51 Easy DIY Fall Decorations to Make Your Home Feel Cozy
Give your home an autumnal update with these crafty ideas.
There’s a lot to love about fall: The gorgeous foliage, the Halloween celebrations, Thanksgiving dinner, and of course, the return of pumpkin spice lattes. If you’re looking to bring the cozy autumnal vibes into your home, you’ll want to try these fall decorating ideas. From DIY wreaths to crafty centerpieces, these ideas add a festive feeling to the home.
Whether you’re an experienced crafter or a total DIY beginner, there’s sure to be an fall decor idea here that sparks your creativity. Many of these crafts make use of things you can probably find in your yard, like acorns, leaves, and pinecones. Other ideas allow you to upcycle things you already have around the house, like cloth napkins or glass vases.
Making these fall decorations for the home is a fun activity for adults, teens, and kids. While some of these crafts are better left to grown-ups, there are plenty of kid-friendly ideas here, like painted pumpkins, a gratitude tree for Thanksgiving, and a glittery acorn display.
Ahead, check out our favorite fall decorating ideas. If you’re looking for more ideas, read up on the vintage fall trends designers love and the fall decorating trends designers want you to ditch.
Boo Pumpkin Door Sign
Take a maximalist approach and elevate your front door with leaves, wheat stalks and a trio of pumpkins that read "Boo." Create your letters on the gourds using glittery paint.
Pumpkin Succulent Family
A family made of pumpkins and succulents makes adorable outdoor decor. Simply carve out the top of the pumpkins and gourds. Scoop out the seeds and guts before adding rocks and succulents inside. Draw faces on the gourds with paint and voila! Your new neighbors are only a few steps away.
Painted Pumpkin Wreath
Purchase a set of acrylic mini pumpkins and gourds. Spray paint them in colorful hues of red, pink, blue, yellow and orange before hot gluing them to a wreath form for hanging. The brighter, the better!
Maize Corn Vase
A plain glass vase gets a festive fall upgrade with dried corn on the cob and florals. Use raffia in a matching metallic color to keep the corn and flowers together. It's a gorgeous centerpiece that'll wow your dinner guests.
Pressed Leaf Pumpkins
Easily attach pressed flowers and leaves to your faux pumpkins using Mod Podge. Coat your gourds with the glue first before using tweezers to carefully place the leaves on top. Smooth out the design with a paintbrush before adding another coat of Mod Podge over the designs.
Spider Web Drink Umbrellas
After making these mini spider web umbrellas, place them in your drinks or anywhere on the table for an unexpected dose of spooky decor. Use a Cricut machine to cut out a spider web template on 12x12 black craft paper. Score the straight lines that lead to the center using a bone folder. Make an umbrella shape by folding the straight lines. Hot glue the center of the web to a skewer stick and then get ready to enjoy your adorable creations!
Pom-Pom Pumpkins
Hot glue pom-poms to your gourds for a simple yet cheerful upgrade. Paint the pumpkins in your desired shade before attaching the pom-poms in a variety of creative designs, like flowers.
Gratitude Tree
DIY a gratitude tree for your table or mantel. The acorns are made using gold and brown crepe paper, while the leaves were cut out from colorful cardstock.
Pumpkin Flower Pots
These cute flower arrangements are perfect for your mantel, porch or dining room table. Carve out the top of a mini pumpkin. Cut out the bottom of a water bottle and place it inside the gourd to use as a vase before filling it with your favorite blooms.
Acorn Art
Go on an acorn hunt in the backyard. Use glitter glue to paint your find, before attaching them to a sheet of cardstock for framing.
Paper Leaf and Mandarin Garland
Here's a garland you can keep on the stairwell all season long, even before fall officially starts! For this fun garland, just let your orange slices air dry for a few days or dry them in the oven.
Tin Punched Votive Candles
Let the entire family join in on this craft, where they'll paint tin cans to transform them into votives. You'll need a punch tool or nail to hammer holes for the wording.
Wood Crate Centerpiece
Create an eye-catching fall centerpiece by filling a wood crate with moss, pinecones and leaves — any natural elements you can find outdoors, really.
Metallic Pumpkins
Let's take those orange pumpkins up a notch by giving them a bronze metallic finish. Once painted, place them on your porch or staircase to add to your fall decor.
Dried Flower Wreath
Dried flowers are having a huge moment right now. To create this stunning wreath, nestle dried branches, flowers and grass into the wreath form and be sure they are secure by weaving them into the wreath base. Start with larger items and add smaller, thinner items on top. Then, wire the dried fruit on last with floral wire by threading through the holes and wrapping it around the wreath form (you may need hot glue if the dried fruit you are using has no holes).
Retro Carved Pumpkin
Your Halloween pumpkins can last way into the fall season when they are painted in a neutral hue and feature carvings that are more sophisticated, such as these diamond shapes.
Pressed Leaf Gallery Wall
It's surprisingly simple to create your own pressed leaf art. Once you gather the prettiest leaves from your backyard, you can press them between the pages of a large book or between layers of wax paper with heavy books on top. A few days later, you can put them in rustic picture frames to recreate this gallery wall.
Wooden Wreath
You'll only need a few supplies to recreate this DIY wooden wreath by Alice & Lois. Paint thinly sliced wood craft pieces in fall hues, like shades of red, orange and yellow. Then, layer the different pieces to form a wreath shape.
Colorful Dried Flowers
Here's an easy way to add a pop of color to your interior — and, you won't have to worry about the flowers dying. All you need is dried florals, Tulip fabric dye and spray paint!
Fall Mantel Decor
Pumpkins, gourds and faux leaves are the obvious choice for fall mantel decor. If you're looking to get creative, drape festive cloth napkins over the edge for added texture.
Alyssa Gautieri (she/her) leads Good Housekeeping’s gift guide strategy. She writes and edits commerce content, where she analyzes lifestyle trends, shopping data, and works closely with the Good Housekeeping Institute to recommend top-tested products. Previously, she was the associate lifestyle editor for GH and wrote for publications including ELLE Decor, BobVila.com, and Unique Homes Magazine. When she’s not tracking down buzzy products, you can find her walking her dog, Skye, around Jersey City.
Mariah Thomas (she/her) is an assistant editor for Good Housekeeping, where she covers home and lifestyle content. Mariah has more than four years of editorial experience, having written for TLC, Apartment Therapy, Women's Health and Avocado Magazine. She received her master's degree in journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and published her first book, Heart and Soul: Poems of Thoughts and Emotions, in 2019. She's also the founder of RTF Community, a platform for creatives of color to connect, learn and showcase their work.
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