How to Make Anthropologie Flowers – DIY

How to Make Anthropologie Flowers – DIY

PRETTYFUL!!!!! DIY Project just in time for Spring!

One of my favorite things to do is walk into Anthropologie (scope out the sale room) and oh yeah, admire their exquisite decor! It’s a museum of artistic inspiration. After snapping secret cell phone pics of these stunning water bottle flower arrangements, I was just dying to make some myself.

Here’s a tutorial on how to create these GORGEOUS flowers for your own home – it brightened up my living room and I can’t stop looking at them!!! Just finished the project yesterday and am officially obsessed.

1. Collect tons and tons of plastic water bottles. The more shapes the better. Wash, then peel the labels off. You may need some Goo Gone.

2. Take a serrated knife and cut the bottoms of the bottles off. Use a sawing motion when you cut for a smoother cut.

3. Next, grab some heavy duty scissors and cut down the bottle from the newly-cut end to the bottle cap end. You may variate your edges and lengths however you like. Curved petals, pointy petals, rounded edges – whatever you want! Prepare for some hand-aching. Cutting through plastic is NO fun. Then bend the separated panels back. Voila! A flower!

4. Go to your local arts ‘n crafts store and pick up a nice palette of spray paint bottles. Remember to get paint that can stick to plastic! A lot of brands cannot. I recommend “ColorPlace” from WalMart and “ValSpar” from Michaels. Both brands had a very even spray (extremely important for even color) and dried quickly. The Krylons pictured above leaked and left me very frustrated. Stay away.

5. Next, line the floor with lots and lots of newspaper and prepare for some graffiti magic. Wear plastic gloves and old clothes for protection! Then give your can a little shake. My technique evolved as I sprayed flower after flower after flower. I started spraying the “back” of the flower first (bottle cap facing up), letting it air dry, then flipping it over and spraying the inside (bottle cap facing down). It is not actually necessary to paint both sides. Save paint. You can just do the inside since the bottles are see-through.

6. I also painted the bottle bottoms that I originally cut off in the beginning. Since these guys have no holes in them for hanging, I had to pierce some in them myself. Take a metal paper clip, heat the end with low fire from your stove, and wait for it to turn bright orange. When the end is hot enough, make 2 holes in the bottle bottom, opposite sides from each other.

7. “Sphhhhhhhhhh.” The sound of melting holes in plastic. Very fun.

8. Place bottle bottoms on top some of your flowers with floral wire – you can get this at Michaels. I used a gold colored wire that was thin enough for me to bend and twist with my fingers. Then the fun begins! Arrange however you’d like! I bought some bamboo sticks and wired the flowers right onto them. If you find that you can’t wire the flowers tight enough, here’s a little trick. Take a thick rubber band, cut in 1/2, and tie the band onto the stick. Double knot. Then loop one end of the wire through the rubber band. Now twist wires together to tighten. The stickiness of the rubber band helps keep the weight of the flower in place.

9. There it is! I love it I love it I love it! I can’t stop looking! My version of the Anthropologie flowers.

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  1. Soclikes says:

    These flowers are pretty. And it is the good way to use plastic bottles! Great!

  2. celina says:

    wow, thats beautiful, might try this someday. A work of recycled art! 🙂

  3. Savanna says:

    very pretty!