11 Cozy and Clever DIY Fall Decorating Ideas

These simple and easy DIY fall decorating ideas will bring a warm feeling to your home decor. Using an autumn color scheme, clever home decor adjustments, and a few fall DIY projects, your home will feel cozy in no time.

With fall quickly approaching, it is time to add warmth and cozy to your home decor. A new season is a great time for new decor. This year I am showing some easy DIY fall decorating ideas.

Starting with a color scheme from a ribbon collection as the inspiration of warm red-umber hues, we will walk through ways to adjust accessories or change them to a warmer fall vibe.

If you feel your home needs cozy vibes for fall, then you are in the right place. These simple ideas are easy to follow and budget-friendly. Let's tour my fall decor this year and see what decorations we can change to give your home a warm and cozy feeling.

This post contains affiliate links, meaning I receive a commission if you purchase using the links below at no extra cost to you. All opinions are all my own.

DIY Fall Decorating Ideas

First, let's discuss different things you can alter, add or make to add to create that warm and cozy fall feeling. This is going to be fun!

• Decorating your mantel for fall
• Decorating dough bowls and bowls for fall
• Decorating baskets for fall
• Decorating table centerpiece for fall
• Decorating with printables for fall
• Decorating with garlands for fall
• Decorating with pumpkins for fall
• Decorating with benches for fall
• Decorating with blankets for fall
• Decorating with pillows for fall
• Decorating with fall wreaths

Let's start the easy fall decor ideas in the living room at the fireplace mantel.

Decorating your Mantel for Fall

Fireplace mantels are a great place to add fall decorations. I like to recommend adding touches of fall. For example, take the flowers or greenery out of vases and baskets and change it to fall foliage as I did here in this basket. If you love baskets, check out my post on easy fall basket decorating ideas for every room.

You can also create autumn decor by replacing plants with fall colored plants. Here is an example: I removed a spring and summer herb faux plant and changed it to this amber glass jar with fall flowers.

Next, add ribbon in fall colors. It's a fun, inexpensive fall decor idea. I tucked one ribbon onto the basket, as seen in the first photo in this section, and tied another ribbon onto the bunny to give him an autumn vibe.

Adding beautiful fall decor to your mantel is fun and will instantly add an autumn aesthetic without changing all the decor. Now let's talk about decorating dough bowls for fall.

Decorating Dough Bowls and Bowls for Fall

I love changing the decor in my dough bowls for the holidays. It is a fun and simple project. This also works for bowls too. So I will show you several ideas from this year and previous years of dough bowl fall decorating ideas.

First, you can do something as simple as sitting a hand full of wheat tied with a ribbon on the dough bowl. Natural elements are wonderful for easy fall decor. If you are a minimalist, then you will love this idea. It is simple and classy.

Another idea is adding pumpkins to a bowl anywhere in a room. On my bookcase, I added all my small white pumpkins into a crock bowl displayed on my bookcase. Again, a very simple and classy design with vintage all over it.

And last, if you have a small bowl anywhere in your home, change the decor to leaves. This is an easy way to bring natural elements indoors. While on my morning walks, I found the first sign of autumn lying on the ground. I couldn't believe, living in Florida, that a tree had turned colors so early in the season. So I grabbed all the leaves I could find and added them to this wooden bowl for display. If you're looking for fun projects for the kids, try sending them out to collect the prettiest leaves they can find.

Like I said, decorating bowls and dough bowls is so much fun. One of my popular posts is this DIY fall decor wooden dough bowl idea. It is another simple design using pumpkins.

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Decorating with Baskets for Fall

If you have been around me long, then you know I highly recommend using baskets in your home decor. Fall is the perfect time to use your baskets for decorations. They truly lend to the fall aesthetic.

First, let's go back to my mantel fall decorating idea. A hanging basket filled with fall foliage is a beautiful way to get the autumn vibe. But another easy decorating idea is filling a basket with fall leaves on a bookcase or table. Here I used a leaf garland from my fall storage box and wrapped the garland up, and tucked it into the basket.

Another fun idea is taking a small basket and placing a pumpkin inside of the basket. But probably my favorite is adding a pumpkin to my mantel bunny.

Isn't this funny! He is sporting a pumpkin in his basket. LOL! Adding fun elements to your decor is a great way to make it interesting, creative, and fun.

Decorating Tables for Fall

Adding decor to your dining table can be simple and pretty. You do not have to go all out for a centerpiece; instead, do something simple. Here all I did was tie together more fall foliage and place it on a piece of wood painted white with chalk paint. Here are more tips on how to paint with chalk paint.

I have many more ideas for fall table decorations, like this farmhouse pumpkin centerpiece for your dinner table and this Dollar Tree fall table.

Decorating with Fall Printables

If there is one way to add inexpensive decor for fall, it is printables. There are so many things you can do with printables. Here are some I did this fall season.

