How to decorate your home for Fall for free – save money by buying less seasonal Fall home decor.
Hi friend!
This week felt like one of those weeks that sneaks up on you.
One minute it’s Summer, and then suddenly Eve, Maci, and Livvy were whooshed off to all things first day of school. Eve actually left waaayy earlier than normal to participate in “Senior Sunrise” because yes, friend.
Eve is a Senior.
I have no idea how those words just appeared on the screen, because surely my fingers did not type that my Evie is a senior.
And yet.
I did.
Because she is.
A Senior.
One day, she was a nervous little nugget, anxiously waiting at the bus stop, ready or not, to board the big yellow bus.
A little white hat provided by the school, sat on top of her blonde hair, so as to not let kindergartners get lost in the shuffle of bus deboarding.
And now?
Now, she is the shuffle.
Instead of a white hat wearing kindergartner, disappearing into the cue of kiddos at the bus line…
She is a white car disappearing around the bend, before the sun comes up.
And just like that…she was off to begin her last first day.
Watching her car pull way, took me back to the day I watched the school bus doors clap shut and watched the bus pull away from the curb for the first time…with my little girl inside.
I rememebered, how my sweet neighbor Jill, had asked me if I was okay?
For the record?
I was not.
I tried to hide my tears from her, as I nodded my head quickly up and down in her direction and then fast walked down the sidewalk, back to my front door, where I could ugly cry in the comfort of my couch.
And now?
Well, so much has changed in the time sandwich of 17 years…and also?
So much has remained.
I am still that Mom whose throat catches tight at the sight of her girl pulling away.
Ugly cries seem to be on a hiatus – for now…
But, the stomach still twists.
And right behind the whiplash of sending off our Senior…
Maci and Livvy quickly dashed out the door to begin all things 10th and 7th grade.
It’s as if Willa and Winnie knew something was different on that first day of school morning, because they were determined not to be left out of the back to school photos. 🙂
As much as I love the slower pace of Summer, there’s also plenty of runway in my heart to be a September girl too. 🙂
The fresh start.
The routines.
The feeling of settling back in.
There is something about Fall that just resets me.
So when the girls headed back to school, I found myself craving a little reset of my own.
I started in the room where I spend so much of my everyday life:
My home office.
If you’ve been around here for awhile, then chances are you already know that the wall of my built-in bookcases are actually IKEA bookcases.
Yes, actually.
A few summers ago, Shawn tackled our first-ever IKEA hack and used three Billy Bookcases to create this wall of custom-looking built-ins for my home office.
You can see the entire DIY from start to finish HERE in this post, “Wait Until You See These Built-In Bookshelves – IKEA Hack”
I have LOVED these DIY built-in bookcases for years now…
But lately?
They started to feel…well –
Boring.
Translation of what that really means to my interior creative world:
Uninspiring.
And so?
So, I did something about it.
I emptied every shelf of my built-in bookcase, dusted everything off, and then started putting it all back together again—
Pulling pieces from other rooms, shopping my cabinets, rediscovering things I had forgotten about, and giving some of my favorite pieces a cozy home.
Zero new things were bought.
In fact?
I have not stepped into a single store all week.
This last week has been all about resetting and re-engaging with what is right in front of me….and embracing one of my personal core decorating values of “Maximizing what you already have.”
You can read more on this core value of maximizing what you already have and what it means about contentment – HERE in this post:
“How to find motivation when you don’t feel like starting.”
And all of this maximizing what you already have, got me thinking about Fall decorating.
We don’t always need more seasonal Fall decor.
Maybe we just need more purpose behind the things we already have.
My newly styled shelves don’t exactly scream FALL.
You won’t find a pumpkin on every shelf or a collection of cookie-cutter seasonal props.
What you will find instead is soul.
Layers and texture.
Intentionally selected soft browns and warm beiges.
Things that feel like the season without performing it.
The goal was a bookcase that feels styled with depth, not assembled from a seasonal checklist.
Something that tells a little story about who actually lives here.
A Note On The Shells
The shells I’ve collected over the years will always have a place in my home.
They aren’t reserved for summer around here.
Because decorating our homes isn’t about following every seasonal rule.
It’s about knowing what you love—and being brave enough to keep it there.
And I get asked about it every single time.
Here’s my honest answer:
I love shells.
They make me feel grounded and a little bit coastal even when I’m nowhere near the ocean. And I decided a while back that I wasn’t going to pack them away just because a season said I should.
In fact, this post“21 Simple Ways To Decorate With Shells” remains my number 1 pinned post on Pinterest and most read blog of all time.
