Farmhouse Cranberry Floating Candle Centerpiece
This cranberry floating candle centerpiece is a simple, inexpensive way to light up a special winter night. It’s my go-to winter candle centerpiece in your farmhouse.
Whether you live in the north, south, east, or west, the winter months in the U.S.A. are marked by early sunsets. It’s only natural to turn to something as simple as candlelight to brighten the winter nights.
Adding a little candlelight to our rooms in the winter months can lift our spirits and enliven the remainder of the day. Whether you’re curling up with a book alone, playing board games with your family, putting a record on, or enjoying dinner together – why not enjoy it more with the warm glow of candles?
Who doesn’t want to have dinner by candlelight?
This cranberry floating candle centerpiece is downright simple to make but elegant enough for a dinner party. Beautiful and welcoming on a crisp winter night, floating candles are easy and inexpensive.
That’s what I love about floating candles! In the summertime, I make an outdoor floating candle with citrus slices and fresh herbs from the garden that’s quite effective at repelling insects on the farm. And during the spring, I’m all about picking wildflowers to display in floating candle centerpieces.
Regardless of the season, a floating candle DIY is quick and easy to pull together. And I’ll show you how!
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What do you fill floating candles with?
I love how a floating candle can fill a spot in my farmhouse decor or create a stunning candle centerpiece. But it’s not just about a candle that floats on water. What you fill floating candles with can add beauty to your home and an instantly elevated atmosphere.
When choosing what to fill floating candles with, I think about these two things:
1. Where Am I Placing The Floating Candle Centerpiece
- If you’re placing it on your fireplace mantel, you’ll want to fill it with long items that will fill the space. Fall leaves on the stem, flowering branches, eucalyptus stems, and long rosemary stems from your herb garden will look visually pleasing at this eye level.
- Or, if you’re making a candle centerpiece for your dining table, you could add small objects with a bright color, such as cranberries, or with a unique shape, such as star anise.
2. What Is In Season
- Use the current season to help you select items with which to fill a floating candle centerpiece. Lemons and fresh flowers are great for spring. Whereas oranges, cinnamon sticks, and cranberries are fitting for winter.
When you take each of these into account, you’ll be able to customize floating candle centerpieces easily. It’s perfectly O.K. to use what you have on hand too.
Related To: Decorating With Cinnamon Sticks
How does a floating candle work?
When a floating candle is placed into water, it displaces more water than its weight. And the round shape of these floating candles helps them float evenly. But not all candles float!
How do you get candles to float in water?
The easiest way to make candles float is to place a tea light in a clear glass floating candle holder. I found these candle holders solve several issues many of us have had with floating candles.
Or you follow the steps below to make floating candles from scratch!
Related To: Votive Candle Holder Ideas
Making Floating Candles From Scratch
I absolutely love making candles, coffee mug candles, wax melts, and sugar mold candles; you name it, I’ve probably made it! And I have to say, learning how to make floating candles from scratch was pretty incredible.
I got the idea when I ordered this silicone mold to make hot cocoa bombs. I knew it would make the perfect floating candles!
Candle Supplies You’ll Need:
- 1 half-dome silicone mold
- 1 digital kitchen scale
- 1 candle thermometer
- 6 centering devices
- 1 candle melting pitcher
- 1 pound soy candle wax
- 6 cotton wicks
- 6 glue dots
DIY Floating Candle Instructions
1. Measure Wax
Use a kitchen scale to measure 1 pound of soy wax flakes to make six floating candles.
2. Melt Wax
Pour your measured soy wax into a candle melting pitcher to safely melt the wax. Place the pitcher filled with wax inside a large saucepan with 2 inches of water inside it. Use the double boiler method to heat on medium to low heat up to 160 degrees.
Clip a candle thermometer or use an easy infrared thermometer to monitor the temperature instead. Stir often with a heat-resistant silicone whisk or spatula.
3. Cool & Pour Wax
Immediately remove the pitcher from the heat once the wax is melted. Monitor the temperature of the wax. For the wax we used, once it lowers to 115 degrees, it’s ready to pour. Slowly fill each dome of the silicone mold and place an optional centering device over each wick to help keep them in place during the curing process.
4. Cure & Trim Wicks
Because these floating candles are unscented, we only need to wait 24 hours before using one. Just make sure to trim the candle wick to ¼ of an inch and remove the centering devices.
How To Create A Cranberry Floating Candle Centerpiece
Now that you’ve got your DIY floating candles ready, it’s time to make the centerpiece. And the best part is that this step takes less than five minutes!
Centerpiece Instructions:
1. Choose A Container: Choose a clear container large enough to float at least one candle. I actually reused a candle container that was a three-wick candle!
2. Fill The Container: Pour water into the container about three-fourths full. Because cranberries are so light and float to the water’s top, we can add them after pouring the water.
Did you know -that you can freeze fresh cranberries you don’t use for another occasion?
3. Add A Floating Candle: For this step, you can make your own with the steps above or use a floating candle hack if you have extra tea light candles.
Don’t you just love the fact that floating candle centerpieces take just a few minutes to put together? And they are much more affordable than floral arrangements or store-bought candle displays.
More Farmhouse Projects:
- Kitchen Pantry Storage Tips
- Americana DIY Wax Melt Stars
- Shadow Box DIY Fall Craft
- Fall Floating Candle Centerpiece
- Farmhouse Pantry Makeover
Pin these easy techniques to make a cranberry floating candle centerpiece and tag #farmhousechicliving on Instagram to share your DIYs with us.
