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25 Acorn Crafts for Adults: Explore the Magic of DIY Wreaths and Garlands

Celebrate the season with acorn crafts for adults. Create enchanting wreaths and garlands that bring the beauty of nature right to your home.


On my daily strolls, I’m greeted by the sight of acorn trees. As the days shorten and Autumn’s crisp breath touches everything, the ground becomes a tapestry of discarded acorn caps left behind by squirrels that devoured their nutty goodness. These discarded caps, however, find a new purpose in my home: as material for felt acorns. They are splendid elements in my acorn wreaths and become charming gift toppers.

The sheer number of acorns this year is staggering, and if folklore holds, this signals a harsh winter ahead!

But let’s not forget the legendary Thor, the Norse god of thunder, who found shelter from a thunderstorm under an oak tree. This story has given birth to a charming tradition: having an acorn on the windowsill is believed to shield a house from lightning strikes. This belief might explain why acorn-decorated window blinds have become rather popular!

Acorns truly are the quintessence of Autumn. Their petite, whimsical appearance instantly conjures up images of cosy fall evenings. So without further ado, let’s dive into a collection of my favourite adult acorn crafts, including enchanting wreaths, garlands, and more.

Raw acorns for painting

Hopefully, you will find something to inspire you for your fall crafting. Just make sure you gather the acorns before the squirrels nab them all. However, it’s not just the squirrels that eat them; some birds and other small mammals like them too.

Preparing Acorns For Crafting

Some crafts below use acorn nuts and caps, whereas others use just the caps.

After gathering the acorn nuts and caps before crafting, I recommend washing them in warm water and leaving them dry.

Don’t worry if the caps come away from the nuts. They can easily be reattached with a bit of glue.

If you craft with the actual acorn nut, I recommend one more preparation stage before crafting.

Acorn nuts often have little mites inside them, and you don’t want these crawling out of your perfect acorn wreaths. To get rid of these tiny insects that live inside the nut, I suggest roasting them in a low oven for about 20 mins.

Roasting the acorns like this also produces a nice, even colour, making the acorn crafts look even better.

the best acorn wreaths, garlands and crafts

Creative Ideas For Fall Acorn Wreaths, Garlands and Crafts

Here I have collected the best acorn crafting ideas from my blogging friends. Acorns are a cute, fun natural resource to craft with and are a great addition to any fall decor.

An excellent collection of vintage acorn and oak tree botanical leaf illustrations would also make lovely fall wall decor.

As well as cute acorns, I gather pine cones and craft with them. I’ve made pine cone flower hearts for Valentine’s and pine cone tiles for Christmas. Avocado pits are another great natural resource to craft with.

This post is featured under A for acorns on the A to Z list of upcycling ideas.

Michelle Leslie

Friday 23rd of October 2020

I sure hope the one lonely oak tree I've managed to find in our area has enough acorns to try some of these out :D and thank goodness we don't have any squirrels to compete with either.

Claire Armstrong

Saturday 24th of October 2020

Thank you, Michelle. I’ve only been to South Africa once and that was to Cape Town when I was a very young child we arrived by ship from Hong Kong on our way to England. All I can remember about South Africa was actually feeding the squirrels in the park.