4th of July Fast & Easy Outdoor Decor on the Cheap

It’s one week till the Fourth!

If you haven’t figured it out by now, I love to decorate. Any holiday will do, it’s just plain fun. I did up the front of the house today for the fourth. Here’s what I did:

Let the fireworks & BBQs begin…we’re ready!

Here’s what the front of the house looked like before I started:

Front of the House – Before

Front of the House – Before

I like things to be quick and easy, and reusable whenever possible. I’ve been using the same fabric bunting now for 4 years, and it’s holding up great. I have four of them and they are from Oriental Trading for $5.99 ea (they have sales from time to time so get on their mailing list!) I picked up the simple flags at Target, on sale after the holiday for a couple bucks, and reuse them each year. I grabbed the 8″ flag ribbon at a close-out sale for a couple bucks, and the “fill-in” white tulle comes from my favorite fabric source, Distinctive Fabric, and can be reused for other holidays. My tool of choice for this project was my trusty staple gun with 1/2″ staples for the gate, and 1/4″ staple for the fabric.

the “Ingredients” – Flag Ribbon, 4 Pieces of Bunting, 6 Medium Flags, 6 Small Flags, & White Tulle.

I attached the 4 pieces of bunting first, just eye-balling the spacing. Then I filled in the spaces in between with a large square of white tulle, bunched up at the ends and draped. Then I added the same white tulle to the gate, stapled the 6 small flags onto the gate, and placed the medium flags in the two pots up on the patio. The 8″ wired flag ribbon I tied up in multiple bows and simple hooked on a cup hook on the front door. That’s it! Easy-peasy, and only took about a half-hour. I’m sure I’ll add more bunting in the future as budget allows, but for now, this is fun and festive, and best of all, since I already had everything it didn’t cost a dime (original cost for everything 4 years ago was about $30)