Arts and Crafts – Double Sided Floral Arrangement

This article was written to teach you how to make your own double sided floral arrangement.

A double sided floral arrangement is a terrific thing to have. Simply by turning your arrangement around, you can have a different look for you room.

I made a double sided floral arrangement as a door prize for one of our family New Years Eve Lan Parties. It was fun to make and was fought over by my three kids.

Ok, it wasn’t a real fight. My daughter convinced her brothers that she won the door prize, (although I don’t know how that was possible as she wasn’t at the party, she wasn’t even in the same state as the party). Hmmmmm me thinks that sisters get spoiled by brothers…..

Anyway…..

This is the Spring colors side of that arrangement.

This is the Fall colors side of that arrangement.

This kind of arrangement is fun and frankly, it’s a space saver.

You might wonder what makes it a space saver. Well, if you change out a table’s floral arrangement for each season, instead of needing four different arrangements (one out on display and three in storage), you only need two arrangements to cover the whole year (one out on display and one in storage).

The Tools and Materials You Will Need to Make This Floral Arrangement

If you don’t already have them, you will need to get some tools and materials to make your double sided floral arrangement.

• Wire Cutters
• Base Container
• Gift Wrap Tissue Paper
• Dry Foam
• A sharp non-serrated knife with a blade longer than the width/length of dry foam you want to cut
• Silk Flowers (and other types of decorative plant like materials)
• Special Decorative Objects (optional)

I am going to show you how to make a double sided floral arrangement that is Christmas themed on one side, and winter themed on the other. You can make the exact same arrangement as I do here, but you don’t have to.

You get to decide what each side is about. You will be choosing the flowers, the colors and any special decorative objects you might want to add to your arrangement.

You might wonder what I mean by special items. For instance, if you are making an arrangement that is Christmas on one side and Easter on the other, you may want a pine cone peeking out of the arrangement on the Christmas side and a bunny peeking out on the Easter side.

Another example might be an arrangement for a baby shower. You could have primarily green and white flowers on one side with a little yellow rattle peeking out at the bottom and primarily yellow and white flowers on the other side with a little green rattle peeking out at the bottom.

Here is a third idea, Halloween and the Fourth of July. Primarily orange and black flowers on one side with a little pumpkin sticking out at the bottom then primarily red, white and blue flowers on one side with an American flag standing at the bottom.

The choices are all up to you.

Various Silk Flowers, Thistles, Cones, Sprigs of Greenery and Special Objects

I went out and bought some flowers that I liked the look of. There was a sale, so I stocked up.

You don’t need to buy as many flowers as I did. I have lots of other floral arrangement projects I’ll be writing about soon, so I need these flowers and plant like objects.

Go and find various silk flowers, thistles, cones, sprigs of greenery, special objects (whatever you like). Start with a few. Make sure that you have some variety in type, to make the arrangement interesting.

Wire Cutters

You will need wire cutters. I have a pair of flush wire cutters very similar to these. These wire cutters should work and they are relatively inexpensive.

After I worked for hours using this type of wire cutter to make all of the floral arrangements for my wedding (table arrangements, boutonnieres, brides bouquet, maid of honor’s bouquet and the toss bouquet), my hands were sore.

I ended up getting a leveraged wire cutter. In my opinion, if you will be cutting for long periods of time, or cutting the stems of silk flowers and the like on a regular basis, leveraged wire cutters are great to use.

Just the same, either will do the job for you.

Dry Foam

Dry foam is a base material that sits in a base container so you can insert the stems of flowers and such into it. It helps to make the flowers stand in place. You will also need something to hold the dry foam (that being a base container).

Base Container

I have selected a small wooden rectangular unfinished crate for my base container.

This is a very small unfinished crate. The bigger the base container the more flowers it will take to finish the arrangement (to fill the arrangement).

These unfinished crates below are relatively inexpensive. They are similar to what I’m using but they are not the same. They have two slats of wood front and back (my crate has three). These have bigger gaps between their two slats and they are about twice as long as the unfinished crate I will be using. There are also three of them. These might make great base containers for a couple of table arrangements too.

It you decide to get the three crates shown here, just remember, the bigger the base container is, the more flowers it takes to fill out the arrangement.

Time to Visualize What Your Arrangement Might Look Like

I am going to place some flowers I have into my unfinished crate (nothing but the crate and some flowers sticking out of it). This will help me visualize what might look nice.

To visualize a different arrangement, I removed the red center flower and replaced it with a pink flower. I removed the green sprigs that were on top then added some big leaf plantlike material to give it some more central height. After this, I added white babies breath left and right of the pink flower.

I really liked both the summer and spring looks, but maybe for a different flower arrangement, another time.

As I was making this in October, I wanted to make something for the upcoming Christmas holiday. I pulled all of the flowers out and tried a red, white and cream look, with a pinch of black. It looked very festive to me.

If the floral arrangement is a decoration for the home, it is nice if it can be used for more than just one holiday or more than one season.

I liked the Christmas look but as this is to be a double sided arrangement, I needed one more look.

