How to decorate for fall on a budget (7 quick and easy ideas)

Create a beautiful fall home the affordable way

Fall is the perfect season to decorate your home without spending a lot of money. Autumn season isn’t called the harvest season for nothing. When nature is sharing and giving so many beautiful decorations for free, everyone can create cheap and beautiful fall decorations.

I love decorating through the seasons. And I think I love fall decorating the most. In fact I think fall is my favorite season of all. Nature is giving one last big and loud show of its splendor before going into the winter’s sleep. The weather is unpredictable but usually quite dramatic: from beautiful and hot Indian Summer days, to stormy and windy and raging fury. Fall goes from grey and gloomy to bright and colorful and back again all in a days time. Fall is cozy knits, blankets and boots at night while the day was filled with sunscreen, sunglasses and skirts. What is there not to love about a season that shows up like a drama queen to the party while carrying a bucketload of gifts with her.

Those gifts of fall nature are always the focal point in my autumn home. I love the muted colors of this season: the grey’s, beige’s and browns. They form the perfect background color palette. But it wouldn’t be fall decorating without a splash of color now and then. A plate filled with colorful red apples, a bouquet of bright yellow sunflowers, a vase filled with fiery orange leaves. To me fall decorating is bringing the outside in, appreciating the gifts of nature and being thankful for the abundance that is there to enjoy.

Let me share my favorite tips and tricks for budget-friendly fall decorating.

Make a fall wreath

With so much free material to choose from, making a fall wreath is easy. Use a basic wreath form and glue, clip or pin your fall decorations to it. I made my fair share of fall wreaths through the years. One year a turned a heap of garden clippings into a twig wreath. And then that wreath received many transformations through the years (I still have it, it might reappear soon with its next reincarnation). Gathering buckets full of pinecones was not only a fun outdoors activity, but it resulted in one of my favorite wreaths too: my pine cone wreath. Then there was also a romantic wreath made from fabric scraps and a floral and colorful hydrangea wreath. And of course nothing says fall better than the ultimate harvest wreaths: my hops wreath, or my walnut wreath.

Decorate with feathers

What nests are for spring decorating, I think feathers are for fall decor. The colors of feathers fit right in with the neutral colors that are so fall to me. Bird feathers are so beautiful and delicate, yet also so strong and powerful. I always find a lot of feathers when I go out hiking in fall and if they look clean and free of critters I bring them home. I have also been known to buy some bags of feathers from the clearance sale know and then. My feather display is one of my favorite ways to use feathers in my decor, although they look good enough on their own if you just put the feathers under a cloche. Feathers are also great to craft with, like turning them into a kind of Juju hat or a bohemian wall hanging.

Use free decorating materials from nature

Pinecones, seedpods, vibrant flowers, leaves, skeleton branches, dried out flowers, sticks, moss, or bark are all easy to find fall decorations that can be gathered for free on your next walk to your park or nearby woods. If you combine them you can make a lavish fall centerpiece quite easily, or make the most simple and natural fall vignette in minutes. The natural colors are a great combo with vintage elements for some unique vintage inspired fall decor. Or make a green fall foliage decoration the star of your side table decor.

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More fall decorating tips and inspiration for you

<<<< 5 quick and easy ways to add fall decor >>>>
<<<< 15 natural fall wreaths >>>>
<<<< fall decorating in white >>>>

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Make your fall home extra cozy

Fall is the perfect time to add some nice cozy and warm elements to your decorating. Bring in and display your candles, add some extra sweater pillows in warm colors that you can make from your old wool sweaters. Use big wool throws on your couch. And start using your flanel bedding to cozy up the fall bedroom. Maybe cover the floor with an extra warm carpet, and make sure your pot of hot tea has a nice tea trivet to sit on. Fall evenings and nights can be dark and cold and we can use all the help we can create to feel warm, safe and cozy in our homes.

Set the table for fall gatherings

Fall is the time we start gathering around the table again. Out are the barbecues and garden parties and in come the tea parties and crockpot diners. Setting the table will make everybody feel extra welcome and special and it can be as easy as using a simple grain sack table runner with some scattered fall decorations. Of course there is nothing against raiding your cupboards and setting an elaborate fall table. Fall table decorating ideas can be found for any style or budget and can be lavish or simple, it is all good. If you have nothing else, a simple piece of fabric can be the start of a lovely fall polkadot table. And don’t forget your garden table. Add some flowers in pots to an old toolbox, scatter a pumpkin or two and you have a quick and easy fall garden table decoration.

use fall flowers freely

Sometimes we forget that fall is also a great season for decorating with flowers. Dahlias, asters and chrysanthemums are all fall flowers, most roses will still be producing new flowers and hydrangeas and sunflowers, will have dried into perfection by now. If you are lucky enough to have a flower garden, you can still pick beautiful flower bouquets to create a simple floral centerpiece for your fall table. Dried hydrangeas don’t need any arranging, it is just too easy to create a simple fall hydrangea vignette. Of course you can also work with some flowers you bought at the flower shop or even the grocery store. If you only have a few gathered or bought flowers to work with, than doing something special with them will give you more bang for your buck. I love arranging a skimpy flower bouquet in a collection of little vases and glasses it is a quick and easy flower arranging trick for the frugal decorator.

Create your fall focal point

You can go a long way with adding fall touches here and there to your home. However I always feel that there should be at least one focal point to your decorating to bring it all together. It could be a fall centerpiece on your coffee table, or a festive fall table setting on your dining table. If you are lucky enough to have a fireplace with a mantel in your home, you have an obvious place to create some fall mantel decorations. In my old home I used a shelf as my mantel and I loved decorating it for fall. I went from an elegant and romantic and vintage inspired fall mantel, to a botanical fall mantel. I tried my hand at a more neutral and masculine fall mantel one year. But one of my favorites was my farmhouse mantel decoration in red and blue. Creating a focal point in your decorating can really tie it all together and it can be as easy as a vase with branches with colorful leaves and a scattering of pinecones. Just try to go big for your focal point, after all it should be the center of attention.

Please feel free to pin for future reference!

Fall decorating on a budget

I hope I have convinced you that fall decorating is fun, and can be totally free. In my home and life fall decorating is a necessity. Time passes so quickly and taking notice of the seasons even, or should I say especially in my home decor helps me savor the moment and not take it for granted. I love a nice shopping spree like anyone, but I love ‘shopping’ nature more. Bringing the outside indoors, focusing on creating a mood and an atmoshpere and using the freely gifted and gathered is what makes decorating both fun and meaningful to me.