DIY HOLIDAY ORNAMENT ARCH TUTORIAL | HOW TO DECORATE YOUR FRONT ENTRY FOR THE HOLIDAYS
Last year I was scanning Pinterest and TikTok when I came across some beautiful DIYs on decorating an archway. Whether it was for the inside or the outside of the home it was a beautiful and easy project I just knew I wanted to create for my front porch. Since we were going to renovate the front porch I had to wait a year before I could even attempt to make the Ornament Arch for my home.
The time has finally come for me to decorate the front porch! The materials we used are as follows:
- 1.25″ “T” elbow – Home Depot
- 1.25” pvc pipes (3) – Home Depot
- 1.15” pvc “T” (2) – Home Depot
- 22 gauge wire – Home Depot
- Extra Large Red Ornaments – Hobby Lobby
- Large & Small Red Ornaments – Hobby Lobby & Walmart
- Medium Ornaments – Walmart
- 9’ lighted garland (4) – Walmart
- 25’ lighted garland garland – Walmart
- 12” zip ties – Home Depot
- 8” zip ties – Home Depot
- 3/4″ coated screws (so they don’t rust) – Home Depot or Lowes
Optional Tools/Materials
- WD40 spray – Home Depot or Walmart
- Rebar (2) – Home Depot or Lowes
- Surface Saver Pad – Walmart or Ace Hardware
This is a fairly simple project that took us about 2-3 hours over the weekend.
- MEASURE & LIST OUT MATERIALS NEEDED
First thing we did was measure our archway to figure how many PVC pipes and connectors we would need and premark any cut pieces. We then placed the pipes in front of the house and once we were certain of our placement we made the cuts. Since I wanted the top of the PVC curved to match the our archway my husband Harvey took an old piece of wood and hammered some nails to it, creating an arch shape. He then proceeded to use a head gun and scrap wood and carefully curved the PVC to form an arch.
2. ASSEMBLING THE ARCH
Once the cuts were made and the arch was assembled, we screwed the pipes together to help secure them in place so they won’t fall apart with any strong winds or bad weather. PRO TIP: spray some WD40 to your PVC pipes to help them slid in/out easily during the project.
We assembled our arch on the ground near our front porch and used some scrap PVC pieces to create a support so our arch doesn’t wobble to much. We also glued surface savers to the back of the cut piece so when the wind does blow it won’t scratch our recently renovated front porch columns.
We then placed the assembled arch on the front porch and zip tied them to the columns, further securing it from falling over.
3. CREATING ORNAMENT CLUSTERS
Using 22 gauge wire, I created ornament clusters. This was a bit time consuming but super easy, you really can’t mess this up! Basically cut a long piece of gauge wire and tie an ornament to the wire, leaving a long enough “tail” to be able to tie the cluster to the arch. I used about 8-10 different ornaments per cluster. Another Tip: Make sure to glue the ornaments to it’s top so they don’t fall off during assembly (don’t ask how I know this! 😉 )
4. ADDING GARLAND AND ORNAMENTS
Now comes the fun part, decorating our arch! This was super easy and only took about an hour to assemble. We had some extra 25 feet of pre-lit garland that we wrapped around our arch then used 3 9 foot pre-lit garlands from Walmart. We zip tied the 9′ garland then tied our ornament clusters to the garland. We had some left over ornament clusters and an extra 9 foot garland that we zip tied to our patio as well making the front of our arch look amazing!
If you are more of a visual learner, here is my video tutorial:
We absolutely LOVE how the garland arch looks! We even had some of our neighbors stop us mid project to ask questions and comment on how much they love the arch! Even small children were excited telling their parents it was a rainbow.. SO Cute!
This is a definitely a project that was fun, easy and made our front look great. I recommend trying this for your home as well! Make sure to follow me on youtube for more great projects!
