Easy DIY Fall Garland, Decorating with a Thermostat, and Some Shelves

Much like my mantel, the thermostat has been a thorn in my decorating side for a while. It’s in such a weird spot, that I had to get creative to work in into my decor. I thought, I bet some of my readers have this issue as well, so I snapped some pics and decided to blog about it. Hope this helps some of you!

See it in there? Ok, ok, it’s not the most hidden thermostat of all time, but still, at least it kinda disappears, right? Humor me;) I just bought some unfinished wooden shelves from JoAnn Fabrics – I think with coupons they cost around 5 bucks each, maybe? Spray painted them with white flat paint, and hung them up. I hung the bottom shelf right under the thermostat. That way, whatever I decorate with can sort of ‘hide’ it.
You can see in this picture below, that the wall is connected to the kitchen wall, and I liked that the shelves’ width was almost the same as the wall.

Since our dining room (where these shelves hang) is aqua and white, I LOVE the splash or orange in there this time of year! Didn’t think my bright dining room would lend itself so well to Fall decor, but it really does! To decorate these shelves, I just put up some blue accents I already had, like a pitcher, bowl, and mason jar, but added the mini pumpkins and some popcorn kernels (and candle) to the jar. Also, one of my favorite photos of our family, taken last Fall by the SUPER talented JoAnna from JoAnna Robbins Photography. She’s a dear friend who I’ve known a loooong time who happens to have started her own photography business. (If you’re local and want some awesome shots of your family, check out her website here. Tell her I sent ya;)

Since I had just finished up fiddling around in the family room and rearranged some tables and such, I had this little $3 yard sale bench that no longer had a spot in there. So I moved it underneath the shelves…

The color is perfect! And the kids love this little nook now…

I swear I didn’t ask her to sit for the photo shoot, she was already there! 🙂

Oh! Guess I should also tell you about the DIY garland I promised in the title. Man, I can go off topic…

I realized I had just the things I’d need for a little splash of foliage – you might have them right in your craft bin too.

Fake leaves, hot glue, and jute. This is probably self explanatory, but I secured each end of the jute under something heavy (a trashcan in my case, since I’m a mess and did it on my kitchen floor!), a dab of hot glue on the jute, stick a leaf on, repeat. Done in literally seconds.

Flip it over when it’s dry, and there you have it!

Easy peasy.

So that’s my three fold post: decorating with a thermostat, decorating shelves for Fall, and an easy DIY fall garland. I sure can gab, can’t I?! Thanks for being such great listeners;)