First, you can print four designs on your printer and combine them into one piece of wall art to make it larger. On my Etsy shop, I have an entire section of printable art in a fall category. These four pieces were designed to go together. You can display them all together or break them up in a room.

Another idea is to frame a fall printable and hang it on layered breadboards and cutting boards. This frame makes changing the art out easy.

And include a printable in your kitchen. Here is a homemade clipboard with a fun printable printed on a brown paper bag. Simple and easy!

There are so many ways you can frame and display printables. I have more ideas in this free printable home decor post, DIY printable ideas post, and other great places to find free fall printables that others have created. It's a great idea to find inexpensive frames to reuse each season at the dollar store or craft store.

Decorating with Garland for Fall

Garlands are a fun way to add decor to your home if you love doing easy craft or DIY projects. You can also purchase them on Etsy and in stores. One of my favorite garlands to decorate during autumn is this fall paper leaf garland.

You can drape garlands over benches as I did in our entryway.

And you can hang them on hooks as I did in our kitchen area.

But there are many other ways you can decorate with garlands. You can place them on your mantel or hang them on the front of a hutch. The possibilities are endless. That's what makes it one of my favorite DIV fall decor projects.

Decorating with Pumpkins

Probably the most popular fall decoration is pumpkins. There are so many ways you can decorate with pumpkins I have a post on decorating with small pumpkins. LOL!

Here are a few ways I added pumpkins to decor this autumn. First, I place a bunch of pumpkins in a bowl on my bookcase. You might remember me mentioning that when we were talking about bowls. And placing them on your hearth is a popular place to set real pumpkins and faux pumpkins.

It also looks good to add pumpkins to a hutch. Simply set pumpkins of different sizes around or on your dishes. It adds a nice touch to your decor.

Also, if you have white dishes, you can use white or a clay color as I did here. If you have pattern dishes, consider using pumpkins that compliment your dishes.

Decorating Benches for Fall

We have a bench in our entryways, one of my favorite spots to add seasonal and holiday decor. This year I simply added one pillow and the garland. Just those two simple things transformed from every day to fall.

Decorating with Blankets for Fall

When cooler weather arrives, blankets are a nice touch of decor for your cozy home. They are also useful for cold nights while visiting and watching television. One way to decorate with blankets is to display an blanket on the back of your sofa in beautiful fall colors. This gives the back of your sofa more color and is right there to grab when someone needs a blanket.

Another fun idea to add autumnal colors to your decor is hanging an autumn blanket to hooks in your room. We have this sitting area in our kitchen, and the hooks on the wall are a great place to store things we use and decorations. The blanket adds color and can be easily grabbed to get warm.

A cheap place to find seasonal blankets is in the dollar spot at Target. But grab one early in the season because they go fast. For more ideas on how to decorate with throw blankets, check out my post about styling with throw blankets to create a warm and cozy aesthetic.

Decorating with Pillows

Consider adding a pillow or two to your gorgeous fall home decor. A cute pumpkin pillow is a nice touch. I found this sweet pillow at Target in the dollar spot. Since it is not displayed year around, I don't mind purchasing an inexpensive pillow to add to my fall decor.

Also, if you love changing pillows for seasons, I recommend tossing in one or two autumn-colored pillows that fit into your existing decor, which goes with your new autumn color scheme. Here we added a plaid pillow and clay-colored pillows to our sofa.

Decorating with Fall Wreaths

Last is decorating with wreaths for fall. Most of the time, people only think of decorating with wreaths on your front door, but there are many ways to use wreaths in your home decor.

In my home, I placed a faux rusted eucalyptus wreath over my mirror in the entryway and then added two of the inspiration ribbons in the colors of fall I talked about before. I simply used a suction cup hook to hang the wreath on the mirror. Then I took two ribbon colors, tied them together, and tucked them onto the top of the wreath.

Other places you can hang a beautiful fall wreath is on interior windows, over your mantel like in my fall home tour 2017, on a wall or hanging on a hook, inside a bookcase, and the list goes on. The possibilities are endless. If you like the idea of DIY fall wreaths, check out my post on easy wheat wreath DIY project.

Well, guess what? We have come to an end of all the different things you can change to give your home a more autumn feeling.

Final Thoughts

Fall is a beautiful time of year. Let's go back over a few thoughts regarding creative ways for decorating as fall rolls in. First, keep it simple and add a touch of fall here and there to your existing decor. To keep the cost down, look to mother nature, Etsy, and free printables, use existing frames and save faux pumpkins and fall foliage to set out each year. You can find more great decor ideas in my Best of Hearth and Hand from Magnolia post. Dollar stores and thrift stores are great places to pick up seasonal decorations. If you love thrifting, keep an eye out year-round for decorations.

I like to shop for autumn decorations at Target, Kirkland's, Dollar Tree, TJMaxx and Homegoods, thrift stores, and Amazon.

Now it is your turn. Do you decorate for fall? If so, what are your favorite things to use when decorating?

Happy Decorating!