Fall Barn Door Decorations: Continuing Favorite Traditions

An old barn door has such a rustic charm, and it’s the perfect place to create a nostalgic, warm fall welcome with a few classic autumn decorations.

I’ve always had a soft spot for this old barn door on the side of our garage. At one point, someone told us that this cute, somewhat rickety-looking garage of ours was actually once a chicken coop. So I guess, in truth, it’s really more of a barn than a garage. As I mentioned recently, Chris sealed our driveway this summer, and this caused us to clean up the area around the garage/barn. With all the hockey nets, wheelbarrows, and logs gone, I realized this was my chance to finally do some cute fall decorations around the weathered sliding door like I’d been intending to do for the last 13 years or so since we moved in. I love that this door adds some architectural interest and a bit of a country aesthetic to this otherwise fairly basic white building.  I look out on this garage entryway and the cornfield beyond the backyard from my kitchen window, so it’s such a lovely, festively seasonal view with this little farmhouse-style setup. I thought I would share my moment of fall decorating inspiration today for anyone looking for ideas for their own fall decor, whether it be for a porch, a front entry, or an actual barn doors.

More cozy home decor ideas for fall: Autumn Front Porch Decor That Can be Grown or Gathered

Classic Fall Elements for Barn Door Decorating

Trust me when I tell you that there are many not-so-nice things about living in an old farmhouse, but luckily, there are many more great things. One of the fun things about an old house is that you seem to just have things lying around, tucked in a garage attic, in the wood pile, stacked near the back door; things collected over time by previous inhabitants of the house that always seemed like they might be worth keeping.

I dug up this antique wood ladder and a couple of distressed galvanized pails to start with my fall door decorations. I briefly considered the giant scythe in our garage for its height but thought a big blade might not be the cozy, welcoming look I was going for. I love pulling out old, reclaimed things that pay tribute to our home’s history and our local town to use in decorating whenever I can.

Dried corn stalks are always an essential element in any outdoor fall decorating ideas I try. I just love the instant harvest season atmosphere that they create, and of course, we’re surrounded by corn fields, so it only makes sense to celebrate the season with this particular piece of natural decor. Corn stalks can usually be purchased at farmer’s markets and garden centers relatively inexpensively, and they can be composted when the season is done.

There’s so much nostalgia in using what you already have to decorate for fall and in repeating the same things every year in your seasonal decor. Whether you call it sticking with what works or whether you call it a tradition, there’s something that just feels so cozy about repeating the same decor ideas year after year. If you’ve been following along for any length of time, you’ll have figured out that my fall decorating is more or less the same every year, with a few slight variations for fun. I always use dried corn, pumpkins, mums, rustic wood elements, and antiques in one combination or another. Doing it this way, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, just feels like home.

Fall garden ideas: How to Grow Pumpkins in Your Own Pumpkin Patch

More Natural Decorative Pieces for Fall Decorating

Fall just isn’t fall without pumpkins, and I love that I was able to use pumpkins we grew ourselves. These were a variety called “Spector,” and they were supposed to be whiter and warty-er than this, but I’m proud of them anyway.

Fresh white mums to match my white pumpkins were a natural choice for this year. I picked up a couple of plants at a local garden center and plunked them into one of my favorite white all-weather planters and one of the galvanized pails. They look so much better that way compared to when you just leave them in the plastic pots. It’s a little detail that makes a big difference and creates a nice balance between more refined and more rustic home decor styles.

I filled the remaining galvanized pot with some hydrangea blooms, which I clipped from our giant hydrangea in the front of the house. It’s late enough in the season now that they can be clipped without fear of wilting, and they should just slowly continue to dry so I can use them for other decorating purposes later in the year if I want to.

If you’ve had trouble with drying hydrangea blooms in the past, this post might be helpful: How to Dry Hydrangea Blooms Perfectly Every Time

I had fun making a wreath out of dried corn leaves and a few husks.  I gathered the leaves in bundles of three, then tied them to a wreath form with twine so they could easily be removed and composted at the end of the season. I can re-use the wreath form to make my Christmas wreath from cedar branches when the time comes.

How to decorate for a cute and not-so-scary Halloween: Kid-Friendly Halloween Decor Ideas

More Information About My Fall Barn Door Decorations

The door itself is painted in Behr “Keystone Grey”, which is really a very pale whisper of a blue color. My front door and garage door are also painted the same color, and I love them. The color makes a statement, but it seems to work beautifully with any decoration idea I try with wreaths and garlands.

My white all-weather planters can be found here. I plant in these grow bags, and then I just pop the bags into the planter. When the season is over, I can easily lift the bags out and fill the planters with something new, saving the plants in the grow bag for next year if they’re perennials.

The beautiful satin ribbon was just found at the craft store in the all-season ribbon section (available online here). The color is listed as dark brown, but it’s really more of a cross between a copper color and a beautiful brick red. I love the way it compliments the pale blue door.

Pictured above: White Planters | Wreath Form | Satin Ribbon | Brass Watering Can

It was so fun to give our adorable little garage the attention it deserves for fall this year. Do you decorate any special, unexpected outdoor areas like sheds and barns for the autumn season every year?