5 Different Wreath Bases (And How to Pick the Right One for Your Next Wreath)

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I had my whole work table covered in wreath bases the other day, filming a video for you, and it hit me: this is the exact question I get asked more than almost anything else. “Julie, which wreath base do I even start with?”

So grab your coffee and watch the video above, because I laid out all five of my go to wreath bases side by side and walked through exactly what each one is good for, what to look for when you’re buying one, and a couple of mistakes I see beginners make with each. Below, I’m breaking it all down in writing too, so you can bookmark this and come back to it every time you’re starting a new wreath.

What is a wreath base?

A wreath base is what holds your flowers, greenery, ribbons, deco mesh, burlap, or other embellishments. Without the right wreath base, it can be very hard for you to achieve the style and look that you are going for. There are many different types of wreath bases to choose from. The most popular wreath bases are straw, styrofoam, grapevine, deco mesh, PVC evergreen (Christmas wreath), and metal hoops.

Most wreaths are always round but a crafter could also use a wreath base that is square, oval, teardrop, rectangular, diamond, cross, and even heart shaped. There are other shapes but these are the most common. 

5 Wreath Bases you can Embellish for Every Season

Here’s the truth: the base you choose isn’t what makes a wreath “seasonal” or “year round.” It’s the embellishments you put on it, your greenery, your ribbon, your florals, that do that work. But the base is what everything else is built on, so picking the right one for the job makes the whole project easier.

Let’s go through all five.

Grapevine Wreath Base 

Grapevine is my favorite, and it’s probably the most versatile base out there. It comes in every size you can imagine, anywhere from a tiny few inch base all the way up to 30 inches or more, and in shapes beyond just round, including square and oval.

What makes grapevine so great is that it can hold real weight. If you’ve got heavier stems or longer picks you want to use, grapevine will support them in a way that a straw base just can’t.

Two things before you start decorating a grapevine wreath, though. First, clean it up. Every grapevine base has loose leaves and debris packed down inside it, and if you don’t get those out, your hot glue is going to stick to a leaf instead of the actual vine, which means your decorations fall right back out later. I’ve got a full tutorial on cleaning up your grapevine wreath that walks you through it step by step.

Second, learn how to actually get your stems into the base. Grapevine is dense and it takes a little technique to insert flowers without fighting the wreath the whole time. I go through all of that, plus color choices, layering, and more, in my Grapevine Wreath Design Tips for Beginners post.

Styrofoam Wreath Base

Styrofoam bases are brilliant for wreath making, honestly. They’re lightweight, they’re sturdy, and they make for a really compact, clean looking wreath. I love these for anything that’s going to hang indoors, over a mirror, propped in a chair, that kind of thing.

They come in round tops and square tops, and in a couple of different colors. I personally always reach for the green over the white. It’s just easier to hide the base underneath your greenery and florals if any of it happens to peek through. Small tip, but it makes a difference.

Wire Metal Frame Wreath Base

This is the one I hand to almost every beginner. A wire wreath frame is exactly what it sounds like: metal rings, sometimes one ring and sometimes two, with little ties spaced evenly around it that you use to attach deco mesh, ribbon, or burlap.

Here’s what I want you to pay attention to when you’re shopping for one: weight and gauge. These frames come in a lot of different sizes and different wire weights. If you grab one that’s too thin, it’s going to bend and lose its shape once you start loading it up with mesh, especially on a bigger wreath. Get a sturdy one and it’ll hold its shape through the whole design process.

Wire frames are perfect if deco mesh wreaths are your thing, since the frame is basically built for that job.

Evergreen Wreath Base (aka Christmas Wreath)

This one goes by a few different names, evergreen base, PVC wreath, Christmas wreath, but it’s all the same thing. It’s usually sold around the holidays, but here’s my honest advice: stock up on these when you see them on sale, because you can absolutely use them all year long. I’ve made spring wreaths, summer wreaths, and everyday wreaths on an evergreen base plenty of times.

When you’re shopping for one, pay attention to whether it’s a flat wreath or what’s called an “elevated” wreath. An elevated wreath has two rings underneath, one smaller than the other, which pushes the center up and gives your finished wreath more dimension and fullness. Either style works, it just depends on the look you’re going for.

One more thing: before you decorate an evergreen base, you have to fluff it. Straight out of the package, the branches are flat and compressed, and if you skip this step your finished wreath is going to look thin no matter what you add to it. I walk through exactly how to do it properly in How to Fluff an Artificial Wreath.

Straw Wreath Base

This one surprises people. Straw wreaths come wrapped in a layer of plastic, and my advice is: leave that plastic on. I know it’s tempting to peel it off, but that plastic is what’s holding all those loose straw pieces together. Take it off and your base starts falling apart in your hands while you’re trying to work with it, and anything you’ve glued in won’t have anything sturdy to hold onto.

A straw base is lightweight and gives you a soft, airy look, but it’s not going to support heavier stems or bulky picks the way some of the other bases will. Save it for lighter, more delicate designs.

How to pick the perfect wreath bases you can embellish for every season

Here’s my honest advice after doing this for years: there’s no such thing as a perfect wreath base. Grapevine wreaths are never going to be perfectly round, straw bases are a little messy by nature, and even the wire frames can vary slightly in shape from one to the next. Don’t let that stress you out. Once you start layering on your greenery and florals, small imperfections in the base disappear.

If you’re brand new to wreath making, I’d start with a wire frame or a styrofoam base since both are forgiving and easy to work with. Once you feel comfortable, grapevine is a wonderful next step, and it’ll quickly become a staple in your supply closet.

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Why are some wreath bases better than others year-round?

It is not the wreath base that allows a wreath to work all year round, it is the embellishments added to it such as florals, ribbon, greenery, and ornaments that make it fit all year round. 

Greenery is one element that is added to a wreath that works all year round. The types that are easily used all year round are: 

• Boxwood
• Ivy
• Tea leaf
• Pine
• Lambs ear
• Nandina
• Herbs
• Succulents
• And many more

Mixing different types of artificial greenery in one wreath adds textures and dept to a wreath as well as allows your wreath to looks very real and makes the wreath appear as if it is real and not artificial at all. 

What florals can you include in your wreath and use all year round? 

The best thing about artificial flowers is that the floral industry has made it easier to use some silk flower varieties year round by making them in different seasonal colors as well as adding some seasonal effects such as snow for the winter months. To name a few florals that would be great to use in a wreath base in every season would be: 

• Magnolias
• Roses
• Hydrangeas
• Carnations
• Allium
• Peonies

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