DIY Fall Decor Ideas to Create Cozy Home Vibes

A round up of 20 DIY fall decor ideas that take just minutes and are so easy to create a warm and cozy home.

The kiddos woke us up at 6:45 am like they always do today (whyyyyy so earlyyyy) and it was pitch black and chilly outside when I swear it was bright and sunny the same time yesterday.

It’s coming… I can feel it. Fall, y’all!

Of course, here in the Carolinas this is fake fall. Real fall doesn’t show up until October, if we’re lucky. But it got me in the mood to dive down the rabbit hole of all the DIY fall decor to start creating cozy home vibes in time for the cool weather.

I love summer more than any season, but there’s something magical about being cuddled up by a fire in your cozy home in the fall.

If you’re wanting some easy fall decor ideas to get you in the mood, I rounded up a few of my favorites that are simple to do.

DIY Fall Decor Ideas to Create a Cozy Home

1. Dry Hydrangeas from Your Yard

Tutorial | How to Dry Hydrangeas

This is so simple to do! And if you have hydrangea bushes already in your yard that will be dying soon, why not take advantage of free fall decor?!

You can see more ideas here for dried flowers and branches that are perfect for fall (or year-round) too. They feel slightly more sophisticated that fake plastic fall leaves to make a home cozy.

2. Press Fall Leaves to Turn Into Art

Tutorial | DIY Pressed Leaf Gallery Wall

As leaves start to change colors, keep an eye out for different ones and collect them in a variety of colors. Place the leaves inside of a book for a few weeks. Then, tape them onto parchment paper to place in a frame on your wall. Ta da! Easy fall decor that is so cheap to make!

3. Add string lights

Tutorial | How to Hang Outdoor String Lights Anywhere in a Backyard

Inside or out, adding a strand of string lights brings a layer of ambience to create a cozy home when the sun starts setting earlier.

Hang them up on your porch or string them over an outdoor table or place a few fairy lights under a glass cloche or in a lantern indoors for extra glow.

This strand has lasted us for 5 years on our back porch hung up with Command light hooks! We just replace a bulb when they occasionally go out.

4. Introduce Warmer Textiles in Pillows and Blankets

Tutorial | How to Mix and Match Throw Pillows

For all of that curling up on cool evenings with a good book. (Not that I know what that’s like right now. #toddlermom )

I like to use pillows that aren’t fall decor specific but instead are simply made of cold weather textiles like cable knit, velvet, leather, wool, tweed, etc. Try making them yourself using these other repurposed method.

5. Get creative with bowl fillers.

I love using pears, artichokes, apples, and figs. Real or fake. Fall decor doesn’t always have to be pumpkins. Include other fall produce types and it’ll stretch on into other seasons.

6. Bust out the copper spray paint

I don’t particularly love the color orange, so I don’t decorate with it often, but copper goes with anything and fall decor is the exception to my rule.

This copper spray paint works beautifully on so many thrifted and dollar store finds! I found these metal votive holders at the dollar store and spray painted them copper for a Thanksgiving table. Warm tones create that instantly cozy home feeling.

7. Swap out your art with a few fall prints

Source | Autumn Mountain Landscape Art Printable

Free Printable | Autumn Oil Painting Printable Art

Free Printable | Fall Botany Art Gallery Wall Printables

It’s so easy to print out fall art and stick it in a frame. What’s even better is it requires zero storage! Just rotate your art prints in the seasons and keep them all inside of your picture frames. It’s one of the easiest fall decor ideas to pull off.

If you’re thinking ahead to Halloween, you get get this skeleton art or potion label printables to stick on any bottles and jars you have in your recycling bin.

8. Add fall plants to your porch

Tutorial | Faux DIY Concrete Planters With Spray Paint

Stick some mums, oriental cabbage, goldenrod, coral bells, marigolds, coleus, or ornamental grass in your porch planters for a cozy home welcome.

9. Reuse thrifted containers to make candles

Tutorial | DIY Candle from a Thrifted Brass Canister

I love making my own candles with copper cups, amber glass, crocks, or any other antique/vintage style containers already in our cabinets.

Keep an eye out for great candle vessels at thrift stores (and maybe even give away your DIY candles as gifts). Nothing creates a cozy home quite like a candle that smells like fall with cinnamon, clove, mahogany, apple, tobacco, or pumpkin undertones.

