I’ve been decorating the new house with a botanical theme and style. I love the earthy vibe and green is my favorite color. There’s something fresh and simple that appeals to me in this decor. And it brings the outdoors in. I had fun creating this grouping and wanted to show you how you can duplicate it using free botanical wall decor printables and items I purchased from Hobby Lobby.
Let me say straight up, that this post does not contain affliate links. I’m just sharing for the sake of fun, beauty and education.
Free Botanical Prints from Cherished Bliss
I love that there are free botanical prints available online! I have several saved in Pinterest. This set by Ashley from Cherished Bliss is exactly what I needed for this stairway that leads down from my kitchen. I love herbs and I needed six beautiful prints which is what I found here. The site was easy to use, and the prints were easy to download.
Gathering Advice
I knew that I wanted to frame these botanicals and I envisioned them in a paned window frame so I was keeping my eyes open for one as I was here, there, and everywhere. I had this large white wall leading down my staircase and I wasn’t sure if framed botanical art would look right here. Would they look too square? Would the framed botanicals add enough color.
I invited my friend Anita over to give her opinion. Although Anita has a different decorating style than I do, she has a great eye and understands what I want, so she was able to advise me on the space. She drew up the design for my botanical wall decor that included a window and two circular elements on the right to balance my light fixture without looking too symetrical.
Shopping
I had the wall art prints in mind, waiting for me on my Pinterest board, long before I had my frame. One day while shopping for cards at Hobby Lobby I noticed this lovely basket on an aisle display. This was circular! And it would look nice with some trailing eucalyptus. Which I have in abundance left over from my daughter’s wedding last year.
As I looked around I noticed that there were all sorts of possibilites in style at the moment so I decided to put some things together and buy all the pieces I would need at once. This basket was not at all cheap priced at $99.99, and still seemed steep to me at the 40% off, but it was darling and I knew in the long run I would not regret the purchase. This basket turned out to be the most expensive part of my DIY botanical wall decor project.
I headed over to the wall art section and found a rustic white window frame! Now it didn’t have glass, it wasn’t a real window, but it was lighter and would be easier to hang than a legit repurposed frame. At 50% off, it became $34.99
I had a large piece of cardboard at home to use as a backing for this project, but I also had to cover it because the botanical prints do not fill the window openings. So large square paper, 12×12 in sage green, was also added to my cart. It happened to be on sale for 99¢. There was some lovely grey linen paper in the same size that would have also been quite pretty.
To achieve a floating print, I attached the botanical prints to the back of the frame and the sage green paper to the cardboard.
Next I picked up this Metal Green Succulent, regularly $11.99 and on sale for $5.99. I had wire at home to attach it to the Wooden Basket Tray which I purchased at the full price of $13.99. So my grand total at checkout with tax was $128.15.
Assembling the Botanical Framed Art
First, I printed off by botanicals onto cardstock. I was able to adjust the printing size to 90% which was a better fit for this frame. As you can see from the picture below, there is a depth difference between the front and back of the frame. As I’ve mentioned, I positioned the botanical prints forward by taping them to the back side of the frame openings in a later step.
Then I needed to change the placement of the hangers so that I could create a horizontal frame rather than a vertical one.
Then I used a glue stick to attach the sage paper to my cardboard piece being careful to have paper edges align with my panes. I had to trim the paper a little to make this work.
After making sure my paper edges didn’t show. I taped on my botanical prints. And then taped the cardboard backing onto the frame.
One little additional purchase was a trip to Walmart to pick up this picture hanging set. Although I could have directly hung the picture using the hangers that had come with the frame, I knew that would be tricky balancing on a ladder on the stairs. I wanted a big wire that could easily grasp two of the wall hanging hooks from this packaging.
Here’s how I used the original hangers and the wire together.
Now technically, a real window wouldn’t open the way I have this one situated with the hinges at the top and bottom and the latch in the center.
Creating the Succulent Basket
The metal succulent has a nice hanging hole so this is where I started with the wire.
Then I fed it easily through to the backside of the wooden basket tray. After attaching the succulent tightly, I used the end of the wire to create a loop for hanging.
Placement
Using a few lightweight items, I tested the arrangement placement on the wall. Eli asked why I had to use such ugly wrapping paper, but that was exactly the point! Wrapping paper works great when you need a large piece like this. Rather than taping several small pieces together, I just grabbed the ugliest Christmas wrap I could find in my basement.
I love the final results! Now I can cross botanical wall decor project off the list and find something new to create around here.
