‘Tis the season to decorate! And despite having a front door with a porch and awning to hang lights and decor, you can still have a lot of fun decorating your apartment door for the holidays. We’ve come up with a few easy ways to feel festive and welcome your neighbors with some holiday cheer. Here is a list of DIY-friendly apartment door decor that can easily adhere using command strips and hooks for damage-free decorating.
A tried and true classic wreath can be just what you need to make your home feel festive. You can pick up a real wreath at your local greenhouse or a false one at the local craft store. Easily decorate it with your own ribbons, ornaments, or battery-powered lights. Have fun with it!
A unique decoration you can do yourself is with an ice skate display. Head to your nearest vintage shop or thrift store and pick up a pair of vintage or used ice skates. Smaller ones can work best cause they will have less weight on the hook. You can bedazzle them, or spray paint them one color and utilize some pine branches and bells to decorate them. Hang them from a hook and you have something no one else will have in the building.
Some festive bells hung on the front door can be a super simple way to “ring” in the new year. You can make them yourself or buy them at the store and spruce them up with added ribbons and charms or whatever you choose. If the bells are too loud for your apartment building, you can make them quiet by removing the clapper inside, taping it to the inside of the bell, or lining the bell with felt or cloth to mute the sound.
There are a plethora of items you can find outside that can work as a beautiful decoration for your entryway. Take a nature walk and gather up some nice twigs, pine branches, pine cones, berries—whatever you can find. Use some twine to bundle it in a nice way and simply hang it on the front door! It’s sustainable and creative: a win-win.
If you want a simple, cheap decorative piece, head to the store and grab a few packages of candy canes and some red ribbon. Using a box around the house, cut out a wreath shape, adding a hole at the top to hang the wreath. Using a hot glue gun or other adhesive, stick the candy canes all around the cardboard cutout. They will form a cut and edible wreath. Decorate it with some ribbon or other decorative wares.
Some people collect their wine corks in a jar or bowl, and if you’ve built up a collection over this quarantine (no judgment), put them to use and make a wine cork wreath! The same method as the candy canes—cut out a cardboard wreath shape and hot glue your wine corks in a round layered pattern to build out your wreath. Utilize ribbons or berries and garland or whatever festive decor you can find at the craft store, and you have a wreath that will last you for years.
In lieu of a wreath, garland hung around the door frame is a really fun way to decorate for the ultimate festive front door. You can use store-bought garland and add to it whatever you wish. Use command strip hooks around the edge of your door frame to hang. A beautiful garland creates such a welcoming essence to your apartment home.
If you can find some perfect pine cones out on the trail you have yourself the beginnings of an adorable door hanging. Collect a few pine cones and bundle them along with other ribbons and bells. You can even roll them in glue and dip them in glitter or beads to make the pine cones themselves ready for the holiday.
Have a white apartment door? You’re in luck: you already have a blank canvas for a snowman door! This can be a fun activity to do with the kids. Get some construction paper, scissors, and two-sided tape. Cut out some extra large eyes, a nose, a mouth, and a nice outfit for your snowman. Stick them to the front door and there you have it! An indoor snowman that won’t melt.
If you can find or purchase a vintage sleigh it can be fun to make it a keepsake for years to come. Purchase some wooden letters at the craft store and spray paint or hand-paint them a festive color like red or green and spell out your last name or last initial to represent your family. Then, adhere garland and bells and all of the things you can think of to make it a piece to have for years and simply lean it against your apartment door out front. Or, if it’s small enough hang it on the front the door with a strong command hook.
All you need for this project is some white paper, string, and a pair of scissors. You and your spouse or partner or kids can make your own hand-cut snowflakes to hang on the door. Cut as many as you like and hang them individually on the door with the string. Or, pick up a branch or wooden dowel rod and tie the string at varying heights for a cute door hanging.
Pick up a festive holiday banner at Target or Bachman’s and you have a ready-to-hang decorative piece! Some come with battery-powered lights so you can add even a little more something.
Similar to the snowman decoration, use your door as a canvas to build a makeshift fireplace scene. You can get construction paper of different colors and draw some bricks, cut out some flame shapes and make a little mantel with stickers or add a real garland to the top and you have a very unique apartment door with a cozy “fireplace” to welcome yourself home every day.
No matter what you choose to decorate with, make it fun and creative. Building something with your own hands can make it extra special and to do it as a family makes for a fun tradition every year. Your neighbors will love it and you can feel the joy of the holidays every time you walk into your apartment home. From all of us at Bigos, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! Happy Decorating!