10. Use produce and branches as your table’s fall centerpiece

Tutorial | Simple Thanksgiving Table Decor Done in 10 Minutes

Plop Peter Pumpkin smack in the middle of your table and call it done. Stick a few leafy stems snipped from your yard around him, if you’re feeling ambitious.

If you don’t have a pumpkin, scatter pears, apples, or artichokes on the table, if those happen to be in your produce drawer.

11. Snip colorful branches from your yard to display.

We have a ginkgo tree in our front yard that turns bright yellow just before Thanksgiving every year, and it makes my heart so happy!

Keep an eye out for color changing plum, burgundy, or gold branches around your yard that you can use inside.

12. Put out a few lanterns.

Tutorial | 8 Fall Decor Fire Pit Ideas for a Cozy Backyard Party

Place a few lanterns on an entry table, dining table, or place them on your front porch steps.

If you don’t want to mess with real candles, use battery powered ones look like the real thing without the fire hazard. (Bonus points: Battery candles can be set on a timer to automatically turn on when it gets dark in the evenings.)

13. Let your lamps set the mood

Tutorial | DIY Rustic Table Lamp Makeover & Inexpensive Designer Dupe Lamps

We hardly ever turn on our overhead lights because the inviting glow from lamps can’t be beat. I prefer 3000K light bulbs to create that just slightly warm cozy home feeling.

14. Go pumpkin crazy

Tutorial | How to Keep Pumpkins from Rotting – 1 Minute Trick

Okay, this one is kind of a splurge if you don’t grow your own pumpkins, but it’s so fun to fill porch steps with pumpkins spilling all over them.

If you want to go faux, these faux pumpkins look so real!

15. Make a DIY s’mores table

Tutorial | DIY S’mores Table

If you have an outdoor table with a hole for a patio umbrella (or are willing to drill a hole in one that doesn’t), this tabletop fire pit is perfect for making your own s’mores table.

16. Make your own wreath

Tutorial | DIY Eucalyptus & Feather Early Fall Wreath

If you have a leafy green wreath already, stick some pheasant feathers in it and it feels instantly more fall-ish. Or see more pretty fall wreaths here.

17. Repurpose thrifted wire baskets and Jello molds to make mini pumpkins

Tutorial | Wire Basket and Bundt Pan Pumpkins

Think outside of the box using secondhand items to make your own quirky faux pumpkins. I used these wire bread baskets and Jello molds I found at the thrift store to make some.

18. Paint plastic pumpkins

Tutorial | Modern Painted Pumpkins 3 Ways

The dollar store and Target dollar spot have foam and plastic pumpkins all the time. Elevate them a bit by painting them with spray paint, texturizing them to look like concrete, or weather them using a mud coating method.

19. Repurpose a plaid blanket into a tablecloth

Tutorial | 5 Tips for an Inexpensive Thanksgiving Table Decor & Printable Cooking Schedule

You probably already have a throw blanket in your stash or a plaid scarf in your closet somewhere. Repurpose them instead into a table cloth or table runner for a fall meal!

20. Display cozy art on your TV

Tutorial | How to Display TV Art on Any Smart TV + Free Art

Did you know you can display art on your TV? You can even search “vintage art” on YouTube for art that will display for an hour or two at a time. It’s an easy way to make a focal point blend into a room and set the tone for fall with fall art.

If you already have a Samsung Frame TV, you can get more art displays here.

21. Bonus: Play cozy home music

Post | Our Favorite Relaxing Music – The Cozy Home Playlist

Maybe it doesn’t really count as fall decor, but playing soft blues, classical, jazz, etc from this playlist we created totally sets the mood for a cozy home for intimate evenings hanging out around the dinner table or snuggled up reading on the couch.

Got any others to add to the list?

I’m going to attempt a few DIY fall decor projects this week in honor of the upcoming season, so we’ll see if those make it to the “cozy” list next year. Fingers crossed.

More DIY Fall Decor Ideas

• Fall Decor Favorites Under $40
• 14 Best Fall Decor Items to Buy in Thrift Stores
• Earthy Fall Living Room & My Favorite Budget Fall Decor Capsule