02/08 DIY / Seasonal/Holiday

DIY Rose Petal Garland Backdrop

Inspired by our own Valentine’s Day tradition of making a nice dinner at home, I wanted to do a simple decor DIY to help make the casual setting at home more special without breaking my back over it.  This rose petal garland backdrop is so so easy to do and took way less time than I anticipated, and the results are pretty cute.  You could even replace the petals with any flower heads, but I kept to the V Day classic and the bonus is that it smells REALLY good.  PS.  Galentine’s Day celebrators, this would make an excellent backdrop for your girly party.  

The most enjoyable part is de-petaling the roses because you get surrounded in a cloud of rose smells while touching (and yes go ahead and rub your hands around) the soft petals.  I de-petaled 6 roses and it was way too much, especially when I decided after that I wanted the garlands to be more sparse.  I’d estimate that I ended up using 3 roses worth of petals, though my roses were huge, so let’s say 4 roses.

To start the backdrop, I double knotted rows of string around a wood dowel.  Luckily I can suspend my dowel between the two windows in our dining room, but alternatively I would have used temporary adhesive wall hooks, one on each side of the dowel.

I used a needle to string on the petals, piercing them near the base of each petal.  I started off by piercing on multiple petals at a time, but I’d recommend doing it one at a time.  You want to reduce how much you’re moving the petals up and down the string so that the hole doesn’t enlarge and prevent the petal from staying in place, which doing multiple at a time requires multiple adjustments once they’re on the string so don’t do that.

As I mentioned before, it really doesn’t take a lot of time doing it one by one when making the garlands sparse like I did and it makes it easier to place each petal exactly where you want it.  I’d also recommend ending each garland with a petal and knotting the string before cutting off the excess.

Play around with spacing and groupings of petals, and for sure try mixing up the colors if that’s in your heart.  Pink has become a major thing for me that I can’t stop with, but once I completed this I wished I had done it in red.  I think that would be really beautiful and bold!

The bad news: this only lasts a day before the petals shrivel up.  The good news still is that it didn’t take a lot of time to do and it’s worth it, I promise.

24 comments on “DIY Rose Petal Garland Backdrop”

      1. I’m trying to do this for my wedding decorations but I will need a lot! I’m thinking about doing them myself with the help of my friends but I am afraid they won’t look as pretty if done the day before!

        1. Hi Saku,
          These definitely need to be done the day of to look their best. I would only attempt it if I enlisted a lot of other people’s help or hired someone- it’s too much for you to do/think of on the day of the wedding. Another option is to use faux rose petals, that way you can work on putting them together over time.

  1. Oh, what a cute little idea! Now I can finally put the 100,000 faux silk rose petals from our wedding to good use, ha!

    I don’t know how I haven’t thought of this earlier – I recently made a similar garland for a baby shower with a “tea party” theme – except instead of rose petals I tied miniature teacups on a string. Love how something so simple as some string and a dowel can elevate an event to a whole other level!

    1. I like that, also like an alternative to having balloons floating around the bedroom OO attach these petals onto balloon strings?? Many options for how this can go.

  2. Lovely!!!!

    I would use fake pedals for the dollar store and add a rose scent to them. I just used a bunch of rose pedals last week for a romantic day with my love.

  3. This is fabulous and I think I would like to try with fall leaves, perhaps faux if the real crack to easily. Worth a try. Love this!

  4. That is a really great idea, i have this big empty frame I am trying to decide what to do with, i might see if i can make one of these with fake petals to hang inside it for a more long term thing. :)
    still have to decide what colour to paint the frame and what petals to use though!

  5. Very Pretty -Indeed!!! Although I Love The Smell Of Real Roses (Yellow Are My Favorite), I Think I Would Had Used Silk Rose Petals. You Could Make This In Every Room To Match The Decor in Every Room…Esp. The Bedroom. Thank You So Kindly For Your Idea…I Just Love It. I Truly Will Be Making Some Of These To Brighten My Day And Rooms…THANK YOU AGAIN!!! 😊 💚

  6. Can you or have you used silk petals for and is it the same concept? Do you only put a knot at the end of the string?

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