Today I want to share 7 inexpensive or free Fall decor ideas to help you beat the pressure to buy seasonal decor for your home! Fall is an amazing time to use up nature’s abundant offerings. Incorporating natural elements like branches, fruit, pinecones, dried florals or pumpkins can give an instantly cozy fall vibe to any space… and on a budget, too!
I hope some of these ideas help you feel inspired and excited about ways you can decorate for next to nothing this fall season.
1. Apple Vignettes
Every Fall we pick apples from my husband’s grandfather’s trees. He has a Jonathan and a Macintosh tree, and I so enjoy bringing home baskets of tart fruit for baking and applesauce. But one of my very favorite ways to use apples is in my Fall decorating!
Add bowls or crates of apples to a corner of your kitchen to invite an instant feeling of fall and a vibrant pop of color. Yellow, red or green apples are stunning in the fall months. Apples can be used in so many ways!
Tips for styling apples:
- Add apples to a beautiful bowl or wood crate. Using something vintage makes decor extra special and adds unique detail.
- Surround apples with wood cutting boards, stacks of plates, apothecary jars of flour, oats or sugar, wood spoons or crocks. Each of these items are functional for the (baking) season but add texture, color and make for a beautiful vignette.
- If you buy apples at the store weekly, consider displaying them on your counter while you use them throughout the week. You can also buy faux on amazon! The first image below of green apples are faux from a local thrift. Here is a similar set!
One of my favorite ways to style the vibrant apples we picked was in this antique stoneware bowl my great grandmother used for mixing dough. I also love to add apples to zinc buckets and display in the kitchen or mudroom bench.
Dried florals such as hydrangeas or dock weed pair absolutely beautifully with apples. The colors make for such a lovely fall display. This apple art print is one of my very favorites, I’ll link it here for you!
2. Printables
Did you know I have several FREE printables on my blog for you? One of the posts has 6 different Autumn themed printables, and another has a free raven printable for the month of September and October.
I love setting up little vignettes or “moments” in our kitchen with the printables on display. A tradition we have is to set up a cocoa station with cups, apothecary jars full of drink powders, marshmallows and patterned straws. I hope you are able to incorporate one of these free printables in your decor this season!
If you would like to duplicate this cozy autumn drink station, click here for lots of different ideas for how to set it up!
Budget Friendly Autumn Drink Station
3. Foraged Decor
Foraged decor is one of the very best and easiest ways to decorate for fall on a budget or for free! Clip tree branches, pick gourds, squash, pumpkins or dried florals from the garden. Gather baskets of apples and display them in bowls or crates. Harvest dried hydrangeas and add to vases on your coffee table, mantel or kitchen counters. Nature is full of stunning decor, especially in the fall months.
Branches, Dock, Cattails, Dried Florals, pumpkins or seasonal fruit, dried florals
See those beautiful burgundy dried branches on the mantel? Those are dock weed from our canal bank! You can often times find these dried weeds in fields in the month of September. They make the most stunning fall decor accents and can be used to make a wreath!
4. Pinecones and Cinnamon sticks
Last year I used cinnamon and clove essential oils to make a bowl full of scented pine cones and cinnamon sticks. Now is a great time to make this mix! It will stay fragrant through the “ber” months and add a beautiful texture and cozy scent to your seasonal decor. You can see this post for the tutorial!
5. Paper bag leaf Branch or Garland Decor
A few years ago I had an idea to use paper bags and trace leaf shapes to make a little garland for our stairway. After that, I traced and cut out leaves and glued them to a branch to hang in our kitchen. I absolutely love this simple project and the many places you can display it!
This DIY would be fun to make with kids or elderly parents or neighbors, and it is a decor piece you can make for any home, apartment or space!
6. Decorating with Pumpkins
Whether it’s homegrown pumpkins, gourds, or baby boo mini pumpkins, squash varieties are a great natural way to decorate for the season! We try to always grow some pumpkins in our garden to use for fall decor. I love to place baby boo pumpkins in bowls around the house or display a jarrahdale on our coffee table, porch or in baskets by the mudroom or entry.
7 Inexpensive or Free Fall Decor Ideas: Incorporating pumpkins in outdoor decor
If you missed it last year, I used our garden grown pumpkins to decorate our front porch. We put together some fun and simple little DIY fairy light lanterns to lend a cozy, whimsical feel. I’ll add the tutorial here if you want to check it out!
7. Homemade or DIY fall floral arrangements
Adding fresh pears and Baby Boo pumpkins from our garden gave this homemade arrangement such a fun pop of Autumn color as well as beautiful and unique textures. I also had an idea to add some cinnamon sticks for color! The cinnamon also adds such a yummy scent to the arrangement, and beautiful texture, too!
Tap here to see this post and a tutorial for how to make your own little fall arrangement. You can use a mix of real, dried or faux flowers, branches, fruit, pumpkins and even cinnamon!
Other ideas for inexpensive or free fall decor:
Use Baskets, scarves, pheasant feathers, thrifted art, lanterns, candles, dried gourds, or books with seasonal images open for display. Even a vase full of leafless branches would be so beautiful. Get creative and you’ll have a home full of stunning fall decor before you know it!
Thank you so much for stopping by today. As always, I hope you have felt inspired in some way. Check out this new blog post with 6 of my favorite fall desserts to make your kitchen feel extra cozy and special this season! Fall baking is my absolute favorite.
6 Fall Recipes You Will Love
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