Fall Decorating Tips

As I mentioned last week when I shared my painted burlap fall décor, I love to decorate for fall. I think I love it more than Christmas – but only the decorating part. Christmas is still my favorite holiday for this time of the year. (Easter being my favorite for the other half of the year.) One thing I like about fall décor is that it can stay up for a long period of time. That means I don’t feel so bad about having as much of it as I do. ;)

I want to share three tips for fall decorating to help get you started or to add to your collection. These ideas apply to most seasonal decorating as well.

Tip #1: Getting Deals

Michael’s and Hobby Lobby start running cycles of sales on their seasonal merchandise from the time they put it out on the shelves. You can use their coupons if the items are not on sale that week. Both stores take coupons from your phone and both stores have excellent, easy-to-use apps so you can pull up whatever coupons they have out that week in just a few clicks. Michael's takes different forms of coupons with each sale too such as their printed receipt coupon they give with almost every sale and either a printed one or one on your phone (meaning you can use two coupons within one sale).

I got this bird cage with a bigger sized other at
Tractor Supply on clearance last year for around $15.
I use it seasonally with different things inside. As you see
for the fall season I have put some plastic pumpkins inside.

Don’t forget stores like Pier One Imports, Target, Kohl’s, and Bed, Bath, and Beyond who often have beautiful and fun fall décor. The tip on Bed, Bath, and Beyond is that they take expired coupons and their stores I have shopped also will take two or three coupons per purchase to be used on different items (such as two 20% off coupons and a $5 off a $15 item). I have given them a coupon over a year old more than once and the salesperson never blinks twice. So do not throw those expired coupons away! By the way, Kohl’s also takes expired Kohl’s Cash – no expiration date – so keep those too!

The best deals are at the end of the season, of course. Three years ago I bought quite a few pieces at Hobby Lobby when they had their fall décor 70-80% off. The next year we were moving in to our house at that time of the year (October), and I had too much going on to put up any decorations that year. Well, last year I got them out and it was like Christmas time at my house. I had forgotten all the goodies I had bought!

Tip #2: Using What’s Outside (Free!)

This is especially practical and convenient for this season. You can put flowers from your gardens in vases in your home in the spring and summer but bringing nature in to decorate for the fall is convenient with the beautiful changing colored leaves, pine cones, twigs, acorns, dried wheat, apples from your trees, and pumpkins/gourds (only free if you grow them or have someone you know who does!). Some of  my other two favorite things I decorate with this time of the year (and sometimes year round) that I got free were deer antlers (from my brother-in-law - see photo above) and turkey feathers.

Here I used some mini pine cones from a hemlock tree along a
table runner on my dining room table. I have paper leaves
strewn out with them but real leaves would work great too.

Preserving leaves – Many of you did this as children. Taking newly fallen leaves, press between two pieces of paper towels making sure they are not overlapping. Iron for about 3-5 minutes until they feel dry or continue ironing until they do. Now place the leaves between two pieces of wax paper and the wax paper between thick paper such as paper bags and iron 2-3 minutes. Carefully flip it over and iron the other side to seal the leaves in wax. Either leave the wax paper on the leaves and cut around their edges or carefully remove the wax paper. There may be enough wax to keep them preserved. Another way is using glycerin as Martha Stewart instructs on her website.

Preserving acorns – This is very important so you do not have little weevils crawling out. Eek! Make sure the acorns you have gathered are clean and if there are any with holes or rotted places then throw those away. Put your acorns in a preheated 200 degree oven for about 2 hours, giving them a shake or rotating them every 30 minutes to prevent burnt places. The baking will kill anything inside them. If you have a sealant spray then that will really help to preserve them further.

Tip #3: Making your Own

This can be an inexpensive way to decorate. However if you go buy a wreath and flowers and ribbon and a hot glue gun and hot glue then it can add up, and in those cases, it may be cheaper to buy a pre-made wreath (if you find one you like) and use a coupon. It’s best to use materials you have on hand if you have craft supplies.

I showed last week with my painted burlap fall décor post an inexpensive way to create décor.

I made a simple pillow cover using
paint, stencils, and painter's drop cloth.

My fall burlap grouping as presented in last week's post.

Here are some inexpensive ideas to get you started by either making your own or using nature as is!

Source - This décor idea is so simple but can
be elegant too with the right vase, jar, or glass.

Source - Use frames sitting around the house to "frame" some natural art.

Source - Create a simple vignette if you have a
bell jar with some small pumpkins and leaves.

Source - If you preserve your leaves as mentioned above,
you could do this with them!

Source - Have fun painting small pumpkins and gourds
with any craft paint or spray paint you have already.

Source - These simple bittersweet berries
look lovely in the colored bottles.

Source - I think these would be cuter if the
plastic was spray painted a metallic color.

Source - Fill a vase or even a drinking glass with some nuts and
put dried wheat or twigs in for a simple fall decoration.

And I love this idea! Although they would not stay preserved for next year, it would be great for entertaining or for your own personal use.

Source

I am planning on sharing at least one other easy and cheap fall décor item in the coming weeks that I hope you will like.

Is there something you could add to my post to help others with decorating for fall or that applies like these ideas do to any season? Please share in the comments below!