When I started noticing a lot of wood bead garlands in farmhouse and shabby chic home decor pictures I had to delve deeper. What was the deal with these beads?! They’ve been a decor trend for a while now, but I wasn’t sure how much I needed them. Would they really add that much to my displays? Should I buy one, or just try my own wood bead garland DIY project? Could I tie it into my Rae Dunn collection?
Um, that would be a hard yes to all of those questions. And I don’t just need one- right now I have three in my summer display! What?! Why? Because (1) they are super satisfying to make and I want alllll the colors, (2) I can’t pick just one place to put them, and (3) they add so much texture and interest to any display! If you haven’t tried making your own yet, DO IT!!
Farmhouse Beads, Shabby Chic, or French Country Wood Bead Garland DIY
If you want a garland with the natural wood color of the beads they are one of the simplest DIYS you can do. Adding paint and extras like tassels and tags takes more time and effort, but the end results are so worth it. I hope you’ll give it a try, and fall in love with this wood bead garland DIY project as much as I have! You can easily add your own touches like flowers or metal arrows, to make a beautiful shabby chic garland or a boho version.
What you’ll need:
- Wood beads (Amazon has the best selection of sizes at great prices!)
- Jute, twine, or another stringing material
- Paint (optional)
- A tag or decoration (optional)
These are the wooden beads I purchased from Amazon and I found them to be perfect- easy to string and easy to paint!
You can use a variety of bead sizes, depending on where you plan to put the garland. I used 16mm beads for the yellow, white and black bee tag garland, which I think is a great size for tiered trays. I like the 12mm size for garlands to hang on smaller items like little canisters. Bigger 20 and 25mm beads are great for draping over larger items, books, big trays, etc! Below are some great options for wooden beads and twine:
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Wooden Beads Tutorial- how to paint wooden beads!
Tape on the end of the jute really helps when you string the beads 🙂
I cut slits on both sides of a small Amazon box and strung the garland across to do the first layer of paint. I then took the string out from one of the sides so I could reach all the sides. This little garland is supposed to be chippy so I left parts unpainted, then sanded it when it was dry.
I used the same box to paint the other bee tag garland, but this time tried BBQ skewers. I found this method a little easier, but a bigger difference came from using foam brushes. They made it possible to get really good coverage around the beads.
I painted black, white, and yellow skewers (which took about 20 minutes total), then strung the beads. When I finished that I tied a blank 2×3″ tag from Michaels to the end.
I designed a bee in the Clip Art Paint Pro program, and used the font “Mudhisa Sans” for the word “bee,” and the font “Amastery” for “happy.” I usually paint most of my designs but I didn’t know how well these tags would seal. Instead, I used permanent professional grade vinyl, Oracal 651 in white, and cut it on my Silhouette Cameo.
There are different ways to create tassels but I made this one as easy as possible- just folded over some floss I had on hand! I removed the thread label and added a piece of black and white buffalo check ribbon, and a snippet of Rae Dunn ribbon (it came tied around my espresso mini mug set). Then I wrapped a piece of the white floss around everything, and tied it in the back.
I tied the tassel to the other end of the wood garland, and called it done!
I hope this wood bead garland DIY was helpful! I’m looking forward to making more for the different seasons, and playing around with different types of tassels and tags. You can see some shots of my simpler garland in my Easy Candlestick DIY post here! Do you already have a wooden bead garland? If you were to make your own, what colors would you use? Please leave me a comment and let me know! As always, feel free to follow me on Instagram to see more updates and behind the scene pictures 🙂 I’ll have a tutorial up for the framed organic lemons farmhouse sign soon!