How to Decorate for Fall on a Budget

I’m so happy that Fall is here, it’s my favorite time of year because it’s so beautiful and somehow everything about it smells amazing! But every year I get overwhelmed looking around on Pinterest and feeling like I need to have tons of decorations for Fall. There are so many fabulous tablescapes and mantle decorations all over Pinterest but what do you do if you can’t afford to go out and buy lots of Fall decorations? Today I’m going to give some tips and ideas for how to decorate for Fall on a budget, and when we’re done your home will look, smell and feel ready for Fall!

#1 Candles

When you walk into a home and the air is filled with the fragrance of spiced apples, pumpkins or something freshly baked, you are automatically swept into a blissful place. 🙂 The number one way to make your house feel like Fall is to fill your home with the scents of fall. I love the Better Homes and Gardens candles at Walmart because they are inexpensive and smell AMAZING. It’s also easy to pair them with the Better Homes and Gardens wax cubes that you can use in a burner (I use a Scentsy burner) so even if you can’t have a candle burning, your house will still smell delicious. Michaels also has yummy seasonal candles, they are a little more expensive but also last longer.

#2 Choose a Fall Color

It’s easy to go overboard with color since there are so many beautiful Fall colors. My advice is to pick one, or two, colors and stick with those. By doing this your guests will be drawn to those colors throughout your home and notice every decoration you have, even if it’s not very many. For example, we have a lot of teals and grays in our house, so this year I decided to decorate for Fall with deep purples, oranges and whites. I switched out the colored dishes on the open shelves in my kitchen, I added a a few decorations to our dining room table and I purchased inexpensive pillow covers at IKEA to transform the pillows on the couch.

Most of my decorations were things I already had but I did purchase a few new key items, like all the deep purple flowers. You save a lot of money if you repurpose old decorations and only purchase a few new things that coordinate with your color scheme.  Even though I didn’t spend a lot on decorations, my house still looks like fall and is inviting for our guests.

#3 Lighting

Summer is a time for bright lights and lots of sunshine but when Fall comes around it’s time to tone it down a little. We have dimmers on all our main lights which allows us to bring the light down just a little to “set the mood”. Dimmers are a great way to play with the lighting in your house and they are also very affordable and easy to install. You can even buy lamp dimmers on Amazon to dim all your floor and table lamps!

The other way to get your Fall lighting perfect, is to add candles. Once the weather cools down I add candles and tea lights in just about every room in our house. I buy tea lights in packs of 100 and go through them in a couple months! I recommend the unscented tea lights because you don’t want them to interfere with the smell of your seasonal candles.

#4 Front Porch

The last, but certainly not the least thing, to think about is your front porch. Your front porch is the first thing your guests will see and it’s the first impression they will have of your Fall decorating. You don’t need to go overboard and put out tons of decorations, in fact I like to keep mine pretty simple.

Placing a fall wreath on the front door and adding lanterns and/or pumpkins is all you need. Keeping your porch decorations simple will make decorating it affordable, but will have a big impact on welcoming your guests!

Now it’s time for you to decorate your home! Buy a few key decorations, or use what you already have, either way you’ll be saving money with these tips, which means more money set aside for Christmas!

Disclosure: I have included affiliate links in this post but if you purchase through them you will not pay a cent more than you would otherwise. Thank you for supporting Ask Anna!