectangular vase for only $2.99 and one bunch of peach-colored artificial roses for a mere $0.99. Unfortunately, I didn’t find any floral foam either at the thrift store or at my house, so I had to purchase it for $2.50 at the local craft store. But if you can snag some at your local thrift store, dollar store, or save some Styrofoam blocks from a package, you could save even more money.
Cut the foam to fit the vase (cut the width and depth about a ¼ inch shorter than the vase dimensions). I used a steak knife and sawed my way through; it doesn’t have to be perfect. Just watch your fingers. Remove the foam from the vase so you can decorate it with leaves.
Next, determine how high you want your roses to be, remembering to leave enough stem to push into the foam. Just eyeball it, and cut the first one with wire cutters. Now cut all of your roses the same height, using the first one as a template.
Snip off any leaves from the lower part of the stem that will be hidden in the foam. Use these extra leaves to decorate the front of the foam. Put a small amount of glue on the backside of the leaf, and hot glue it in a random pattern to the hide the foam. It doesn’t have to be perfect.
Carefully slide the foam into the vase making sure you don’t tear off the glued leaves as you go. Now push each rose into the foam. I counted my roses, and then keeping each rose in line with the next one, pushed them into the foam, like this.
You can then add the finishing touches. I turned the leaves around so that the good side is facing out (most will rotate on their attached stems), and filled in the gaps with some moss.
That’s all it takes to make a beautiful, inexpensive centerpiece for under $7. By changing up the type of flower, you can make lovely centerpieces for Christmas, springtime, or fall. And, by the way, you can also use this same technique with real flowers. Just hide the front of the floral foam with moss or decorative stones, fill the vase with water, and enjoy.
