Time to lay out a welcome mat for Fall and do some decorating for a cozy homey home!
I know, I know, it’s not Fall yet…but here in Arizona it will be HOT through September! Last year I tried to trick myself this way, by rushing the season, and I loved it! We do have air conditioning, remember, so inside was cool. So this weekend we did some Fall decorating to make our home feel cozy and homey rather than dusty and tired. Above is an old grapevine wreath we had. We changed out the spring/summer greenery for some minimalistic Fall springs to go with our rustic door. We like this better than the fake Fall leaves, which always make us sad when we remember the real ones. Oh for crisp apples and sweater weather!
Decorate now and you’re good through Thanksgiving!
Another thing I realized last year was that if you decorate now, your decor will be seasonally appropriate all the way through Thanksgiving! That’s a lot of bang for your buck for the decor. If you needed to justify a trip to Hobby Lobby…
Trying not to be jealous of all the free decor most of you have at your fingertips!
Most of you will have the advantage on me budget-wise, because you probably live where you can get a lot of decor from outside. The only disadvantage to that is that found naturals might not last if you rush the season like I do. But you can always go cut more leaves if yours wither. And then, there are a lot of things like acorns, pinecones, hickory nuts, dried flowers etc. that you could start preparing and collecting.
However, even though we live in the desert, we do sometimes find things that we can use. Still, here I will mostly concentrate on the artificial decor, carefully chosen to hopefully look like the real thing! We are going for cozy and homey. Not plastic and garish.
Here are a few tips that have been helpful to us in creating unique Fall decor that is budget friendly.
1. Look around for what you’re already using for decor, and change it up for Fall!
Here are a few examples of what we already had around the house. We filled this old cheese mold with pinecones we gathered in Prescott, AZ and added silk forsythia. Just a few kind of pathetic looking blooms now.
Below is a decorative vase we bought awhile ago for some large built-in shelves in our home.. .
. . .but this weekend it was fun to replace them with some wild Fall decor! Cozy and homey don’t have to be predictable.
2. Look around for things you aren’t using and give them a new life in the spotlight.
Look in closets, cupboards etc. for forgotten items that will make your Fall designs unique! Plus if you’ve had them for awhile they give continuity and that great feeling of being a good steward of what you have.
Jack is using a hollowed out log attached to an old table to hold decor and some l.e.d. lights to draw attention to what is always kind of a dark place.
Below is a leftover tile we saved. It’s just been hanging out on a shelf and suddenly now it’s now gracing our round kitchen table with a few little pumpkin candles.
3. Use your old Fall decor in new ways. Don’t just do what you did last year, unless you really love it and want to!
This southwestern vase we already had was formerly in a corner where it kind of faded into the wall. Now it’s a budget friendly focal point near the front door. Jack arranged last year’s Fall stems so it really stands out.
This, though, is what cozy and homey looks like to me most of all . . .
This bowl has been with me since I was a child. I found it at the Orton Bowl mill in Weston, Vermont and bought it because it cost 25 cents! It has aways had a crack in it, which is why it was 25 cents, and why I could afford it and why I now have it. It’s always somewhere around my kitchen.
(And surprise–I just looked and found out that this bowl mill is still in existence! In New Hampshire now, not Vermont. But how cool is that!?!)
4. Have so much fun!!!
Fall is such a great, laid back season for decor. Unlike Christmas, there are really no expectations. No pressure. For us anyway, there are no real traditions either. Thanksgiving food, yes, lots of traditions, but the decor can be whatever whim we are feeling. It’s just a chance to be creative, make your home more homey, more comfortable, more welcoming for anyone who lives there or visits there! So happy Fall. Think cozy.
Bring on the pumpkin spice!
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