Decorate Your Entire Home For Christmas (For Under $20!)

Decorate your whole home for Christmas for under $20! Includes 6 easy and cheap diy projects that are perfect for getting your house decorated for the holidays!

It’s time to convince my sins: I’m not a big seasonal decorator.

Yes, that’s right. I run a website on DIY home improvement/decor, and I don’t really do seasonal stuff.

Christmas is my one and only exception, and what I consider “decorating” is basically putting up the tree. Bare minimum, over here.

Honestly, it comes down to money. I am of the belief that if a thing I’m buying doesn’t do anything, it shouldn’t cost anything. And if it sits in storage for 3/4 of the year, than it really shouldn’t cost anything.

So any seasonal decorating I do has to meet two requires: be so cheap it’s practically free, and really easy to “install,” else it’ll never go up.

I think I’ve mastered it. For Christmas, at least. Halloween will just have to deal.

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The Theory

Let me tell you something you already know – $20 doesn’t go that far.

So if you want to decorate your entire house for under $20, you can buy 1-2 things. That’s it.

The secret? Purchasing supplies you can use over and over again. I went with burlap and twine.

Burlap can be cut up and made to look different and unique everywhere you stick it. It can be accessorized with free things you have around the home.

And a single yard can be had for $2 (with a Joann’s coupon.) I purchased 4 yards for the making of this post, and still had some leftover.

Twine runs around $5 for a ridiculously long roll. So, $8 in burlap + $5 in twine puts us around $13. That leaves $7 for any other supplies/accessories.

I also used spray paint, thumb tacks, flour, salt, tape, and cardstock/printer ink. Hopefully you have most of that around. If not, well there’s that extra $7.

The Projects

1. The Burlap Cabinets

Cut some burlap that’s the width of your cabinet. Thumb-tack it to the back of your cabinet door.

Drape the burlap over the front of the door. Bunch it in the middle, and tie with twine. Done.

Honestly, my burlap-on-light-wood looks okay, but I think if you have white cabinets it’ll look amazing.

2. Snowman on Door

No burlap here, although if you were feeling adventurous you could give Mr. Snowman a burlap scarf.

Basically, print some black circles/orange triangle on cardstock. You can sign up for my newsletter and get mine for free, otherwise you can make your own in paint.

Really, though, print the shapes on cardstock. Paper curls really easily (I learned this the hard way.)

Cut out the shapes, and stick some tape on the back.

Stick to white door. Enjoy your snowman friend.

3. Easy Tree Skirt

Stick some burlap under the tree base. Pad the base with something fluffy.

I used a few spare pillows. Other ideas include plastic bags (if you have a sizeable collection,) or pillow fluff from thrift store pillows.

Wrap the burlap around the tree base. Tie with burlap.

4. Salt Dough Garland

Do you have flour? Salt? That’s all you need to make salt dough.

Mix a 1 cup of flour with 1/4 of salt. Add water until it’s dough-like, but not sticky.

Roll out the dough, and use a small cookie cutter to make holiday shapes. I went with stars, since that was the smallest cookie cutter I had.

Use a toothpick to make a small hole in each star, then bake for 1 1/2 hours at 250 degrees F.

Once the stars were done, I spray painted them, but you could totally skip this part, especially if you don’t have spray paint around.

I should also mention that I used the oh-so-handy twine to connect the stars!

Other important note: Keep the salt dough decor away from pets. It’s super dangerous for them if ingested.

5. More Salt Dough Things

Since you’ve broken out the salt dough, you might as well make a few more things. I once made some cute paw print ornaments, and I love them (especially since one of the dogs has since passed.)

If you’re feeling particularly crafty, use cookie cutters to make Christmas-y shapes for the tree!

6. Free Printables

Still have some rooms looking sparse? Grab some of the many free holiday printables on the internet. Print them out. Stick them in a frame, or hang with clothespins and pretend it looks artsy.

If you’re not sure where to look for free printables, start with these from The Navage Patch. If you don’t love them, search “free Christmas printables” on Pinterest, and you’ll recieve a never-ending list.

Bonus Ideas

These ideas either don’t quite fit my “super easy” and “super cheap” criteria, but come pretty close, so I wanted to list them too!

1. Thrift Store Christmas Lights

Thrift store holiday decor often looks sad. I don’t know why, it was once stuff that looked great in a store.

Either way, I’ve found that many Habitat for Humanity Restores have Christmas Lights in December and January. I don’t know where these come from, but they’re there, and often priced between $1-$3 a set.

If you need lights for your tree, or outside, or just in general, stop by your local store and see what they have.

2. Wood Slice Wreath

This was cheap, but didn’t quite fit the criteria of being easy. I spent a whopping $0 on this wreath, but in involved chopping up a log from the yard, drying the slices with denatured alcohol, and then making the wreath.

Plus it used up some of my leftover burlap. Always a win, there.

Final Thoughts

I’m pretty pleased with how my house turned out this year, especially considering the price tag!

If you like it too, or think you might use some of these ideas later, be sure to save this post to Pinterest so you can find it again later!