Decorating for Fall on a Shoestring

Fall is probably my favorite season of the year. Cooler temperatures, colorful leaves, and a perfect mix of cozy, rainy days and bright blue skies and sunshine--but without the sweltering temperatures of sunny summer days. Hot mugs of tea or coffee, sweaters, and my heavier weight denim skirts become more appropriate, as do warm, hearty meals, days filled with baking, and fall scented candles.

And pumpkin spiced everything.

Yeah, I admit it. I'm one of THOSE people. The older I get, the less I feel inclined to apologize for the things I enjoy, whether they're things few people enjoy, or things that are so overdone you get mocked for enjoying them, even though lots of people seem to.

My husband enjoys pumpkin pie. That's it. Poor man. Such a world of pumpkin goodness, and he's missing out on it. But, I digress.

This year, I had a little bit of wiggle room in our usually tight budget, and so I squeezed out a few dollars to enjoy one of my favorite activities--decorating our home for the season.

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One of my favorite little luxuries that we've built into our lives is this coffee station. It actually sits in our bedroom, so we don't have to walk all the way to the other end of the house while still half asleep to make or get coffee (depending on if someone thought to program it to brew the night before or not). We can enjoy our first cup of coffee without ever having to leave the bedroom if we play our cards right and nobody leaves their mug in the living room. 😏 I saw this cute little pumpkin at Wal-Mart the other day, and this seemed like the perfect spot for it.

 That light-up glass (I think it's glass, anyway) pumpkin was my splurge from last year. It came from Dollar General for $10, but I have no idea if it's available this year or not. The little candle in a jar and the frame both came from Dollar Tree (newly opened in our town; I'm so excited!), and the printable was free from Teepee Girl. I love it, so pretty!

 This little bookshelf top in our living room is one of my favorite spaces to decorate, as it's one of the few that the kids will leave relatively alone. Although I did have to clean it off for this photo, because they drop stuff there constantly. 😒 The orange pumpkin came from Wal-Mart last year, but they are still available this year, and in a great selection of different designs. I want a few more before the season is over, and at 98 cents apiece, that should be affordable.The pumpkin kisses sign, ceramic pumpkins, and the tiny candle are all from Dollar Tree. I was so excited to find those pumpkins; I've admired some just like them that my aunt has, so it's great to have a set of my own. The larger candles came from Wal-Mart (I have a bit of a candle addiction), and the little lantern was a gift several years ago, so I couldn't tell you where to find one like it. The little angel lives on this shelf regardless of the season, and was also a gift, also many years old. My mother bought her for me about 10 years ago, and though I was with her at the time, I don't remember where the angels (there are 2 more, on a different shelf) came from.

 Meet the new shoe cubby bench and coat hooks I mentioned in yesterday's post. The "fall decorating" part, of course, is the wreath above the coat hooks, which came from Goodwill last year for about $3.

 This table runner is one of my favorite additions this year, made from Dollar Tree felt. . . I'll level with you; I have no idea if they're supposed to be wall hangings or placemats. But they're cute, and they were $1 each. I just laid them out in a design that suited me and used a hot glue gun to tack them together. A word of warning, though--my cats like to sleep on this table, and I've quickly discovered that cat hair likes felt. Now I need one of those sticky rollers to get the fur off my table runner. 😏

 Not "Fall," per se, but we also recently (finally!) figured out how to add some lighting over this table. The ceiling is a styrofoam-ish drop ceiling, and I was unable to find a stud behind it to hang an actual light fixture from (my first idea was to buy one of those hanging lamps that plugs in), so the light I bought quite some time ago was never hung because it was too heavy. Then, recently, I thought some of those little cafe lights from lawn and garden would be ideal. They could be hung from the ceiling in a zigzag, giving it a sort of bistro-y feel, and they wouldn't be too heavy for our weird ceiling. I got lucky and caught these on clearance online from Wal-Mart for $6 and change, with free shipping. One cheap extension cord and a pack of coaxial staples later, and our kitchen finally has light, just in time for the earlier evenings of fall and winter. 😊

And since we've recently started having a weekly family game night, this is an excellent addition. Overlook the apparent lack of chairs. For some reason, my two-year-old daughter was busily moving them away from the table. 😂

I think I've spent about $25 so far this year on fall decorations for the house (not counting the white candles, because those are my "everyday" scent, and I'd have bought them anyway), and I couldn't be happier with the results. With that, I've also bought a couple leaf garlands from Dollar Tree that have yet to find their place in the house. Since most posts out there about decorating seem to assume you have lots of money to blow, I hope this inspires you by showing you can get nice results, even if you can't drop a ton of cash.