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DIY Carrot Door Hanger

How to make a DIY carrot door hanger using thrifted finds!

Have you seen the big carrot door hangers made from tulips?  I saw my first one in real life while visiting my in-laws.  Their neighbor had a carrot door hanger made from orange tulips hanging from their turquoise door.  It was GORGEOUS!

I’ve always had it in the back of my mind to make one for myself.  While thrifting last year I found a carrot wreath.  Looking online these carrot wreaths can run $75, so spending a couple bucks on a thrifted one seemed like a extra good deal!  

I didn’t know what I wanted to do with it immediately, but I figured if nothing else I could sprinkle carrots around the house come spring!  The wreath got put in a tote labeled spring and sat there until now!

Brooke Johnson | The Junk Parlor holding a thrifted carrot wreath.

#makersdiychallenge

Each month I share a DIY with my #makersDIYchallenge group on Instagram.  You can FOLLOW ME on Instagram HERE. This month’s challenge is to create a Spring DIY, so instead of buying something new, I dug out the wreath!

I have said this over and over again, but I really prefer to DIY and repurpose things I have instead of buying new things to use! And for this project I had everything I needed!! I just had to dig through some totes to find everything. I am a pretty organized person, but since moving and being in the new home, I’m still figuring out where I want to keep things. You can see more about my new house HERE.

The fun thing about this Instagram group is that we are trying to build a community. We come up with a theme and then ask you to make something too! A lot of this then share other peoples projects that use the hashtag. You can follow the hashtag #makersdiychallenge HERE.

I'm using wire cutters/pliers to remove the carrot stems from the grapevine wreath.

Dismantling the Wreath

The first thing I wanted to do was to take all of the carrots off of the grapevine wreath. I really hadn’t studied to see how the carrots were attached. I grabbed my wire cutters and planned on clipping off the carrots. What happened when I started to remove the carrots was that the wire cutters were not wanting to work!

The wire that holds the carrots and attaches them to the wreath are covered in multiple layers of fabric or some kind of floral tape. As I tried to clip them however, the entire stem of the carrot pulled completely out of the grapevine wreath. Each stem had 3 carrots on it along with some greenery.

A carrot stem with 3 carrots on it.

After I removed one stem it was a little bit easier to see how the wreath was assembled. Not only were the stems of the carrots tucked into the grapevine wreath, but glue and wire had been used too. The wire I could untwist and reuse if I had wanted. However, the glue made it very difficult to pull out some of the carrot stems.

Pulling out the stems seemed to work the best. While my hands were not strong enough to pull them out, the pliers worked wonderfully! And when a carrot stem was really difficult, I undid the wire first, and then used the pliers to go back and forth until the glue loosened.

Using the wire clippers/pliers to remove stems from the grapevine wreath.
Brown paper covered wire used to hold the carrots onto the wreath.
Grapevine wreath after carrots have been removed.

There are 3 carrots of various sizes on each stem. After I got each stem removed from the grapevine wreath, I separated each carrot from the stem. I then sorted the carrots by sizes and often times removed any faux greenery that was with them and put that in a pile too!

I know some of you will relate to the fact that I plan on keeping and reusing every inch of this wreath! From the wreath form, to the twisty wire, to the greenery scraps! As long as I put random pieces like this into labeled totes with like items, then they will be used in the future!

Pile of carrots and greenery that were removed from the grapevine wreath.
Carrots sorted by sizes.

The carrots are made of styrofoam wrapped with orange tissue paper. I have made my own carrots before, but made them neutral with twine. See how to make your own carrots HERE. Seeing these with tissue paper, I might have to make another batch of carrots and wrap them in tissue paper instead of twine!

Some of the carrots on the wreath were damaged. The broken ones I threw away, but I did salvage the ones that were just dented. The down side to sytrofoam carrots is that they can get smashed pretty easily. I plan on just turning the dented carrots so that you can’t see the dented areas!

Upclose view of the carrot

Assembling Our Door Hanger

Carrot

I wanted the carrots to be arranged like a pyramid. Skinny on one end, tapering up to a wider end. Because the carrots were sorted according to size I was careful to space out the different sizes. I did not want to put all of the large carrots on either the top or bottom or be heavily focused on one side or the other.

To create the carrot shape, I simply started with a couple carrots and used the long wire stems to twist them together. I staggered their lengths so that no carrot tops were evenly lined up. As I grabbed a carrot, I twisted it’s stem on to the main stem bundle. I continued to add carrots until I had used them all.

Next I need to assemble the carrot top.

Starting to gather the carrots together to make a bigger carrot.
Twisting the carrot stems together.

Carrot Top

To make the carrot top, I dug through my tote labeled spring greenery. What I found were some stems that I thought would make a great carrot top! I’m thinking I had picked these up at Walmart at one point. I also had some random long pieces that looked like grass. I grabbed those too!

With my greenery in hand, I laid things out to see what it would look like. I ended up using 3 of the greenery stems. Two of them I bent and placed them to the right and left of the stem I didn’t bend. I also took a stem of grasses and placed it with the center, unbent, stem. Next, I removed the tips of some of the greenery stems and slid on some long grass scraps I had. Sometimes I would add one piece of grass and sometimes I would add two. Then I put the original greenery back on that stem.

Removing a tip from a stem of greenery
Adding some grass pieces to the greenery stems.
Threading the grass pieces onto the greenery stem
Putting the grass pieces onto the greenery stem.

Bow

Remember how I don’t like to buy things for projects? Well, I couldn’t find anything for a bow! The carrot definitely needed something! My stash of burlap ribbon was gone. I did have some ticking, but it didn’t match the carrot door hanger. There was some twine, but it was too thin and small. What I did find however was some raffia! There wasn’t a lot of it, but I made it work.

The burlap ribbon, maybe green or orange ribbon, even longer pieces of raffia to make a better bow would make a great fit for this project.

I just used the raffia I had and tied a bow like I tie my shoes. Then I tied it onto my carrot!

Up close of raffia
Raffia bow
Upclose of door hanger on the door

Finishing Touches

Now, if I was a serious crafter, I would use glue and or floral tape to secure everything I have done so far. However, I am not a serious crafter so I did not heavily secure anything so that I can dismantle it later if I want to use the pieces in a different way. I know, I’m weird like that!

Floral tape and wire

Hanging the DIY Carrot Door Hanger

DIY carrot door hanger hanging on the door.

After I painted our new front door black, I added a command strip under the window so I could hang seasonal decor. It ended up being just the right height for our new DIY carrot door hanger! I think it looks sharp against the dark door! I also have had it laying flat on our island and it looks pretty good like that too!

Don’t Forget to Pin It!

Pin it!  Up close of me holding the carrot door hanger

This post may contain affiliate links for the products I use and recommend. I am not paid to promote these products. If you purchase using my affiliate links, I could make a small commission at no charge to you.

6 thoughts on “DIY Carrot Door Hanger”

  1. WOW! I love this carrot arrangement. I too buy my wreaths at thrift shops or yard sales. I also keep the pieces of the decoration on without super gluing everything altogether.
    Your photos and easy instructions on were wonderful for me to follow.
    Have a wonderful Spring and Summer and I hope to see more of your inventive ideas on this site.

    1. Thank you Cathy!! Yes, I love to reuse things! Our tastes are always changing and that way we can still use pieces in our decor! Plus a lot of times things sell better for me once I break down a piece! Happy creating!

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