Has your mantel been talking to you? Mine was shouting at me the other day. Seriously. It told me it was October and the leaves were turning and the air was getting cooler and the days were getting shorter…
….and it was time to take the Fourth of July burlap banner down.
Fall decorating doesn’t have to be overwhelming. It’s easy to celebrate the changing of the seasons on a budget with a few simple fall decorating tips.
So here are a few easy and inexpensive ideas for decorating a fall mantel.
1. Shop the house
With any mantel decor, you want height. With this arrangement, I started with two urns from the back porch that were previously filled with ivy and flags (at least I’m consistent with the whole Fourth of July theme). They were decorated with flowers and dried twigs from outside.
Next, to create height, I used my grandmother’s vintage silver cups to stack pumpkins. By using random containers from around the house, I was able to create layers to the mantel decor. And one last tip: if a pumpkin needs to be elevated just a little….raise it up with a stack of books.
And even better if one of books is The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
2. Re-purpose and reuse
The back drop for the mantel is a barn door that came from this exact barn. Yep. We took it straight from the horse stall to the fall mantel.
You can see how it creates a simple, rustic elegance to build the mantel around. Next, I hung a piece from the clearance aisle at Hobby Lobby. Shhhhh… let’s just keep that fact between us.
With a little paint and a little sandpaper someone might think it came over on the Mayflower.
3. Bring the outside in
This time of year….nature is in her element. Take a walk and you can fill your mantel with the colors that fall has on display just outside your window. Here, I’ve added branches from the yard and pine cones. You could also add acorns (make sure you bake them first) or leaves from the yard or branches or fall grasses.
By shopping the house, re-purposing, and decorating with nature, your fall mantel will truly be one-of-a-kind for only pennies. So next time your mantel calls your name…. why not say, “Hello?”
