Tutorial: How to Make a Rustic Floral Centerpiece

I always try to share with you when I’ve learned a new party lesson, and today’s rustic floral centerpiece tutorial is just that. Last year, I wanted to try my hand at styling the flowers for my daughters’ Nancy Drew Mystery Party. So as usual, I practiced in advance … OK: pause … I just typed the words “Nancy Drew Mystery Party” and got the Etsy cash register sound as a Mystery Party Plan sold. That is hysterical. Maybe I should just keep typing those words over and over again???

OK, back to business. So, I practiced the arrangement with live flowers (see the tutorial here) and all went well. But the next day, the flowers were a little wilty and I decided it would be better to arrange them on the morning of the party. Of course, I totally ran out of time, and two early arriving family members put them together for me.

Lesson learned: since I wanted three centerpieces this year, it was time to bust out the faux flowers. (Just as an aside, no matter what you hear on HGTV, here in the South, we like our silk flowers. Real is always the loveliest, but for a 9-year-old’s birthday party, I’m erring on the side of practical.)

We will have some loose, mason jar style arrangements at the party that I will do that morning, but I’m so relieved to have these puppies out of the way. Big check mark for me. Here are the very easy how-tos.

Rustic Floral Centerpiece Supplies

• Floral foam
• Wire cutters
• Green hydrangea bush
• White hydrangea bush
• Container

My container ($8) is 4″ high x 12″ wide x 4″ deep and is from Save on Crafts. My floral bushes are from Hobby Lobby, so even though they were $25 and $16, I purchased them on 50% sale days. The floral foam ($4.50) also was from Hobby Lobby, though you can find it in any craft store (or WalMart). By shopping on sale, that brought each container in at $33.

Rustic Floral Centerpiece Instructions

1 – Cut your floral foam to fit your container. I just use a standard bread knife for this. My container required 1-1/3 bricks of the floral foam. (Since you are using artificial flowers, obviously do not soak your foam in water.)

2 – Trim your flowers so the stems are about 5″ long.

3 – Plunge your largest flower into the center of the floral foam. Allow about 2″ of stem to remain exposed. You are trying to achieve a ratio where the floral height and width is slightly larger than the container.

4 – Add leaves to the corners and sides of the container. You may have to peel the leaves from the stem wrapping and them trim a clean edge to the leaf stem.

5 – Add two smaller flowers in your second color on either side of the center flower. Place these at an angle and at a little deeper in the floral foam than your center flower. This will give you a gentle slope down from either side of the center flower.

6 – Add in the non-floral parts of the hydrangea bush. Just scatter these throughout the arrangement: one or two coming out of the top and one on either side. They add a little variety.

7 – Rotate your arrangement and fill in any gaps with more flowers and leaves as needed. Be sure to look at it from above and head on to spot the gaps. As you add flowers, keep trying to balance the two colors.

8 – As you work, keep proportion in mind. My arrangement is about 1″ taller than my container and about 1-1/2″ wider than the container.And that’s it. This is really easy. (As you knew it would be.)