Seasons > Autumn > Home Decorations > Foyer
It’s easy to find lots of cute little seasonal fall items at dollar stores (hundred yen stores), but not so easy to figure out how to display them. They are too small to decorate by themselves. Nick nack shelves provide a good way to display several small items together. Pictured here are an orange candle and floral pick, a fake chestnut, an apple pie made from an air drying clay such as Hearty (Karui Kaminendo), a basket of miniature apples, and a ceramic pumpkin. Even if you can’t find these items, you can make a similar display with orange colored objects, and seasonal items you can find locally.
This vine wreath is huge, so it took 2 sunflower bushes and two leaf bushes to fill it out. Since I made the wreath myself, it only cost about $5 to make, since the flowers and leaves came from a dollar store (hundred yen store), and the ribbon came from Costco. Craft stores sell them, too, but usually cost more.
These pumpkins (purchased at a hundred yen store) were too small to display alone. By adding the basket (from the hundred yen store, too) along with the dried weeds that were growing on the side of the road, it made the arrangement big enough to fill the space nicely. Finishing it off with a few fall leaves and a floral pick made a very inexpensive fall arrangement for my bay window.
These flowers may not be fall decorations by themselves, but combine them with some wheat stalks and leaves from the hundred yen store, and it becomes an autumn bouquet. Just add it to the decorations you already have displayed.
I like to leave empty spaces on my bookshelves for places to add some seasonal decorations-- The top shelf has some miniature indian corn and for height, a cornhusk doll (my daughter made in middle school), and some fall items from a dollar store--turkeys and ships. Below that is a berry wreath from a dollar store (hundred yen store) that is hung from a metal stand. Below that is a scarecrow with some tiny styrofoam pumpkins. (For close-up photos of the cornhusk doll, see fall centerpiece photos, and for the tiny scarecrow, the look at the bathroom decorations.)
A corner on the stairs is the perfect place to add a little seasonal flair with a potted plant, or cut flowers.
Large walls need lots of small items or one large item to fill the space. A banner is a good way to decorate a large area, such as a stairwell.
Wreaths come in so many sizes, shapes, and materials that you can display many without feeling redundant. The wreath pictured here is made of foam, and easy enough for your children to make. The sets come in packs of twelve, so you can invite a dozen friends over to make some, too. Any left overs can be used to make a decoration for a doorway--staple extra leaves to ribbons to hang in the doorway as a variation of a bead curtain. Kids especially like to walk through these.
Oriental trading company
This cheery wreath can brighten up even the darkest door. The wreath and flowers were purchased at hundred yen stores, and the ribbon was bought at Costco. The flowers were fastened to the wreath with florist’s wire, also from a hundred yen store.
This wooden welcome sign has miniature clothespins glued on the back so that the seasonal decorations can be easily changed. The two decorations on the left are generic autumn decorations, and could be used all fall. The leaves on the left are made from a light weight air drying clay such as Hearty (Karui Kaminendo.) Real leaves were used for patterns. The next sign over has a basket (from the hundred yen store) hanging from the middle clip, filled with “silk” leaves, pine cones, and fake berries.
These decorations are made specifically for Halloween and Thanksgiving. These decorations are also made of Hearty (Karui Kaminendo, sold at 100 yen stores.) The pumpkins were made freehand with the mouth and eye holes indented with the blunt end of a toothpick. They were painted yellow as if illuminated from inside, then rimmed in black so they show up better. The Pilgrims, Indians, and turkey were cut out with cookie cutters, then embellished with buckles and beads, apron, hat and bonnet.
While none of these items are actually fall decorations, they do have the fall colors. So look around your house and see what you can use that you already have--a vase filled with bare branches, or fall leaves or orange flowers adds instant cheer to any corner and shouts, “Fall has arrived!”
This fall decoration has an oriental flair. The wood plaques were painted with a black stain/varnish combination, then joined with a green ribbon. The chinese paper lanterns and chestnut were purchased at a hundred yen store. I pulled apart the chestnut spines, glued them to the board, then added the chestnut meat and and surrounding covering that I made out of Hearty (Karui kaminendo, sold at 100 yen stores.) The wooden acorns were purchased from an American craft store and varnished, but would be easy enough to make out of Hearty, too. I paired the acorns with “silk” oak leaves
Seasons > Autumn > Home Decorations > Foyer