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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!

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diy fall decor ideas for a cozy home

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.

dried hydrangeas used as DIY fall decor to create a cozy home in a dining room

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!

fall leaves pressed into a book for DIY fall decor
DIY fall decor gallery wall using pressed fall leaves in frames

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.

back porch decorated for fall with string lights to create a cozy home

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.

velvet and leather throw pillows on a bed for a cozy home decor for fall

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.

terracotta vase with olive branches wooden bowl with pears and fall candle

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.

candles holder spray painted copper for DIY fall decor on a table

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.

DIY fall decor by printing a free art autumn landscape printable

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.

fall planters on a front porch with mums and ornamental grass

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.

DIY fall decor using a brass canister as a candle
kitchen shelves and amber glass candles to create a cozy home for DIY fall decor

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.

cozy fall table using leaves, candles, and pears as a simple fall centerpiece

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outdoor dining table decorated for fall with pumpkin centerpiece, eucalyptus, and copper

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.

fall leaves in a vase for simple fall decor in a foyer
gingko leaves snipped from a tree and put in a vase for easy DIY fall decor

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.)

lanterns in a backyard around a cozy fire pit

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.

cozy bedroom decor with lamps using 3000K light bulbs

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!

cozy front porch decorated with fall decor using pumpkins, mums, and ornamental cabbage

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.

DIY s'mores table featuring a tabletop fire pit and s'mores ingredients

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.

DIY fall decor with a DIY eucalyptus and feather wreath

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.

DIY fall decor made from wire baskets and Jello molds to look like pumpkins

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.

faux pumpkins spray painted brass for DIY fall decor on a coffee table

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!

plaid throw blanket used on a dining table as a tablecloth to set the mood of a cozy home

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.

smart tv art displaying pears in a bowl for a cozy living room

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.

record player and vase of fall leaves

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.

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6 Comments

  1. I literally laughed out loud when you said dry hydrangeas from you yard. Ours are already so crunchy, I’m afraid of touching them! Love every idea. Heading to the thrift store for some awesome containers. I’d like to make candles. Thanks!

  2. Great post , many great ideas!
    We know bloggers have to be a season ahead. Helps me get thinking & prepared!
    Thank you!