65 Best Fall Decor Ideas to Transform Your Home Into a Cozy Retreat
Budget-friendly ways to upgrade your living room, porch and more.
There's no shortage of fun fall activities that will help you embrace the cozy season. Once the temperature dips, you can take your pick of pumpkin carving, apple picking, hayrides and even fall craft for kids (adults can join in on the fun, too!). But embracing this time of year also means refreshing your home with festive fall decor ideas — and they don't have to be expensive.
When decorating your home for fall, you can start small with a DIY centerpiece. Elegant ideas include flower pot pumpkins, maize corn vases and creative arrangements with wheat or sunflowers. Consider upgrading your porch's decor with colorful garlands, standout wreaths and painted gourds. Or, dress up our living room mantel with chestnut garlands or an assortment of pumpkins set on top of plaid cloth napkins. We even suggest an array of ideas that work for Thanksgiving and Halloween night (a spooky wreath, perhaps?).
So, get ready to craft the perfect cool-weather escape with the fall home decor ideas below. No matter your home's aesthetic, you're sure to find options to celebrate autumn in style.
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.
Press 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.
Wood Beam Pumpkin
Neutral and chic, yet festive, this wood bead pumpkin is super easy to make. For materials, you'll only need wired twine, wooden beads and lamb's ear leaves. The finished product will look adorable on your bookshelf, coffee table or kitchen island.
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.
Warm Outdoor Setup
Create a beautiful outdoor tablescape with terracotta planters full of fall flowers, lanterns and festive dishware. Add texture with a layered outdoor rug, faux fur and plaid throw blankets.
Alyssa Gautieri (she/her) is the associate lifestyle editor for Good Housekeeping, where she covers all things home and interior design. Prior to joining GH in 2022, she wrote for publications including ELLE Decor, Chairish, BobVila.com, Unique Homes Magazine and LODGING Magazine, in addition to crafting product copy for home brands like BrylaneHome and VIGO Industries.
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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