Foraged Clippings For Simple Autumn Inspired Decor In Your Home
Foraged clippings for simple autumn decor are budget friendly and so very beautiful!
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I like to keep my autumn home decor pretty simple, and foraged clippings are the perfect way to ease into the season without pulling out the pumpkins, pinecones and gourds just yet. Plus I am always looking for budget-friendly ways to decorate my home for various seasons; most of my decor is from thrift stores or deeply discounted from a local craft store. However, foraging your own clippings is the best way to save money because it is free haha I hope this post serves as some inspiration to harvest your own DIY fall foliage centerpiece!
I recently ran into JoAnn Fabrics this past weekend to see what they had for fall decor this year, and I saw so many beautiful options. I was very tempted to bring a lot of it home with me, but even at 50% off I just didn’t want to spend a lot of money on fall purchases this year. I love to get inspiration from my blogging friends Pinterest and Instagram, but you don’t always have to buy everything to recreate the looks you find.
On the way home from the craft store I couldn’t help but notice all the beautiful colors in the ditch on the side of the road. We are blessed to live in a neighborhood that is in the middle of the country surrounded by farmland and corn stalks, and the wildflowers and dried stems filled the shoulder with yellows, purples, blues, and browns. I just imagined how beautiful the fresh flowers would look in a vase, or dried and tied up with a pretty velvet ribbon.
That’s when then idea struck me. Maybe I could forage some stems from nearby, for free!
I grabbed a basket, some clippers and my iPhone and Ethan (my seven year old) and I set out for an adventure – finding some fall stems. I filmed our exploits if you’d like to watch, the YouTube video is linked above haha!
Tips for Foraged Clippings
Color
When looking for fall stems to clip, I like to search for the colors of the season without being too constrained by “typical” autumnal colors. I love to be inspired by nature, so if blue wildflowers or berries are growing in September, bring them home and incorporate them into your early fall decor! Use what you love and don’t be afraid to step out of the box.
Most of what Ethan and I found was green and brown, but I would love to use some different shades of purple or blue in my home for fall this year. We’ll see! It would even be fun to attempt to make a fall wreath with some floral wire, grapevine twigs and a hot-glue gun.
Bugs
When clipping stems from outside, one thing you’ll want to get rid of are bugs. I stripped the leaves off of the bottom of my stems in my kitchen sink, and immediately I saw tiny green mites and small spiders.
I did some research and found a few tips online. Some people said to dip your stems in water and swirl them around to get rid of anything living inside your foliage. Another site said to simply leave your clippings outside overnight and the bugs would disappear on their own, so that’s what I did!
So far I haven’t noticed anything crawling around my foraged clippings! But definitely be careful if you are picking out wildflowers from a ditch as different critters may end up on you instead of just the stems you clip haha
Shedding
When foraging fall stems, shake them a bit when you’re outside to see how bad they “shed”. If they lose an excess every time you tap them, they might not be the best to bring inside. Especially if you have allergies!
It was so much fun collecting foraged clippings with my son. We had a blast and it was so nice to get ousted and do something together, just the two of us! I think this could be such a fun activity with your kids or grandkids, just be sure you have permission wherever you decide to clip, and don’t forget to watch out for poison Ivy! 🙂
Well friends, I hope this blog post inspired you to do some foraging of your own! I love how simple yet beautiful all of my foraged clippings look in my home. They instantly made my home feel more like fall. Plus, some of these could be dried and used again next year, which is a huge bonus! Have you ever foraged clippings for your simple fall decor? I’d love to know in the comments below! 🙂
PIN IT FOR LATER
PIN IT FOR LATER
I’ve been collecting from nature for years! I air dry a lot of the gifts from nature by hanging them on my beam and then in the fall I use their beautiful color and texture to enhance my baskets and vases. But what I love to do now is use the free app SEEK to identify them. This would be such fun for your boys because it ids bugs, and many other species of nature. Just the retired teacher in me! Check it out!
Oh my goodness, thank you! That sounds so fun, I will for sure look into this!
Yes, this time of year is a great time to gather stems to decorate with,but many are shedding, seeds etc for the next spring and often folks are allergic to many of these lovely natural stems. I learned a lesson one year on picking up acorns from our yard to decorate my kitchen farm table. I collected a bunch as we live in the woods with trees all aorund.I put them in a pretty bowl, they looked so good! The next morning, I kept finding little white things on my table during the day! I traced them to the acorns!!!! They were worms coming out of them and getting on the table! I was so glad I noticed it before compay came over! How gross to eat at a table that had worms on it! LOL Yuck! 🙂
Oh my goodness that is gross haha! I am sure it happens more often than we want to admit though! Too funny though, thanks for sharing!
What a great way to spend quality time with your son. He will grow up to appreciate nature and will pass it on to his children. That tree he spotted was awesome.
Love the simplicity and colors that you blend together.
Thank you so much! I truly enjoy the time with him, he is so much like me and it is so special!