Hay Bale Fall Decorations

Looking for a fun way to decorate your front porch or entryway for fall? For years, hay bale fall decorations have been my go-to when it comes to fall decor for the outside of our home. Hay bale decorations give you a “wow” factor with very little work needed on your part. Come see how our outdoor fall decor turned out this year and get inspired to make your own hay bale decorations.

Hay bale fall decorations are near and dear to my heart. Kind of sounds a little odd, but I have sentimental feelings associated with them. To truly understand why I love hay bales so much, you’ll need to take a walk down memory lane with me. It will be crystal clear once I explain it to you.

Prior to living here in Orlando, we lived in a suburb of Tampa. We absolutely loved that home we built in Tampa! It was the perfect home for Zach to grow up in. The neighborhood was amazing and filled with great neighbors (Oh how I miss those Pampered Chef parties!) and tons of friends for Zach to play with. The school was A-rated and not only did Zach get to benefit from it but so did I since I was a 4th-grade teacher there.

One of my favorite things about our house in Tampa was the front porch area. It was absolutely adorable! We had two rocking chairs looking out to our quiet little cul-de-sac. It took no time for me to start a yearly tradition of decorating this space for the holidays.

I’d purchase my hay bales towards the end of September or early October just in time for Halloween. I absolutely loved how it looked! You can see it for yourself below in this throwback picture. Love!

Sadly, when we moved to Orlando, I lost my front porch! It was devastating. I continued to decorate for the holidays but the idea of creating a hay bale fall display seemed a thing of the past. Until this year, that is…

Although we don’t have a front porch at our lake house, we do have a very grand entryway. The more I looked at it, the more I realized I could definitely pull off a Halloween hay bale presentation for the fall season. And after observing it even more I realized I had the space to create two of them!

And that’s exactly what I did. I ended up making two displays, one on either side of the doorway. Looking at my final product, I feel like I could’ve gone bigger and more elaborate with my decorating. There’s always next year for that, I guess. I plan to keep my eyes open on November 1st when all the Halloween decor goes on sale so I can snag some more decor.

So how do you create Hay Bale Fall Decorations for your outdoor space?

You first need to start with finding the hay bales. In full disclosure, this is the most expensive purchase of the display. I found my hay bales at a local feed store for $10 a piece. Do the math and you’ll see I spent $40 alone on hay bales for my two displays.

Here’s how I justify the cost of the hay bales.

• For starters, local craft stores sell decorative hay bales that are a quarter of the size for about $5 or so. I can get the real deal for $10 a piece when I would basically be spending at least $20 at a craft store for the same effect.
• Second, I will continue to utilize these hay bales for decoration through to the end of the year. How do I plan on doing that? Once Halloween is over, I will remove all my Halloween decor and replace it with pumpkins, fall flowers, and Thanksgiving-inspired decorations to last me through November. For Christmas, I will cover the hay bales with fake snow and make them into a Winter Wonderland! I did this exact thing every year while living in Tampa and I loved it! Wait until you see the transformations I make throughout the holidays.
• Last, I go cheap with the decorations I put on the hay bales to make the overall cost of the project reasonable.

Quick note: When getting your hay from a local feed store, make sure to ask for decorative straw hay bales. The hay that these feed stores tend to carry on a regular basis is what is referred to as pine straw hay. The problem with this kind of hay is that it discolors easily. Most feed stores are used to people wanting hay as decoration during this time of the year and they will order the decorative variety for people like me who want to make fall displays out of them. If you can only get the pine straw that’s completely fine, just know that the color will turn brown over time.

With the big expense out of the way, it’s time to go cheap and head to the Dollar Tree for the rest of your decorations. A couple of bags of spider webbing, plastic spiders, and a few accent pieces are all you need for this Halloween hay bale creation. Here’s what I purchased.

Because you’re using only two bales of hay, you’ll need to set up your display in an area where you have a wall or something sturdy for stability. You’ll want the bottom bale of hay to stick out further than the one you place on top so you can create a shelf-like effect. The top bale will need to rest on something sturdy like the wall so it doesn’t fall backward.

I placed mine on either side of our front door like so.  

Next, simply pull out the spider webbing and cover the bales of hay. I found different colored webbing so I went with a traditional white one…

And I made another one in my favorite color, purple!

All you do now is start sticking plastic spiders all over the webbing. It really can’t get any easier than that!

Add your accent pieces, and that’s it, my friend!

Remember that pumpkin from my old house in Tampa?! I had to add it to the display for old times’ sake.

Here’s the final product for the white one. I found the creepy sign and ghost in the Halloween tote in my garage so I added them to the display.

And there you have it! See how simple it is to make hay bale fall decorations?! I hope I’ve inspired you to go out to your local feed store and try it for yourself. Make sure to subscribe to my newsletter so you can follow along with the transformation of these hay bales throughout the holiday season. Happy Decorating!

PS: If you decide to recreate these hay bale fall decorations, share them on Instagram using #lakelifestateofmind so I can see your masterpiece!

See how I transitioned these hay bales for Thanksgiving.

Want to remember this? Post this Hay Bale Fall Decorations idea to your favorite Pinterest board!