Cheap and Cheerful Autumn Decorating Projects

Gather up Fall’s Bounty for Free to Decorate Your Home

Sep 6, 2009 Stefanie Gabrych Fraser

Summer is but a memory, but here are some easy ways to bring autumn hues and scents indoors without spending a cent.

Just take a walk in the park or your own garden and you'll find a wealth of materials to work with. Natural materials such as dried leaves, pine cones, twigs, Indian corn, mini-pumpkins, and gourds can be combined with your own baskets, ceramic bowls, candlesticks, and potted plants to create seasonal displays.

The possibilities are endless, and you can keep looking around you for more inspiration for adding to your do-it-yourself decorations as the season goes by. Here are a few ideas:

Pumpkins, Gourds, and Fruit

  • Place gourds, pumpkins, apples, or oranges in separate containers, sprinkling the leaves and acorns about as desired, or mix them all together. A quicker idea - just pile up your treasures on a tray. Fill in any gaps with moss, straw, wheat, or leaves. It's dramatic, moveable, and long lasting.
  • Mini pumpkins lined up on the mantle of your fireplace are a nice seasonal touch, especially when you place some leaves in between each one.
  • Get imaginative and make candle holders out of small gourds and mini pumpkins; cut off the top of the gourd and scoop out the desired amount of its inside to make room for a small candle or tea light. Note that once you have cut into the gourds they will only last for few days before they must be replaced.
  • Turn a hollowed-out pumpkin or gourd into an innovative flower vase. Place a small glass jar or vase inside and fill with autumn coloured blooms such as mums and zinnias. Add leaves to hide the jar.

Wreaths and Swags

  • Make ornamental swags or garlands by stringing together dried leaves and pinecones which you can hang almost anywhere in your house: from the windows, over the mantle of your fireplace, or up the handle of your staircase.
  • Make a wreath for your front door with clusters of berries, ornamental grasses, and other fall finds. Purchase a wreath form at a local crafts store, and then simply attach the berries and grasses with wire or hot glue.
  • Dress up a door or wall with swag of Indian corn. Use twine to connect the ears, knotting the twine after adding each ear. Tuck in pressed maple leaves for even more color. Then loop the twine at the top to hang.

Candle Display

  • Decorate fragrant pillar candles with Indian corn -- slip an elastic band over the candle and insert the corn cobs all around it. Wrap raffia or thick string around the corn to hide the elastic band and make a bow in front.
  • Set a short, wide candle in a small glass bowl and then place this inside a larger, more decorative bowl. Fill the space between the two bowls with a selection of the most colourful leaves you can find. This centrepiece will last quite a long time and you can always add extra leaves to freshen it up.

Twigs or Branches

  • Don't throw out all those tree trimmings into the trash bin just yet. Plunk a bundle of tall, bare branches in a large garden pot or basket or other large container, and place in front of your fireplace or a tall hallway mirror for an easy-peasy but dramatic effect.

More cheap_and_cheerful_autumn_decorations, ideas and projects.

The copyright of the article Cheap and Cheerful Autumn Decorating Projects in Green/Simple Living is owned by Stefanie Gabrych Fraser. Permission to republish Cheap and Cheerful Autumn Decorating Projects in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
Pumpkins piled in a ceramic bowl., Stefanie Gabrych Fraser Pumpkins piled in a ceramic bowl.
   
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