Coincidence?
I don’t believe in them.
Your home should reflect you, not a calendar. If you have something that makes you happy every time you walk past it, that’s the most important styling rule there is.
Keep it out.
Display it proudly.
Decorate with intention.
Decorate with honesty.
The rest will follow.
Now about those freshly styled Fall-ish shelves in my home office…
Today on the blog, I am sharing a tour of my home office decorated for Fall, along with my top pro tips on how to decorate your home for Fall for free, by maximizing what you already have.
Plus a little sneak peak of our next home project is tucked into this post too, if you’re not careful – you might miss it!
Are you ready to see what my built-in bookcases look like now and get those Fall decorating ideas?
Follow me friend.
Fall Decorating: Less Props, More Purpose
Now, aree you ready to see my freshly restyled built-in bookshelves?
To refresh our memory – I started with a blank slate:
Because, anytime I am restyling a space, I find it necessary to remove all the things.
By removing all the items from the space that I am aiming to re-work, I allow my brain to think of fresh ways for the space to breathe and be…
If I keep some items and only remove a few things?
The space will usually wind up still feeling stuck.
And now?
If you popped over for a visit, this is the home office that would greet you and invite you to pull up a chair:
What do you think?
I warned you.
The goal was not for these bookshelves to scream FALL!
The goal was for the shelves to feel like Fall, through intentional color use, texture and art.
How to decorate for Fall without buying more stuff.
Here’s the thing about seasonal decorating:
I love it.
I love the candles. The cozy textures. The warmer colors. The feeling that Fall brings into a home.
But I don’t love the idea that decorating for a new season means we need to go out and buy an entirely new collection of things to put around our homes.
Especially when we probably already have so much.
So, as I was craving my own back to school refresh in my home office…I put into practice my core decorating value of maximizing what I already had.
Which sent me shopping my own house, instead of shopping the aisles of Target.
And honestly?
It was way more fun.
Fall Decorating My Built-In Bookcases
Let’s start with my home office built-ins because this is where my little Fall reset began.
Once everything was pulled off the shelves, I had a completely blank canvas.
And instead of immediately thinking about what I could purchase to fill the space, I started walking around my house.
I pulled books from inside my office cabinets.
I gathered decor pieces that had been in nearby rooms.
I moved things around.
I played.
And slowly, the shelves started to come back together.
use books with warm, neutral tones
One of the easiest ways to make a bookcase feel ready for Fall is simply to pay attention to the colors already living in your books.
For my office, I pulled books in shades of tan, cream, beige, brown and muted neutrals. I also always remove all of the jacket covers from my books.
This is one of my favorite decorating tricks because books don’t feel like seasonal decor.
They feel like a part of your home.
And when you choose books based not only on what they say but also on their color, texture and size, they can become one of the most beautiful styling elements on a shelf, or a mantel.
Two weeks ago, I picked these two books up during a quick stroll through a local thrift store.
I brought the books and a few other goodies home with me and snapped these quick pictures, while waiting in line.
You may recognize those goodies from last week’s post, when I shared the evolution of our living room in this post: “How to decorate a living room.”
Like all the rooms in our home, I like a bookcase to feel collected over time, rather than perfectly coordinated.
Some books stand upright.
Some are stacked horizontally.
Some are grouped by color.
Others are there simply because I love them.
The goal isn’t perfection.
It’s creating layers that feel like you.
add texture with greenery
Next came the texture.
I used plants and faux pampas grass stems that I already had around the house to soften the shelves and bring a little movement into all of those books and hard surfaces.
This is another reason I love decorating with things that aren’t specifically labeled Fall decor.
Greenery works in every season.
The same plant that feels fresh in Spring can feel warm and earthy in Fall depending on what you put around it.
And those faux pampas stems?
Artificial Bunny Tail Pampas Grass Stems
They add exactly the kind of soft, feathery texture I wanted without needing to buy another seasonal arrangement.
When you’re decorating built-in bookshelves, texture is your friend.
Books provide visual weight.
Plants provide life.
Woven pieces, ceramics, wood, baskets and dried stems add dimension.
And suddenly, a shelf doesn’t need ten little decorative objects to feel interesting.
It just needs a few things with different textures and heights.
Print Free Art vs Buying Seasonal Word Signs
Here’s another little trick I love:
Free printable art.
There are so many beautiful Fall-inspired art prints available online that you can download and print.
I found a few simple Fall prints that felt soft and understated, printed them in various sizes at our local CVS or Walgreens and placed them into frames I already owned.
And suddenly, I had a little seasonal moment without adding another permanent piece of Fall decor to my collection.
