Fall Decorating Ideas With Tree Branches

Fall is just around the corner!  I’m already thinking of pulling out the storage bins…I say bins as in about fifteen bins!  What can I say…I LOVE Fall decorating!

I’m always brainstorming for a fun Fall decorating idea for the patio.  I thought I’d share what I did for my front porch last Fall with some dead tree branches.  Now let me tell you we get CRAZY wind in my area, I’m talking Wizard of Oz better hold on to Toto wind.  I think the wind must have rustled my branches a bit this day since that left one there is a little “off.”  Oh well, adds to the look of an old deserted house.  Creepy for Halloween.

 

 

 

The best part of this quick DIY Fall project is that the branches were FREE!  We have a large area of open space just down the road from my home where new homes are being built.  There are some big trees in that area that are being torn down, so with my handsaw in tow and my cute chauffeur, off we went to chop some trees.

That’s my middle son, who was 12 years old in this picture.  How cute is he in his big helmet.  I must have not expected an accident or I REALLY trusted his driving skills since I wasn’t wearing a helmet.  Or maybe I just didn’t want to mess up the hair!  {See that storm brewing in the background!  Like I said, Toto.}

Okay, how gorgeous is this field!  There I am sawing off the branches.  Stuff like this gets me all giddy just knowing a project is in the works!

I sawed and sawed {is that a word??} and sawed.  Talk about an upper body work out!  Oh but the branches were so worth it and I had a little vision in mind!

Now I didn’t think about how I was going to get all these branches back home in one trip. Yes, I got a few stares from neighbors wondering what the heck I was doing cruising along on the back of my son’s ATV with tree branches in hand.

I even had to call in the reinforcements {AKA my hubby} to help haul.  What does he do? Hops on our mini dirt bike.  Goodness what did the neighbors think now!  Big guy on small bike alert!  Hey, you do what ya gotta do right?

You can be sure we got a few laughs out of that!!!

I had these old black, chippy outdoor flower pots that were perfect to place the branches in with a few rocks placed inside for support.  I have a ton of old Reader’s Digest books that I pick up from Goodwill for 25 cents each because they are great for decoration or to tear the pages out and get creative.  I stapled the pages to the branches to look like they were just randomly blown onto the twigs.  Surprisingly, I think I only lost one or two pages during the season they were on my patio which was about 2 or 3 months.  These cute black crows were from Michaels and the Fall leaf branches were from Hobby Lobby. I hung a couple of skeletons from my Halloween stash for that extra creepy look.  Skeletons are about as scary as I get in my decor.  Don’t want to scare the kids away!

I loved this easy, fun look so much that I think I’ll do the same this year. Those branches also made it into my Christmas decor and I still have some in my home to add a natural element.  Have you seen the old 1950’s movie, “The Birds,” about black crows swarming houses and tormenting people??  Creepy.  Crows are one of my favorite decorating pieces for Fall and Halloween and I scatter them throughout the home.  Just as long as they’re stuffed and not flying in my home, I’m good!

Anyone else getting geared up for Fall decorating??