7 Thrifty & Easy Thanksgiving Decor Tips: Dining Room

Celebrating Friendsgiving or Thanksgiving doesn’t have to be expensive to be pretty so I’m sharing 7 thrifty and easy Thanksgiving decor tips

When Heidi from Eleanor Rose Home told me she was organizing a Friendsgiving/Thanksgiving-themed hop I was so excited!

So today I’m joining 11 amazingly talented ladies sharing Thanksgiving and Friendsgiving inspiration.

If you’re here from Cindy’s post sharing dinner ideas thanks so much for stopping by!

If we’ve never met you’re welcome to head over to the About Aliya section so you can get to know me a bit more.

(Over there I share how and why I came to start Open Doors Open Hearts.)

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Today I’m sharing some of my thrifty tips to help make your Thanksgiving decor beautiful and budget-friendly.

I also put together a YouTube video if you’d prefer to watch it.

Thrifty Thanksgiving Decor Tips: Keep it Simple

I feel like I am always sharing this tip.

But I also feel like it can’t be said too much.

By doing this you are saving money on your Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving decor because you decorating with less.

And so many times I find for our home, that less is more.

Even though it’s my go-to style for my home decor I often find myself over-doing things and needing to step back and see what needs to be removed.

Honestly, that’s how I do it too.

I just start decorating the room/space and when I think I’m done I step back and take it all in.

Then, when I’m getting a visual of the space, I can see where I have over-decorated, or what might still need a little more attention.

One of my more popular Fall posts is this Fall decor tips for decorating your kitchen post.

In that post, I share how to decorate your kitchen so that it’s beautiful but still functional for all the cooking and baking that takes place in Autumn.

Simplify.

You can check that post out HERE.

Thrifty Thanksgiving Decor Tips: Ribbon from Fabric

This is something I recently tried and LOVED!

While I was preparing to make this natural Fall wreath last week the lady at Hobby Lobby shared her favorite fabric for ribbon.

Muslin.

I haven’t tried any other type of fabric for ribbon yet, but I bought 2 yard of muslin and I am going to have enough ribbon for Fall decor and for Christmas decor.

She, and a few sweet followers, also shared coffee and kool-aid dyeing them to get your favorite holiday colors.

I plan to try this for Christmas.

But for my Fall decor, I just did coffee dye and I think it turned out beautifully.

If you decide to use muslin it has a nice frayed look if you rip the fabric instead of cutting it with scissors and getting a perfect edge.

Thrifty Thanksgiving Decor Tips: Forged/Dried Stems

This is such a money saver!

This is another tip that I love to share.

I find forging for stems to be such a relaxing time.

Sometimes the girls will go with me and sometimes I go alone.

(I actually got my husband to go with me this Fall!)

For this specific arrangement I used some left over dried leaves that I found in the woods for the natural wreath I made.

But this time I sprayed hair spray on them first and you guys!

The hair spray helped keep the leaves on while I was making this cornucopia arrangement.

It wasn’t super glue by any means, but it definitely took more jostling for the leaves to fall off.

Thrifty Thanksgiving Decor Tips: Real Pumpkins

I love using real pumpkins for my Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving decor.

For 2 reasons.

1. They are generally cheaper than going to the store and buying fake pumpkins.
2. They are edible!

My oldest actually just asked me “Mom, when are you going to be done taking pictures of the pumpkins so we can start baking them?” haha!

We randomly were talking about eating the most delicious pumpkin salad while we were in S.Korea picking up our youngest daughter.

It had the best pumpkin chunks in it, and she wants to eat some now haha!

Personally, I’m thinking about making some pumpkin desserts.

But somehow my kids ended up so much healthier than their mother when it comes to sweets.

Seasonal Produce

Along the same lines at using real pumpkins, use seasonal produce to decorate your kitchen and dining room for Thanksgiving/Friendsgiving.

Seasonal produce is generally cheaper, and your going to the grovery store to by food anyway.

So why not buy produce that is going to look good for the Fall season.

Butternut squash
Spaghetti squash
Eggplant
Figs
Pears

We actually have pears out of our ears right now.

A friend of ours gave us 2 grocery bags full of pears.

Thrifty Thanksgiving Decor Tips: Mix n’ Match Dishes

This is my favorite way to do Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving.

Growing up my parents and grandparents had the same dishes.

So grandma would always bring over her matching set and then we’d all eat off the same style dishes.

But when Mom and Dad passed to torch of hosting Thanksgiving to me and my sister we switched things up.

Every other year, when Thanksgiving is hosted at our house, we go down to the basement and we pull out the hand-me-down dishes we’ve received from great-grandparents.

I have plates from 2 different great-grandparents and we also have serving dishes from great-grandparents.

In the YouTube video I shared that the dish I make green bean casserole in was the same dish my great-grandma put it in when she made it.

The first year we had Thanksgiving without her is when I started being the one responsible for green bean casserole every year.

In so many ways, by mixing n’ matching dishes we are able to bring family members who are no longer with us physically to the table.

We see the dishes and all of a sudden, “Do you remember when so-and-so did such-and-such a thing?”

If you don’t have hand-me-downs another way we do this with our everyday dishes is by replacing broken dishes with thrift store dishes a little bit at a time.

This was you create that beautifully curated look, but you spend so much less than buying a new set.

Thrifty Thanksgiving Decor Tips: Candles

My last tip is using candles.

Candles can be expensive if you buy them new, but if you buy candles from garage sales or thrift stores you can save so much money.

Also, candle stick holders.

I’m kind of picky, and won’t buy them if they are more than 1-1.50/candle stick holder.

I bought one at a garage sale once for $3.

I agonized over it but finally decided to just do it.

To this day when I use that candle stick holder, I think to myself “You spent too much money on that one girl.” haha!

Even these votives were given to me from my sister-in-law.

After her wedding, she has so many candles and votives that she was giving them away, so I grabbed a box of 12 and I LOVE them!

Check Out More Thanksgiving and Friendsgiving Inspo!

Thanks so much for stopping by and visiting with me.

That’s all I’ve got to share with you as you prepare for your Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving celebration.

But Robyn is sharing a tablescape, and you’re not going to want to miss it.

Pin for Later!

Don’t forget to head over to your favorite social media platforms Facebook or Instagram.

Also, make sure you follow along on YouTube & Pinterest to check out all the other Fall decor ideas I’ve been pinning for this year!

Have a great week! XoXo

Open Your Doors,
Aliya

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Friendsgiving Ideas & Inspiration

Eleanor Rose Home | LeCultivateur | Green Valley Gable | Truemans Treasures

Pasha is Home | Living Large in a Small House | Cloches & Lavender | Open Doors Open Hearts

Robyn’s French Nest | White & Woodgrain | Bricks ‘n Blooms | Tatertots & Jello