Seasons > American Independence Day > Home Decorations > Living Room and Dining Room

Adding flags and ribbons to decorations you already have around the house can quickly add patriotic spirit to the room. These flags were purchased at a dollar store, and put into a small glass jar to make them stand up. The jar is hidden by the tri-color ribbon purchased at a craft store. Dollar stores carry lots of inexpensive red white and blue decorative items at this time of year, and if you stock up, all you have to do is find good places to display them, and your house will soon feel very festive for the holiday.

This ship, representing the Boston Tea Party, looks complicated, but it really isn’t. The hull is cut from sheets of one inch styrofoam, glued together, then painted with a water soluble stain/varnish combination. The masts are dowels that are pushed through the boat into a styrofoam base.

The navy blue paper ribbon forming a swag in the photo above, can be purchased at craft stores, and adds to the rustic feel of the other decorations. It looks like paper rope when purchased, but when untwisted, it looks like very crinkly ribbon. it can be time consuming to untwist, but It’s not too bad if you do it while you are watching T.V. or riding in a car. The wooden stars on the swag and book shelf were purchased at a craft store and hundred yen stores, but home made versions could be made out of foam or cardboard if you do not have tools to make them out of wood.

This display is fairly easy to put together if you have a red candle and ribbon (it doesn’t have to be tri-colored. It can be just red or whit or blue or a combination of the 3). I printed out the constitution that I found on line, and grouped it with wire rimmed glasses from the hundred yen store and a feather “quill” from a craft store, though feathers can sometimes be found on the ground for free.

Here are two more ways to display the printed constitution. The one on the left simply adds a ribbon and some wooden blocks. These were purchased at a hundred yen store, but they could be made from foam or cardboard. Or, if your local craft store sells unfinished wooden shapes, you could paint them and put them together similar to the ones shown here.

This variation groups the constitution with a wreath and wooden flag. I added the flag to the wreath since it had red white and blue flowers. The flag was purchased at a craft store, but could also be made out of paper or cardboard.  Look around your house, and you may be surprised to find things that have muted red white and blue colors that can be used for fourth of July decorations.

Another super simple way to decorate for Independence Day is to festoon your home with dollar store flags. These are poked into a house plant, so they don’t even need a stand.

Cover existing throw pillows with red white and blue covers to get the whole room into the theme. These were purchased at a dollar store, and come with zippers, so they are quick to change to match the season. If you have a sewing machine, it is doesn’t take much time to sew throw pillow covers--don’t bother with a zipper--just make an over-lapping flap in the back. Another quick trick is to cut out red, white and blue stars out of felt, sew or glue them to a wide ribbon and slip the ribbons onto the throw pillows.