7 DIY Thanksgiving Decorations You Won't Throw Away

Thanksgiving is one of the coziest and most heartwarming holidays of the year. It sits on that perfect border between being a winter holiday, but having its own unique food, sentimentality, and of course, visual flair. You know Thanksgiving decorations when you see them and we all love those bright oranges, reds, browns, and yellows that signify not only the traditions of the holiday but the colorful season as a whole.

Unfortunately, because Thanksgiving home decor ideas can be somewhat homogenous, many of the decorations tend to be a little tacky and generic. But there are still tons of DIY Thanksgiving decor ideas out there for you to try out that are more original than your classic paper turkeys, pilgrim hats, and cornucopias. These country Thanksgiving decor projects will not only show off the spirit of the holiday but will also go beyond the typical boring decorations that you’ve been seeing all your life. 

Cone Wreath

Fall Wreaths Perfect for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving wreath ideas have been around for quite a while. We typically associate the wreath with the winter holidays, but there is nothing preventing you from creating a seasonal Thanksgiving one. As with any other wreath, you really don’t need much other than the wreath base itself, which can be either plastic or organic hoop onto which you are going to hot glue your seasonal decorations. In the case of Thanksgiving, pine cones are among the most appropriate decorations you can find.

Make sure that you get pine cones of various sizes and possibly even colors to add some visual contrast. The varying sizes of pine cones also allow you to fill in any empty spaces that the bigger cones may have left behind. Using hot glue may not always be enough, so you should also have some floral wire on standby just in case.

Cute Wooden Crates

How a Simple Crate Makes for an Effective Thanksgiving Decor

For some farmhouse Thanksgiving decor ideas that are both rustic but can also fit within a modern interior, wooden crates are a great way to go. Crates can really set the farmhouse mood and vibe in your home. They are the perfect example of how you can take any standard object that is in no way supposed to be used as decor and incorporate it into the interior. And the best part about this DIY project is that you barely have to do anything.

Go out to your local woodworker or go to a farmer’s market and see if they have any broken or whole wooden crates that they’re not using anymore. Take them home, clean them up, sand the planks, give them a nice varnish, and you have yourself a reclaimed wooden crate that opens up plenty of opportunities for Thanksgiving decor. Fill it with some gourds and pumpkins for a cute harvest motif or stack a few on top of one another and you have that distinct farmer’s market aesthetic. 

Burlap Table Accents

The Burlap Texture That Brings Home the Thanksgiving Vibes

The texture is very important in decorating for the holidays and this is especially true with more rustic materials such as linen and burlap. Burlap is especially festive as it invokes those farmhouse vibes we closely associate with Thanksgiving decor. So naturally, burlap makes for the perfect Thanksgiving living room decor. Use burlap to create a few pillowcases, a tablecloth, and napkins, as well as fold it and place it on various surfaces throughout the interior.

For additional Thanksgiving wall decor, you can even hang some burlap accents around to really bring out the farmhouse motifs and make the room cozy and rustic. But most of the burlap you should find around the room will be used as table accents to bring out the traditional Thanksgiving feast vibes.

Gold Leaf Garland

Add More Color to Your Walls With Some Festive Garlands

Make golden garlands a big part of your Thanksgiving home decor by draping them over walls that are typically empty and could use a bit of extra color. Gold leaf garlands are quite easy to make and even easier to personalize. Purchase some garland string or thick string of any kind to use as the base of your garland.

Use either hot glue or plant wires to attach some golden leaves, pine cones, and other holiday or seasonal decorations. There are a ton of Thanksgiving wall decoration ideas you can stick onto a fall garland to make it more unique and personalized. It’s just a matter of considering what you and your household would want to see on the wall and simply gluing it to the garland.

Tray Decor

The Simple, Yet Effective Tray Decor

Trays can be used for a lot more than transporting large quantities of food and tableware. They make for great festive table decor and can be used in a variety of ways. You’ll find that most trays are quite flat, usually either circular or rectangular for optimal food transportation. However, you can get your hands on wooden trays with big handles and slightly higher rims that you can use as decor. Put the tray on the table, fill it with a few festive colors, textures, and items, like pine cones, jars full of spices, burlap fabric, etc., and create a subtle, yet very effective interior accent.

For example, you can create a Thanksgiving tiered tray decor that has something unique to offer on each level. Pile on a few pumpkins on the first level, then a few dried-up springs of herbs, and dried berry branches above them. And at the top, you can finish off with pine cones or even dried pomegranates if you’re looking for more color. 

Thanksgiving Mason Jar

Create the Cutest Decor With Nothing But Jars

Run down to your local home goods store or farmer’s market and get yourself plenty of mason jars because you’re going to need them. There is just something so cute about having mason jars all around the house, but they are especially effective as Thanksgiving kitchen decor. Their transparency allows them to hold a lot of color and texture. Even a single mason jar adds a lot of character to the kitchen and dining room through its rustic appearance. 

Fill the jar with cinnamon sticks or other spices, put candles inside them, or even fill them to the brim with autumn leaves. And when the holiday season goes by, wash them off and use them as cute mugs. 

DIY Cloth Pumpkins

A Variety of Textures and Colors for a Unique Pumpkin Aesthetic

No Thanksgiving decorations indoor ideas list is complete without a few pumpkins. In fact, any fall holiday should have pumpkins involved in some way. You may think this is a little tacky as pumpkins are commonplace in Thanksgiving decor, but there’s a reason behind that: they are so ingrained in how we see the autumn and all the holidays it encompasses, that it’s hard not to include them in our repertoire of decor. Cloth pumpkins make for very creative and adorable homemade Thanksgiving decorations.

All you need to make them is a variety of fabrics, needles, threads, polyfill, as well as twine, and some fabric glue just in case your embroidery skills are not at their best. Cut the fabric into a big square, put in some polyfill in the middle, and put all the edges into the middle, folding them up against each other to create those pumpkin wrinkles. Either sew or glue these folds together with a little bit of polyfill in them to fatten up the wrinkles and make them look more like those smooth, rounded ones you see on real pumpkins.