Catalog Inspired Urn Filler

I love getting all of those catalogs at home, they are like free magazines to me.  They are a great source of inspiration, and I admit, I have made many catalog purchases over the years.  When I spotted a beautiful urn filler in the Grandinroad spring catalog I was smitten.Front Porch decorations

Front Porch decorations
Grandinroad

This was the lovely urn filler that inspired me to come up with something similar for the urns on my front porch for summer.  At $189, as beautiful as it is, for two urns, this was not in my budget, and I really didn’t want tulips.  Spring is so fleeting for us here in Florida, we kind of go from a springy-winter right into summer.Front Porch decorations I began with one of the urns from my front porch.  Looks like it is going to need a good scrubbing!  See that big chunk of styrofoam?  I used it in galvanized tubs full of fall flowers.  Time to re-use that!  That was a large piece of styrofoam 4″ x 24″ x 72″ which is large enough to use for both of my pots.  Front Porch decorations I wedged my piece of styrofoam into my urn and then went to making my “cage”.  I tired so many different ways to construct my cage.  I tried grapevine and wire, but neither were working for me.  I finally went with really skinny dowels.  The dowels I used were 1/8″ x 36″.  These were thin enough that they had enough “give” to them for me to pull them together at the top.Front Porch decorations I covered the styrofoam with moss, tucking it around the dowels.  I just spaced the dowels every four or five inches apart, using eleven of them total.  Front Porch decorations Once I began to put my geraniums in the pot, I realized my dowels needed to be angled out more.  I pulled them all out and angled them out more.  I did make sure I pushed my dowels down through the styrofoam a good four inches so that they were not likely to break or to to pull loose.  Front Porch decorations I began filling the center of the pot with geranium bushes.  Here and there I cut a blossom off to add a little more color around the edges.  Front Porch decorations When all of my bushes were tucked into the pot, I pulled the top of my dowels together and secured them with a piece of paper wrapped stem wire.  Front Porch decorations

I found these pretty stems on sale at JoAnn’s and knew they would be perfect to deconstruct to give my dowels a more natural look.  Front Porch decorations

I cut those stems apart and glued little pieces of the tiny blooms randomly to the dowels.  Front Porch decorations

I wrapped a little bit of moss around the wire where the dowels were connected and then used hot glue to attach a few of the tips of those little flowers to the top to give them the look of flowering vines.  Front Porch decorations

Time for details!  To soften the look of the edge of the pot I took some of the excess leaves, stuck a piece of thick wire like a pin through the stems and pushed them into the styrofoam around the edges of my urn.  Front Porch decorations A few pieces of geranium garland were cut and pinned in around the edge of the urn and I was done!  Front Porch decorations Front Porch decorations Looks like it will be time to relax on the porch!  Oops, now I need to fill the other urn and make a wreath for the front door to match!

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17 Comments

    1. Thank you Jenna. Yes, keeping up with watering things here in Florida can be a full time job. We want to add hanging Boston ferns to the front porch, but will need to set up an irrigation system first.

  1. Nicely done Chloe. I would hasten to add to really weight down your urn, and attach the foam to the waited part, this can be simply a bag of rocks, sand, or pea gravel. Wind will play havoc with any kind of tall arrangement.
    Fun stuff and those are gorgeous geraniums, for sure. Sandi

  2. That is so lovely. And the best part you didn’t spend an arm and a leg and made it exactly how you wanted it. I agree I find much inspiration from catalogs.

  3. Love this – it’s really beautiful. I don’t care for the dowels inserted there – will do one for my front porch, but without the dowels which make look really artificial, to me.

    1. Thank you, Isn’t it great to get some inspiration and then create your own take on it! I wish I could have gotten real vines to work, but they just didn’t hold the shape.

  4. Another great idea. I live the things in the catalogs but like you cannot justify spending that kind of money for them. I want to try this and think I will spray paint the dowels with a metallic bronze paint to ( I hope) give them a rich look. Now I just have to wAit for spring to arrive. January 18th and 18 degrees in Lockport NY

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