Decorating your home for each season is nice, but can add up if you don’t buy fall decor on a budget.
Fall is my favorite season to decorate the house for- it’s preparation for the holidays, I’m more active in the fall, and it seems like all the best candle scents are out in the fall. Waking up and being productive is easier, the weather is great, fall fashion is easy and comfortable, there are so many family friendly activities to do, and of course, pumpkin EVERYTHING.
I’m just overall a happier person during the fall. Although this year’s “fall” started later (it was 90 degrees end of September this year in Jersey), decorating the apartment helped kick start our season on time. I’m normally not into interior designing/decorating, I just don’t have the eye for it (my boyfriend is so much better at it than I am). However, I do love decorating for the fall & winter holidays. Usually, I find myself spending a lot of money on decorations during this time, but this year things are a little financially different now that we have a baby. I set myself a budget and went shopping for decor. Surprisingly I found a lot of cute things on the affordable side.
A quick overview of my living room. The pillows came with our couch and they’re perfect for the fall, so I didn’t have to buy any decorative pillows. I did purchase the orange throw blanket from target for $20 and they’re actually on sale right now for $15! It’s probably one of our softest blankets we have and it’s a great size for cuddling!
On our coffee table, I got the wheelbarrow at Joann Fabrics last fall for $50. I used a coupon on it, but it was still on the higher end for my budget this year. Had I needed to buy one this year, I would’ve picked this one up from Target for only $15. The pumpkins and leaves inside the wheelbarrow where random ones I bought from Joanns’ and some I found from work (lol). Joanns’ has the pumpkins this year for only $3 and the leaves for $2.40! The other pumpkins were purchased on Amazon for $9.98 along with some of the leaves I also used to decorate for $10.99. I only used the ones from amazon because I found them at work, otherwise I wouldn’t have purchased them. The quality of the ones from Joanns’ are better.
Other items you’ll find on our coffee table is a Bath & Body Works candle and my little sunflower candy bowl from Hobby Lobby. I love B&BW candles but only buy them when they are on sale. These candles are normally $24.50, but I purchased them when they were on sale for $15 each, then had a $10 off of $30 coupon. They came down to $10 each! CHA-CHING. Ran out the store with 4 of them. Keep a lookout for when they’re on sale and subscribing to their email is definitely worth it because they’ll send you all the good coupons via email. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the sunflower bowl online, but you may still find some left in store. I paid $5 for this one.
In our living room I also have a little end table with a B&BW candle and a little flower vase. The flower vase you can find at dollar tree for $1 and I used some of the leaves I purchased from Joanns’ to cover the stems of the flowers. I got the flower bouquet last year for $15. Here is a similar one from this year.
Other decorative pieces in our living room are the hanging bike and a welcome home sign on our bar along with yet again another B&BW candle. The hanging bike I got from target for $20 and I filled the little basket with some of the pumpkins I got from work. The “Welcome to our Home” sign I got from Joanns’ last year for $13. I’ll probably paint the bike’s basket red and leave it up for Christmas and fill it up with tiny wrapped presents for my Christmas decor.
Moving on to the kitchen I have a cute coffee station that I bought last year for a “Hot Chocolate” station during the holidays. The two tier tray I purchased from Hobby Lobby last year was $15 (it was 50% off). I already had the red Starbucks cup and the white LIVE mug, but I purchased the burgundy mug at Target for $5 and the orange mug from Hobby Lobby for $5. I used some of the flowers from my other bouquet and put it in a small mason jar with the artificial leaves I already bought. Little Barcelona espresso mug was from our recent trip to Spain and the tiny wooden pumpkin is from Hobby Lobby for $2.
For the oven area I only got a few things. From Hobby Lobby I got the Happy Harvest sign for $3.50, the pumpkin salt & pepper shakers for $4, and the orange bowl I use as a spoon rest for $3.50. The three kitchen towels I purchased last year from Joanns. The middle one I bought for $10, but the printed ones I could only find on Ebay for $12. I wanted to add an extra pop of orange, so I bought the #squashgoals spatula from Target for $4.
Our apartment is pretty small, so I only decorated the living room, kitchen, and bathroom. In our bathroom, I got a small orange candle from Hobby Lobby for $5, hand soap from Bath & Body Works for $3 and some towels from target for $6 but they’re currently on sale for $4.50 each. I’ve linked the white, grey, and orange towel for you to check out! The hand soap is normally $6 each but once again I received a coupon via email that saved me 50%. So I bought 3 hand soaps (one for the kitchen and one extra) and three holiday ones as well.
Last decor I have in the bathroom is a large mason jar filled with potpourri that smells AMAZING from Hobby Lobby for $12, and a pumpkin/leaves arrangement I got from Joanns’ last year. Couldn’t find the arrangement anymore, but I would’ve went with a cute little sign like this one instead for $8 if I didn’t have it.
I spent no more than $160 on decorations this year and was able to turn my apartment into a cozy home. I probably would’ve been able to spend even less if I didn’t have an obsession with Bath & Body Works candles lol. The good thing about these decorations is that you can go without purchasing new decor next year, or you can just buy a few new things to add to your collection.