Giant Christmas bow decor ideas take the bow from a gift and make it big enough to wrap a house. One bow over a door or a window does most of the work.
These 14 bows hang in real homes, from a 7-foot bow on a gable to a pillow bow on a white wall. Each maker says what hers is made of, and most say how she hung it.
1. A Sage Chicken Wire Bow Over An Upstairs Window
Size: 4 feet wide by 7 feet tall
Materials: Chicken wire, 8 yards of 54-inch fabric, hot glue and floral wire
Hanging: Seven cup hooks screwed into the siding
Difficulty: Intermediate, with a ladder and a drill
Ashley’s sage-green bow wraps around the upstairs gable window of her white house, and the long tails run down past the pink shutters.
Chicken wire inside the fabric gives it shape. The loops come from one 9-foot piece of wire folded in two. The tails are two 6-foot pieces inside 7-foot fabric strips, cut into a V. Extra wire around each loop holds it in place outside.
2. A Hot Pink Fabric Bow That Frames The Whole Porch
Size: Cut to the width of the spot on her porch
Materials: Chicken wire, canvas decorator fabric at $2 a yard, hot glue and duct tape
Hanging: One cup hook in the middle, tails nailed to the side posts
Weather: Up for two months through wind and snow
This hot pink bow spans the gable of a red brick porch, and its tails run down both sides of a blue front door. The fabric came off a discontinued rack.
The loop strip is cut about twice the finished width, so a 5-foot bow needs about 10 feet. Her first tails, with only floral wire along the edges, were too flimsy outside. Chicken wire on the backs fixed it.
3. A 60-Inch Red Velvet Bow Over A Brick Entry
Size: 60 inches tall
Materials: A bought outdoor velvet bow that bends into shape, with wire to hang it
Hanging: Eye hooks drilled into the brick
Difficulty: Beginner, apart from drilling into brick
This white brick house has one big red velvet bow over the arched entry and garland around the double doors. The bow is the same one as last year. The eye hooks stay in the brick, so it goes straight back up.
Matching 48-inch wreaths fill the big windows, each with its own red bow, on suction cup hooks rated to 22 pounds.
4. One Red Velvet Bow On A Black Front Door
Size: 42 inches tall by 36 inches wide, also sold at 24 by 20 inches
Cost: $140
Materials: Padded, wired velvet, made for indoors and outdoors and UV-resistant
Hanging: Alone on the front door, with no wreath
A single deep red bow over the glass panel of a black door is the whole look. Kendra’s sizing rule works for any bow: 18 to 24 inches reads as big on a standard door or wreath, and 30 inches or more suits porch columns, lampposts or a garage door.
Her photos show the same bow indoors too, over a stair landing and on a cabinet. The post is sponsored.
5. Red And Gold Metallic Bows On Double Doors
Materials: Oly-Fun metallic fabric in red and gold, chenille stems, twine and staples
Size: Loops about 2 yards long and 15 inches wide
Difficulty: Beginner, no sewing
Each of these black wrought-iron and glass doors gets its own red and gold bow with long striped tails. Oly-Fun is a light, durable fabric.
Three loops, two red and one gold, fold to the middle and are held with chenille stems. A yard of twine ties them together and makes the hanging loop. The tails have a 3-inch gold band and a V-cut end.
6. A Gift-Wrapped Front Door In Five Minutes
Time: About 5 minutes
Materials: Wide gold mesh ribbon (two spools) and a red polka dot velvet bow, bought ready-made
Difficulty: Beginner, no bow tying
This blue door looks like a wrapped present. With the door open, the ribbon slides under it and wraps top to bottom and side to side. The two strips knot where the bow will sit, and the bow’s own wire twists around the knot.
She set hers around the peephole. Nobody has to tie a bow at all.
7. Stiff Gingham Bows On Twin Wreaths
Materials: Red and white gingham, medium-weight iron-on interfacing and fabric glue
Size: 11¼-inch-wide strips, 37 inches long for the loop and 49 inches for the tails
Difficulty: Sewing machine or hand stitching, plus an iron
Two white wreaths on wooden double doors each wear a big red and white gingham bow, with a frosted potted tree in front.
