A ($30) Budget Fall Home Tour

Can I be real with you for a second? Ok, you are going to/have already seen tons of amazing fall home tours in the blog-o-sphere. They are like dreamy lands of cozy feelings and classy décor. This is not one of those home tours.

I’ve talked about our budget before, so it’s no secret that it’s tight….at least where “non-essentials” are concerned. Unfortunately, fall décor fell into that non-essential category, which made living up to the high standard that has been set by many other amazing people impossible.

Now, believe me, I’m not complaining. We are on the right track for paying off our house and saving for retirement and our kid’s college and that is a huge blessing. But, I did say I was going to be real with you, right? I love seasonal decorating and would love to go over the top with beautiful fall decor, but….

Well, though it was considered, I couldn’t just skip over fall decorating, regardless of our budget. So, I went outside to see what I could find for free and spruced up some things already in our house. And, you know what, being a little creative and resourceful paid off! It’s nothing fancy because I only spent $30 for all of it (that was just for the pumpkins), but its home and we love it.

Followers on Instagram got to see special sneak peeks of our fall decorations. Are you one of them?

This is my favorite #frugal piece of fall decor this year. It’s just a hydrangea bloom in a jar with grass cut from our backyard, but for some reason I’m struck by how pretty it is every time I see it. It’s the simple things sometimes 🙂

A photo posted by Rebekah Schwind (@charmingimperfections) on Oct 13, 2015 at 8:06am PDT

This little vignette is my favorite part. I cut some grass from our landscaping along with a hydrangea bloom and stuck them in a jar. An old lantern we’ve had and a mason jar full of clothespins make a nice grouping of three. A couple of white pumpkins top it off! (Love those white pumpkins!)

Above that is our pinecone garland. A free little project that I shared about earlier this month. I think it makes an excellent statement.

Our bookshelf got a few new items added to it as well. Some dried baby’s breath, another hydrangea, and, of course, white pumpkins make it lovely. (Can you spot my son’s little hands?)

This tool crate I’d made over the summer was something I was most excited to decorate because I knew just what to fill it with: baby’s breath and pumpkins.

My spool side table got some pumpkins and pinecones in this galvanized tub that I love.

On the sewing machine, more grass and pumpkins bring a subtle touch of fall.

 

Our front door even got a DIY Pinecone garland.

All in all, it’s not much, but I think it’s lovely and, most importantly, feels like home.

I’m sure there are many families on budgets like ours that struggle with decorating their homes for the seasons. I totally understand how it feels to want so badly to bring seasonal cheer into your house, but can’t justify the cost it takes. Let me encourage any in this situation to work with what you already have, find free elements from the outdoors to use, and remember that the precious moments you spend jumping in leaves and drinking hot cocoa by the fire are fall memories you will cherish longer than the decorations in your home.

Thanks for letting me be real with you and share our humble ($30) budget fall home tour!