DIY fall decor

well would ya look at that. I promised to keep you updated on something I was planning on accomplishing over the weekend and I'm ACTUALLY posting about it! 

anyway. typically, I skip fall and only decorate for the holidays, but this year, I was really hoping to add those warm fall tones to my decor. what I didn't want to do though, was spend a fortune on accessories that I would only be displaying a few weeks out of the year. so, I went to Michael's in search of cheap solutions. 

I ended up picking out a few floral arrangements, a few plastic pumpkins, some fall colored scrapbook paper, a few fillers (pine cones, little mini pumpkins, wine corks), metal word art, a basket that says "harvest", and some candles. my total at Michael's was around $100, but that also included some other miscellaneous objects that were not used for fall decor. I'd say that I spent about $60-$70 on supplies for the fall stuff, which isn't bad considering that I would probably spend 3 times that much if I chose to decorate for fall by shopping at Pottery Barn. 

here's what I did in the living room... 

one of our end tables.
handmade art by me (tutorial to come later), CREEPY word art from Michael's. 

the tray on our coffee table - the pumpkin & candle are new.
please excuse the mess. 

I like to treat the top of my entertainment center as a mantle, and so I set up two vignettes on each end... 

the only new items are the basket and the pine cones - I already owned the books, woven fillers, and the pear reed diffuser.  

the pine cones didn't come up high enough initially, so I packed some paper into the bottom of the basket to allow them to peek out of the top. 

the vase and the candle holder were things I already owned... just added the white pumpkin and flowers. I think that yellow vase could be my single favorite decor accessory... it makes it's way through every season! 

for the middle shelf, I recreated this DIY artwork that I spotted on Pinterest using fall colored scrapbook paper and cut out letters spelling FALL from brown scrapbook paper. I simply glued everything together and placed them in simple black frames. easy peasy. 

I decided to switch out some of the accessories in the bookcase this weekend too. 

luckily, we already had those orange office storage boxes from Ikea, so it wasn't too hard to make the bookcase look ready for fall. 

my excitement over this mustache scrapbook paper was embarrassing. 

glass vase filled with mini pumpkins, wine corks, and natural fillers (already owned). 

so that's it for our fall decor so far. I plan on switching out some of the art in the gallery wall for more autumn appropriate images and patterns (like this and this and this), so I'll make sure to shoot some pictures of that when it's completed. I still want to make a leafy garland out of scrapbook paper too (kinda like this, but strung together instead of hanging from a branch). 

other than adding the accessories, I keep fall scents burning in my Scentsy warmers until Christmas time comes. right now, we're enjoying the smell of Gingersnap! baked goods always remind me of fall. 

have you started to add some fall decor to your home yet? 

ALSO...I'm already working on convincing Sean to let me get real pumpkins this year for our porch! he's not buying it just yet, but maybe with the prospect of home baked pumpkin goodies, he'll change his mind! ;)