With Christmas decorations hitting the stores earlier and earlier each year, we seem to jump straight from Halloween to decking the halls with Christmas décor and November is becoming the forgotten month. Rather than spend money on decorations that will only be up for 3-4 weeks, I thought I would show you five simple and affordable ways to create a festive fall atmosphere using items from your own backyard.
If you have a lot of this stuff already on hand, the cost is going to be next to nothing to make all five, but I’ve included a break down of price in case you need to purchase the items.
1. Framed Fall Leaves – One of the best parts about autumn is watching the trees turn from green to vibrant shades of red, yellow, and orange. Preserve those colors and display them around your home by pressing them in picture frames. I love using floating frames, but you can press them in a normal picture frame with a piece of plain white paper behind them. Cost: $0 (unless you feel like buying a new frame: $15 to $20 for a floating frame)
2. Painted Pine Cone Garland – I love frosting pine cones with white paint for the winter, but decided to choose a bright and almost summery shade to bring a pop of color into the living room. Find a coordinating color to bring out accents in a rug or furniture or go with a metallic like gold or copper that will go with just about everything. Even if you don’t have a pine tree, you can easily find these at a park or going for a walk around your neighborhood. Cost: $9.98 (Spray paint: $6.99, Spool of ribbon: $2.99)
3. Feather Grass Wreath – This one takes a small amount of finesse, but wasn’t as difficult as I thought. I had some beautiful feather grass in the front lawn that I knew would make an easy fall wreath, but you can also use skinny tree or bush branches. I staggered the pieces so they were all slightly overlapping one another and then carefully bent them to shape them into a circle. I used ribbon to hold them in place and then later went around the edges and tied them together using leaves from the feather grass. This is where I had to be delicate as the leaves broke easily. If you’re using tree branches I recommend using ones that are still a little bit alive or else they’ll simply break if they’re too dried out. Use ribbon or twine to tie them. I left my wreath completely plain, but you can easily tie ribbon around it, add a bow, fake or real leaves, pine cones, etc. Cost: $0 (unless you’re using twine – $2.69 for a 200ft spool)
4. Fall Bouquet – Even with a few frosty evenings already, I was surprised to still see flowers blooming around my house. I snipped off the best ones, added some feather grass, and displayed them in a mason jar on a wood slice for a rustic look. If you’re having a tough time still finding blooms you can purchase a cheap bouquet from the grocery store and add some decorative grass or branches from your own yard. If you’re not handy with a chainsaw (I’m not either and would have lost some toes, so thank you to my step dad, Tracy!) and don’t have a dead tree lying around, you can purchase wood slices similar to this one at most craft stores or online. Cost: $14.98 (Store bouquet: $9.99 (a dozen orange or yellow roses), Wood slice: $4.99)
5. Gourd Centerpiece – This one was almost too easy! Use a serving platter or plate, top it with moss, and plop some gourds or small pumpkins on top. Voila! You’ll really break a sweat working on this one! 😉 Cost: $9.39 (Moss: $2.39, Gourds: $7 on average for 3)
Hopefully this provides some ideas and inspiration for your own November decorating! Comment below and tell me which project you’ll be trying!
