Botanic Bleu: Refresh Boxwoods for Christmas

Preserved boxwoods can be refreshed by painting them white or gold to give them French Country style for Christmas.

Refresh Boxwoods for Christmas for French Country Style

I love preserved green boxwood wreaths, topiaries, bouquets, and balls, but I like to use other colors for Christmas instead of traditional red and green. White, gold, silver, and blue are my favorite colors for Christmas so decorations will blend with the everyday colors in my home.

Green boxwood is almost a neutral because it goes well with all colors, but this Christmas I took a leap and painted preserved boxwood. I was not sure how the boxwood would look, but after liking how the first painted boxwood turned out, I updated three more preserved boxwoods with paint.

See how I changed FOUR preserved boxwoods to white and gold . . . just in time for Christmas decorating.

R E F R E S H B O X W O O D S F O R C H R I S T M A S

french country style

① Boxwood Bouquet

All four of the freshly painted preserved boxwoods fit with French Country style very well. The twig base of the boxwood bouquet looks right at home with French Country styles of distressed, rustic, and natural wood.

The first step was to wrap a plastic grocery bag around the twig base and to secure it tightly with a large rubber band.

If you want to spray paint preserved boxwood, look for a spray paint that can be used on a variety of surfaces. I used Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch in Heirloom White, Satin finish. It bonds to wood, plastic, metal, and more.

After letting the first coat of Heirloom White dry, I sprayed a second coat of Heirloom White.

You can see that the plastic grocery bag did not cover all of the twig base, and some of the white paint got on the twigs.

I am considering white-washing the twig base and green twine, then applying some Rub 'n Buff gold to the twine.

After the second coat of Heirloom White dried, I lightly misted the surface of the boxwood bouquet with Rust-Oleum Metallic Gold spray paint.

To keep from covering the entire boxwood with gold paint, I held the boxwood at an arm's length, began spraying the gold paint off to one side, then moved the misting gold spray over the white boxwood.

Distance and a controlled paint mist keep from covering the entire white paint with gold paint. Practice on another object before overspraying the gold onto the white boxwood. You will be able to gauge how much pressure to apply to the paint can's nozzle to get the fine mist you want.

If you get too much gold on the boxwood, you can always let it dry, and repaint the boxwood white before trying again to get a fine misted gold overspray.

② Small Boxwood Ball

Refresh Boxwoods for Christmas for French Country Style with gold metallic paint

For the small boxwood ball in the cement pot, I covered the bottom portion of the pot, but left the pot's rim uncovered. I spray painted the boxwood and pot rim with Rust-Oleum Metallic Gold, but with only one coat.

From a distance the small ball looks entirely gold, but on close inspection, some of the original green peeks through.

The cement pot is another French Country style element.

Both original preserved green boxwood balls and gold-painted boxwood balls go with soft pastel Christmas colors.

③ Small Boxwood Wreath

Refresh Boxwood Wreath for Christmas for French Country Style with gold metallic paint

The small preserved boxwood green wreath looked good around the vintage blue seltzer bottle. However, this bottle and its wreath sit in the kitchen sunspace and get many hours of sunlight for many days each year.

Fort Worth, Texas gets an average of 229 sunny days per year. The average number of sunny days for the United States is 209.

Instructions for taking care of preserved boxwood state NOT to display preserved boxwood in direct sunlight for prolonged periods of time. Since this wreath was exposed to so much sunlight, the leaves were starting to lose their green color.

I spray painted the small wreath with Rust-Oleum Metallic Gold spray paint. The second coat of gold paint PER SIDE was sprayed the opposite direction from the first coat to cover both sides of the leaves.

The first coat of paint goes on one side of the wreath. After the wreath dries, flip the wreath over to paint the other side. All-in-all, it took four coats of paint (2 coats in opposite directions per side) to cover all the surfaces. With such a small wreath, it did not take long to paint it completely.

We will see how the boxwood wreath fares in the sunshine with its gold paint. I am optimistic the gold paint will help the wreath last longer than it would have lasted without the paint.

Yes, that is a red metal NOEL. Sometimes a little red does find its way into my Christmas decorations.

The blue seltzer bottle came from a Paris flea market the last time I visited France. The little red NOEL is perfectly at home around its spigot.

④ Large Boxwood Wreath

Refresh Boxwood Wreath for Christmas for French Country Style with white spray paint

After seeing the results of the three smaller boxwood paint jobs, I was brave enough to paint a large boxwood wreath with Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch Heirloom White, Satin finish.

The white color toned down the deep green of the wreath, but by only spraying a couple of coats of paint, the wreath still has a faint green tone.

The white wreath goes well with the white china cabinet and the blue and white dishes inside.

The wreath also goes well with the unfinished antique pine mirror and the rustic pale gray demilune buffet cabinet.

The pale greenish white painted boxwood wreath complemented the frosted artificial greenery on the buffet and the pale green diamond patterned porcelain Christmas tree.

P.S. The wreath, mirror, crystal glitter trees, and the pale green diamond patterned porcelain tree all found new homes during this year's French Country Christmas Event.