I love this approach because you can change the art with the season while keeping the frame.
It gives you the feeling of something new without actually accumulating more stuff.
And when the season is over?
The print can come down, get filed away, and the frame can go right back to doing its everyday job.
Seasonal decorating doesn’t have to mean seasonal shopping.
tell your story through photographs
This Summer, Evie had her senior photos taken at the beach and she asked if my Mom, her sisters and I would hop in for a few photos. (Shawn was still back at home, this was during our girls week tradtion, with Grandma)
Watching Eve during her photo shoot and now staring at this wrinkle in time that has been captured from a special Summer…
Well, it may not say Fall to you…and I get that.
But?
It’s gently reminding my heart…to hold this current season close…
before it slips away.
No matter the season, your personal story should always be present.
Bonus Space:
Bring Fall To Your Entryway by shopping your closet
Once I started looking at my house differently, I couldn’t stop.
Like our entryway.
I started noticing little opportunities for Fall everywhere.
We have gold hooks by the door, and rather than buying something new to hang there for Fall, I went into my closet.
And pulled out a single scarf that my Mom knitted for me.
That’s it.
A scarf.
But hung from one of the hooks, it instantly added that cozy, layered feeling I wanted.
(Spoiler alert!! Yes! I am wallpapering!! You get a sneak peek here…and does that pair of gold frames look familiar from my thrift finds shared earlier) 😉
bring the outside – inside
And then there is probably the most obvious decorating resource of all:
Your own backyard.
I walked outside and harvested hydrangeas from our yard, cut them, and arranged them in a ceramic flower pot that I already owned.
There was no trip to the flower market.
No expensive Fall arrangement.
No faux pumpkin-and-leaf centerpiece.
Just flowers from my yard, a container I already had, and a little time.
And I think that’s part of what makes decorating this way feel so good.
It isn’t just economical.
It’s personal.
Top Tip For Fall Decorating:
maximize what you already have
Maximize what you already have.
Not because I think we should never buy anything new.
I absolutely believe there is a place for bringing something beautiful and meaningful into your home.
But I also think there is something incredibly satisfying about looking at what you already own with fresh eyes.
Many times we don’t need another thing, we simply need a fresh arrangement.
A little editing.
A little re-imagination.
Or simply enough time to actually see the things we already have.
And that’s exactly what this little Fall refresh did for me.
I didn’t buy orange pumpkins at Target.
I didn’t fill a cart with seasonal signs.
I didn’t replace everything on my shelves.
Instead, I slowed down long enough to notice what was already here.
And then I put it to work.
Less Props.
More Purpose.
My office shelves may not scream Fall.
And I’m okay with that.
Actually, I’m more than okay with it.
They feel like Fall in the way I want Fall to feel.
Warm.
Layered.
Soft.
Collected.
A little nostalgic.
A little cozy.
But most importantly, they feel like me.
There are books I love.
Shells I refuse to put away.
Pieces I’ve collected over time.
Textures that make me want to reach out and touch them.
Colors that feel softer as the days get shorter.
Nothing on those shelves is there simply because a seasonal decorating rule told me it should be.
And maybe that’s the bigger lesson I’m carrying into this season.
Your home doesn’t need to look like Fall.
It needs to feel like Fall to you.
Maybe that means pumpkins everywhere.
Maybe it means a bowl of pinecones.
Maybe it’s a candle burning on the kitchen counter.
Or maybe, like me, it’s it’s a knit scarf pulled from your closet, hydrangeas from your backyard and layers of books you love, with a fresh candle flickering.
Because the best seasonal decorating isn’t about following a checklist.
It’s about creating a home that supports the life you’re actually living.
And right now?
I’m craving slow simplicity.
I’m craving a home that feels like a soft place to land at the end of the day—and an inspiring place to begin it each morning.
May it be so.
Living on a prayer,
Heather
Re-Cap: Ways To Decorate For Fall For Free
- Shop your bookshelves for books in warm, earthy and neutral tones.
- Move decor pieces from one room to another.
- Add texture with plants, dried stems, baskets, blankets and woven pieces you already own.
- Print free seasonal artwork and place it in frames you already have.
- Look in your closet for cozy scarves, sweaters or textiles that can become seasonal accents.
- Cut branches, hydrangeas or other flowers from your yard.
- Rearrange your shelves instead of filling them with new objects.
- Use candles you already own to create a cozy Fall atmosphere.
- Pull out ceramic, wood and natural-material pieces that feel warm and earthy.
- Before buying anything seasonal, ask yourself: “What do I already have that could create this feeling?”
