DIY Dollar Tree Shelf + Fall Decor.

During our house hunt last year, one of my “must haves” was a fireplace. I always wanted a fireplace, I wanted to decorate the mantle for every season, hang our stockings from it, etc. Unfortunately, the home we ended up purchasing was missing just one thing: that fireplace. Since our current home met all of our other expectations we (or I) ended up letting go of the idea of a fireplace. My husband has promised that eventually he will build me a faux fireplace that I can use to decorate. In the meantime I have came up with a quick and inexpensive fix for my decoration bug: a shelf.

I made this shelf with just $9.00 and it took me less than an hour to make. Mind you I did take a few bubble breaks because my assistant could not concentrate in the task at hand haha. This is what you will need:

1. Two Planter Hangers from The Dollar Tree. I have seen them both at the 99 Cent Store and at The Dollar Tree. Check to the garden section as well as the crafts section since that is where I found mine.
2. Wood Glue. You will need it to glue the two pieces of wood together. I could not find our wood glue in the garage and improvised with an all-purpose glue I found at the dollar tree which turned out just fine.
3. Wood. I purchased two pieces, one was .75 x 2.5 in x 2ft and the second was .75 x 5.5 in x 2ft. The bigger piece I was able to purchase already cut and it was only $4.00 at my local Home Depot. I thought this would be big enough to cover but I had to go back for the second piece. I picked up the second piece while at another Home Depot and they did not have pre-cut wood so I had to ask them to cut it to size. My husband then had to cut a little bit more when we got home. Don’t be scared to ask an associate to cut wood for you, I believe the first cut is complimentary.
4. A little helper. You  may also need a little 3 foot helper to make sure you do things right.

Step 1: The first step is to glue to two wood pieces together. You will want to let it set for a while too thereafter. I first glued the two pieces together and let it set while I marked where I wanted to place it on my wall.

Step 2: After measuring I had finally decided where I wanted the shelf to go. I began to put the screws in and place the planter hangers.

Step 3: After my planter hangers were in place and I had made sure it was leveled I placed the wood over them. I glued the wood to the hangers just for extra protection. Personally, I didn’t chose to paint over the wood because I really liked the rustic look. But if you decide to paint the wood, remember to sand down the wood before painting.

And you’re done! Wasn’t that easy?

I am absolutely in love with how much character the shelf added to my living room. I purchased the leaf garland from the 99 Cent Store and cut it to size. I don’t know if you can see, but the remaining pieces I put around Nick’s TeePee.

Foam Pumpkin:

I also bought a foam pumpkin at the 99 Cent Store and a small set of flowers. Instead of “carving” out a circle from the middle of the pumpkin, I decided to just the flowers into smaller pieces and stick them into the foam pumpkin. As you can see, even Nick helped with this DIY haha.

Autumn Lantern:

We bought some candle holder lanterns from Ikea (Rotera) about 4 months ago that we have yet to set up in the backyard. Since they have been sitting on our living room all this time, I decided to incorporate one of them into my fall decor. I had some leaves left over from a wreath I made that I just stuffed into the lantern. You can see the final result here:

I am so happy that fall is finally here and I think that here in California, the weather may finally be getting the message. Let me know if you try any of these DIY’s or share your own fall DIY posts on the comments below. I love to see what others have done.

disclaimer: my living room is only this clean because all of the mess is in the den haha. (& the basketball in the “before” picture is just stashed in the TeePee)

XOXO- L.