The interfacing slides inside the sewn fabric and is ironed in place, so the bows stay stiff all season. A small 4½ by 7-inch piece wraps the center, and the tails end in triangles sealed with fabric glue.
8. A Stuffed Toile Bow Over The Mantel Mirror
Size: Made for a 5-foot mirror on a mantel 6 feet wide
Materials: 2 yards of red toile, plain red fabric for the back, cotton stuffing and pipe cleaners
Hanging: Tucked behind the heavy mirror, with no knot
Difficulty: Some sewing
The red toile bow spreads across the top of a gold mirror on a stone fireplace wall. The back piece is cut 4 inches wider and 12 inches longer, so the tails reach the mantel.
Each half is sewn like a Santa sack and stuffed, and she shaped it as she went. Her first no-sew try could not hold its own weight.
9. No-Sew Striped Bows On A Fireplace
Size: Top 45 by 50 cm, middle 27 by 10 cm, tails 110 by 23 cm
Materials: Thick fabric, a glue gun and string
Difficulty: Beginner, no sewing
Two red and cream striped bows hang on the front of a cream fireplace surround, below a mantel of candles and gingerbread houses.
The pieces are hemmed and joined with hot glue, then pinched in the middle with string, which also hangs the bow. Upholstery fabric, velvet or a waxy-backed fabric holds its shape. Thin fabric needs wadding or a stiffener spray.
10. Giant Bows Made From An Old Pillow
Materials: An old pillow, a pillowcase and the matching flat sheet
Size: Tails from a sheet strip about 160 by 50 cm
Hanging: A small hanger hot glued on the back
Difficulty: Beginner, with hot glue or a sewing machine
Geneva’s red, cream and blush pink bows are soft and round, almost like cushions, on a white panelled wall.
The pillow goes inside its case, which is glued or sewn shut and tied tight in the middle with two strips of sheet. She took some stuffing out first so the bow was less puffy. She suggests a front door, a mantel or a tree.
11. A £15 Striped Bow Over A Hallway Arch
Cost: £15 for one Ikea Vargtorel fabric panel
Materials: Fabric glue, leftover ribbon, staples and stuffing
Hanging: Ribbon from a hook behind the fretwork, drawing pins for the edges and tape for the tail
Difficulty: Beginner, no sewing
This black and white striped bow hangs at the top of a blue fretwork arch in a long hallway. It copies a sold-out £76 Anthropologie bow.
A 150 cm length is folded, glued, pinched into a fan and tied. The second piece wraps it and makes the tails. She stuffed it with brown tissue paper, though bubble wrap or plastic bags work too.
12. A Gold Ribbon Bow At The Foot Of The Stairs
Materials: Woven gold ribbon, chenille stems and a stapler
Garland: Two pine and berry garlands and one eucalyptus garland
Extras: Battery string lights and gold bells on twine
Difficulty: Beginner
One large gold bow sits at the newel post of these dark wood stairs, where the garland of pine, eucalyptus and white berries ends. A chenille stem holds it on.
A ribbon loop covers the wires, and the cut ribbon ends are stapled and tucked under the rail. Gold bells hang on twine at different lengths.
See the idea: How To Decorate a Stairway for Christmas by Kippi at Home
13. Red Velvet Bows Tied Up The Stair Rail
Materials: Velvet bows cut from clearance bow garlands
Cost: Four packs bought after Christmas
Hanging: Tied straight onto the stair rail
Difficulty: Beginner, and very quick
There is no garland on this white staircase this year, just big red velvet bows tied up the black rail. The bows came off clearance bow garlands. The rope ran through the back of each one, so she tied them straight on.
A family photo wall, a nutcracker and a red scalloped rug finish the entry.
14. Fluffy Wired Ribbon Bows In A Stair Garland
Materials: Wired ribbon (about 30 yards for all her bows), floral wire, pipe cleaners or small zip ties
Size: One piece about 65 inches long and one 2-foot piece per bow
Hanging: The leftover wire on the back ties into the garland
Difficulty: Beginner
Big red bows sit along the lit garland on both rails of a white two-story staircase.
The two ribbon pieces are laid flat, layered, scrunched and wired in the middle. More layers make a bigger bow. The wire in the ribbon is what keeps the loops full, and the tails are folded and cut into a V.
