5 ways to create easy, budget-friendly fall decor.

5 easy, budget-friendly fall decor tips…

There’s a difference between decorating, and holiday decorating.

I adore decorating in that over-arching way of “making a house a home”.

But there’s a whole nother sub-set of decorating. Holiday decorating. Seasonal decorating. Tablescaping, if you will…and yes, that’s a thing. These kinds of decorating I do not consider myself at one with.

I’m not a seasoned-seasonal decorator if you will. I’m a hack.

But I do love a good hack. And if you’re a fan of things that are perfectly imperfect, faking it til you’re making it, and time and money saving hacks, then WELCOME to my fall home tour.

If you came here for the first time from Matt and Jacque’s site, The DIY Village, welcome!! So glad to have you here in our little corner of the www.

And if you’re following our fab little fall tour, you’ve GOT to head over to see Diane’s house at In My Own Style! She is wonderful, and so is her blog.

These are the other bloggers who are joining in today:

Pretty Handy Girl

Addicted 2 DIY

In My Own Style

Jennifer Rizzo

One Project Closer

Ugly Duckling House

I’m SUPER glad you’re here. If you’re more a fan of perfectly curated, manicured, unattainable for regular humans-type seasonal decorating…well, then get ready to have some laughs at my expense.

If I can paraphrase Sheryl Crow:

“this ain’t no Town and Country issue, and it ain’t no Architectural Digest, either. This is The Heathered Nest. And all I wanna do is have some fun…”

So let’s get to it.

And while we’re touring, I’m going to share with you some tips I’ve learned that have made seasonal decorating a bit less daunting.

And this “inspiration” used to give me chronic “perspiration” followed by a bit of “desperation”. Because all that online prettiness and perfection-ness just makes it look TOO HARD to get that most lovely of fall home looks. Are you with me?

Let’s talk:

5 sure-fire ways to create beautiful fall decor in a little time, with littler money.

You’ve been walking around our family room here at the start of this fall tour. I know that typically, we’d start at the front door. But we’re informal here, so I just let you climb on in through the family room window 😉

You may have noticed we like a lot of color. And pattern. And things are no less colorful or patterned here in the fall.

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You may also be noticing that the fall accents in here are subtle.

And I kind of love that, and would highly suggest becoming a fan of “subtle” fall decor in your own home, if you’re one who struggles with seasonal decorating. In fact, that’s my first tip:

1. Less is DEFINITELY more. Embrace “subtle”.

Honestly, LESS IS MORE. I know that’s difficult to really digest. Especially if you’re a big LOVER of the fall, like I most certainly am.

I love ALLLL the gourds, the pumpkins, the pumpkin spice, the apples, the cinnamon candles, the autumn leaves…the entire turkey dinnerware collection with the fall table runner and autumn candlesticks etc. etc. etc.

Trust me, I KNOW the struggle to pare it down, scale it back.

The need to curate the pumpkin paraphernalia…it’s hard, but it feels SO much better to have LESS of it. Less to pack, less to store, less to unpack, less to dust, less to buy and pay off on the ‘ol plastic.

That brings us to the foyer, and our next fall decor tip…

2. Use what you’ve got. And nothing more.

Let’s not make seasonal decorating more difficult than it needs to be. I’m gonna guess that if you took a look around the dark corners of that never-looked-in-closet, or the recesses of that basement storage nook, you’ll find some gems.

Did you happen to notice that blue and white enamelware in our family room that are hosting some hydrangeas right now? Those were given to me by my grandmother.

The bottles you see atop our console table here in the foyer? Those are antiques that have been in our family for years.

I changed out some throw pillows and throw blankets to lend themselves to a more seasonal look, and voila. DONE…without one trip to Michaels. Or Homegoods.

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If it’s hard for you to look at your own stuff in a new light, then have a couple friends over for wine one night, and dig through those boxes of vase fillers and dishes collecting dust in your buffet.

Having some new eyes looking at your old stuff will help you see them in new ways. Plus, it’s another excuse to have friends over for wine.

Here we are in our dining room, and if you look at our buffet, you can see a painting hanging over it.

Usually, that painting lives in my guest room, but for fall, I felt like it wanted to live in the dining room for a while. Similarly, the mirror sitting in our foyer right now usually lives in this space.

Move stuff around. Just changing the space an element like a piece of art lives in can make your home seem fresher and more seasonally savvy.

3. Bring in nature for your fall decor. 

This is my favorite fall decor tip.

And that’s for two reasons. One, when I think of autumn, the first thing that comes to mind is the color. The changing leaves. The pumpkins, apples…all those natural elements!

So what better way to decorate for fall than to bring those elements into our spaces?

AND, the second reason I LOVE this tip? It can be sooooo inexpensive if you’re creative! Or even if you’re NOT creative, really.

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Get some scissors. Or gardening shears if you’re fancy. And visit your yard.

Don’t have a yard? Visit your neighbor’s yard…with permission…or in the dead of night if you don’t have permission (just kidding). Neighbors don’t have a yard? Head to your mom’s house.

FIND SOME NATURE, folks. And then grab it, and bring it inside.

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And don’t be shy! I clip big ol branches (not too many, obvi…we don’t want to hurt our lovely trees). I snip the last hydrangea blooms of the season.

Preserve some fall leaves, like the ones you see in our son’s rooms above and below.

I honestly believe if you followed this one tip, and no others, you would pretty quickly fall in love with your own fall home.

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4. Do NOT get too Homegoods happy.

Listen, I love me some Homegoods as much as the next gal. Maybe even more. Some have their zen time at yoga class. For me, it’s wandering the aisles, zoning out at the loveliness in Homegoods. BUT, we must know when to say when.

So PUT DOWN those pumpkin placemats, sister! We do not need more pumpkin in our home (see tip #1).

If you’re going to buy something, make sure it’s an item that REALLY speaks to you. It’s gotta be something you don’t already have something else that it’s similar to.

It should be useful (I know, that’s such a buzzkill to us ladies and gentleman who prefer form over function).

Ideally, you should LEAVE it there, and sleep on it…

Then, if you find yourself dreaming of pumpkin placemats, then maybe it’s ok to purchase. Otherwise, let’s proceed to decorate sans the placemats, ok?

If you see something that’s super cute and festive that you like, why not try making it yourself? So many seasonal decor items are fun projects for crafting, anyhow.

And many times, you can make it for so much less than you would buy it for.

This little pom pom pumpkin in our daughter’s room is one of my favorite seasonal crafts we’ve tackled! We had so much fun making it together, too…much more fun than plopping a random pumpkin statuette into a shopping cart.

If you want the tutorial on the pom pom pumpkin, check it out HERE.

5. If you have one seasonal element in half of the rooms in your home, consider it fall decor win.

Let’s not be too hard on ourselves. This shouldn’t be stressful. AT ALL. This process should be fun. No pressure.

So here’s what I tell myself. If I have one seasonal element…be it a branch, some fall flowers, some gourds, a tartan blanket, I consider that room considered. It’s done. And that is THAT. Period.

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I hope that these 5 little fall decor ideas give you somewhat of a space to exhale. We should enjoy the seasons, and embrace them at home without allowing ourselves to get stressed by the process.

Welcome autumn! We’ve got the fall decor and fuzzy sweaters ready for you!

Pin these fall decor ideas for later!