Fall Decor on a Budget

Fall Decor on a Budget

Okay, this is seriously the last post I'm doing until D-Day . The next post you hear from me will hopefully be about the arrival of this baby girl who is very content right now to stay where she is. I keep hoping that all of these projects & activities will encourage her to come out ... but to no avail. So anyway, here's just a little post with a few budget-friendly decor ideas that I used and borrowed from various sources to get the house ready for fall - my all-time favorite season to decorate for. 

My favorite place to try to pick up super-cheap decorating items is absolutely The Dollar Tree. If you don't have one near you, I am very sorry. As advertised, everything there is $1 (or less). So generally I can find some things to work with for not much at all. Below is one thing I threw together with just about everything in the photo from the Dollar Tree. (The only thing not from the dollar tree is the bit of burlap in the vase, leftover from a previous project). 

Fall floral arrangement

Obviously the Dollar Tree has a lot of cheap, fake flowers, but if you dig around, you can usually find some decent ones that'll work to give you just a splash of color. This year, I'm sort of in a "purple" theme (given baby girl's imminent arrival); so I've got some shade of purple (we'll call it "plum") in most of my stuff. Dollar Tree has a great variety of vases - of all shapes & sizes. So the one above is from there, as well as all of the ones in the pictures below. 

Candle trio on end table

Yes, every last item shown here, minus the cloth napkin, is a Dollar Tree item. Two of the candles (white & orange) came in the vases they are in; the other was another cool style of vase that I found and filled with the rest of my bag of river rocks. I even found the silver tray (and yes, it's metal, not plastic) in the party section of the store. So that was a fun find! 

Candle platter in context - on Hazelnuts end table

And here's where I'm putting in a plug for my super-crafty/artistic/ talented friend, Charis, and her furniture refinishing home business. If you haven't yet heard of or visited her site, Hazelnuts, you'll definitely want to check it out. If you live in the Southeast, you might just want to bid on her next piece. Otherwise, if you're like me and (now) live far away, you're sure to find some great refinishing ideas on there. She refinished the end table above in that beautiful, custom-blended navy color for me. My husband and I both love how it turned out - and how it's become a great focal point in the room. Thanks Charis!

Back to the decor - I had two more spots to hit before I felt like the house was "decorated." One was the ledge above our entryway. And even though most people don't notice it at first, I just felt like I had to do something with it. So I basically just combined some pieces of pottery & dishes I already had with some burlap, fake pumpkins & gourds (Dollar Tree,Walmart, & Target), candles, raffia, and a bag of cinnamon-scented pine cones (also from Walmart) that are still filling my entryway with the smell of spices. 

Entryway display

My last project was the front door wreath. Several months ago, I picked up a grapevine wreath at the Goodwill during one of their Blue Tag $1.49 Tuesdays, knowing I wanted to use it for this season. (Keep your eyes open at these places off-season!) Then, about a month ago, one of my friends posted some ideas and links on her blog about decorating a grapevine wreath for fall, mainly with some felt, burlap (which I had leftover from a previous project of Jill's), and silk flowers. I was all set! So using some of the pictures and instructions from these blogs, I went to work last night - and finished it in about 2 hours time! (Note: I would not recommend trying to wield a hot glue gun at 9-months pregnant, as many burn injuries will probably occur). Below is the result with a few close-ups:

Fall wreath

So that's it. Overall, I think I spent less than $30 for everything (including crafting items I will use in the future).Thanks to all of you artistic people out there who inspire me to try to get outside of the box - I love borrowing ideas! And please, feel free to share any of your own crafty or thrifty fall decorating ideas below. I would love to start collecting for next year. :-)