This would be what the other side will look like. Not Christmas but winter.

Having this be a double sided arrangement allows me to have the decoration out (displaying the Christmas side), shortly after Thanksgiving and to just after Christmas. After Christmas, I turn the arrangement around to display the winter side. I can have this arrangement displayed up to springtime if I want.

Remember; You do not have to place identical colors or types of flowers. You can duplicate everything I am doing in order to create your floral arrangement or you can choose the flower types, colors and themes of your liking. It’s all up to you.

Begin Assembling Your Arrangement

Because the box I am using has open areas where the wooden slats do not meet, I will line the box with colored gift wrap tissue paper. This will make it so the dry foam can not be seen and it adds color to the box.

I selected red paper and cut it into a rectangular shape, wider and deeper than the box I am going to line it with.

I place the paper in the box.

I tucked the excess paper down into the box.

I cut the dry foam a little bit smaller than the area inside the paper. Dry foam is easy to cut with a sharp straight edge knife.

I place the dry foam in the box. Now I can start inserting flower stems into it.

This is a double sided flower arrangement. As the front and the back are going to be different, I will be placing flowers in similar positions, switching from front to back as I add them. This helps to prevent the arrangement from becoming heavy on one side and potentially falling over during assembly.

I will begin with the winter side of the arrangement.

Each stem placed will need to be cut to length for it’s specific location.

I estimate stem length by placing a stem so that the flower ends up in it’s approximate position, then cut the stem to that estimated length.

I begin with the first two flowers for the front two corners. Placing the flower stems as seen above into the dry foam.

After the two corner flowers are placed, I selected a white peony flower to be the tallest central flower on the winter side of the arrangement. This flower should be placed just a little forward of center because a second central flower will be place in a similar position when this arrangement is turned around.

As the arrangement begins to fill in at the base, it gets harder to see the stems, to estimate cut lengths. If you have difficulty seeing the stem cut lengths, it is always better to cut a stem too long, rather than too short. You can always cut it shorter if need be (to get that cut length just right).

Another thing to be aware of is as you can imagine, some stems will be crossing each other inside the foam very closely. You might insert a stem and find it is stopped by an already existing stem. If that happens, simply pull the stem out and reposition it until it goes close to where you want it. You should be able to bend the stem under the head of the flower to get the flower into position, even if the stem isn’t perfectly placed.

Now, I turn the arrangement to the Christmas side.

I have selected a white pompom shaped daisy for the tallest central flower on the Christmas side of the arrangement. The two tallest central flowers will stand better if they each have a hole of their own to be inserted into. Place the Christmas side’s pompom flower in front of the Winter side’s peony flower (as you did with the peony, just a little forward of center).

Then estimate length, cut and place the two red carnation corner flowers into their opposite corners. Stem placement doesn’t need to be perfect, but try to get yhem as close as possible to where you want them.

At this point, all four corner flowers should be in place and the two center flowers should also be in place. This arrangement is nicely balanced so far.

Now I will add some left and right height, which also helps fill in gaps by placing red berry style stems left and right of the central pompom daisy.

I add some ivory colored cone shaped flowers (one on the left and two on the right. Then I decide to place an off centered black peony to the left.

I turn the arrangement back to the winter side. And place a gray thistle front center and bend it slightly down and outward.

Next I bent that front gray thistle down and added a bigger gray thistle on the left.

I decided I didn’t want a red carnation in the right front corner on the winter side, so I replaced it with a white pompom daisy.

I added a black peony center left just above the front gray thistle and added three simple white daisies right of center, but below the height of the central tallest white peony.

I turned the arrangement back to the Christmas side. I didn’t like the look of the black peony on this side, so I replaced it with a brown peony just left of center, lower and pointing to the left.

Next I added a couple more of the red berry type flowers one left above the brown peony and one right above the red carnation. I also added a sprig of green leafy plant under the left cream cone shaped plant.

I turned the arrangement around to the winter side and I added a small brown thistle like plant low and right of the peony.

I added another smaller black peony just right of center.

I also added slender sprigs of green stems with fine leaves, which helped to give the arrangement an arching look.

One more turn and I’m back to the Christmas side of the arrangement. On this side, I add a decorated pine cone as a special decorative object (yes it is still plant like, but it represents the holiday nicely).

I place one of the pine cones, left of center and add two sprigs of holly with berries, right of center and bottom center under the brown peony.

I am happy with this arrangement now. It would look great on a table that sits against a wall. It would look great on a dresser in a bedroom. It would even look great sitting in a window sill.

I so enjoyed making this flower arrangement. The winter side looks great on my mantle.

The Christmas side looks great on my mantle too.

This was great fun to make. I created this piece just so I could teach you how to make a double sided floral arrangement.

You could make one for yourself or make one to give as a gift. You could also sit with someone and teach them how to make a floral arrangement like this.

When you are done with your arrangement, you can look at the beautiful thing you made and say, “I did this”!

I hope you find as much joy in making your own silk (and such), flower arrangements as I do.

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