Ideas for the best birthday party home decorations, that are affordable, fun and festive. Use your party theme, focal areas, DIY decor, photo backdrops, and more to decorate for the perfect at home party!
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We love hosting birthday party celebrations at home, and we've got lots of beautiful, easy, and affordable ideas to help you decorate for your at home birthday party. Over the years, we hosted lots of kids and adult birthdays and the decorations are such an important part of the whole party for creating the right atmosphere.
The main goal of decorating for a birthday party at home is to make the space feel festive and special. Check out all our ideas and tips below to make your at home birthday party decorations look amazing.
1. Theme
We always recommend starting any party planning by choosing a theme.
If it's a kids party, let them have some input into the theme. Choose their favourite character, activity, toy, or sport as the theme for the party.
For adults you can also think about their favorite hobbies, sports, or interests.
Chances are if the theme is a real favorite, you'll already own some items that can be used as decorations such as toys, sports equipment, character posters, or items that would work as decor.
Some of our favourite themes over the years have been things like a chocolate themed party, an art themed party, a cupcake themed party, an ice cream themed party, and a rock climbing themed party. We even had favorite things themed birthday party where we had all the birthday persons favorite things.
2. Color Scheme
Once you've chosen your theme we really recommend choosing a color scheme. Sometimes a certain theme lends itself to a particular colour scheme, and other times you can just go with the birthday person's favourite colour or colours.
A rainbow theme is always great for a party too.
Top Tip: If you're planning a child's birthday and go with their favourite color, you may be able to reuse some old the decorations year after year, since their favourite colour is often the same year after year.
3.DIY Party Decorations
If you're crafty you will love creating some easy DIY party decorations. It's fun to make something to fit your theme and color scheme perfectly.
Birthday Banner
One of our birthday party home decoration ideas is to make your own DIY birthday banner.
One year for an art party we picked up paint chips at the hardware store and used a stencil to write happy birthday. This worked so well for the art theme, but could work for any party with paint chips in your party colors.
I also made a reusable felt birthday banner, by cutting out the banner from felt and gluing it together, or you could sew it. Each year I added an accent that fit the party theme, and used double sided tape to attach it to the banner so that I could easily remove it and swap it out for something different the next year.
Bunting
Bunting is a great addition to any party decor. Make it inexpensively out of scrapbook paper to fit your party colour scheme. Or use real fabric pieces and re-use it year after year.
Streamers or Ribbons
Streamers in your party colours are a great inexpensive and easy option too.
Or if you want the look but with something reusable, try using ribbons and lace in your party colours in place of streamers.
Afterward, just roll up the ribbon and use them year after year. If you're on a budget, second-hand stores are always a great place to find inexpensive ribbons.
Balloons
Balloons are a classic party decoration and so much fun. Buy them to match your colour scheme.
You can even make them extra special by making your own balloon garland using balloon garland tape. It's inexpensive and easy to use to create beautiful balloon garlands in your party colours. Save the balloon garland tape afterwards to reuse.
Paper Lanterns and Honeycomb Balls
I also love to use paper lanterns as an alternative to balloons. They're slightly more expensive than balloons, but they're reusable. And they fold flat to store. Buy them in your kid's favourite colours, and use them year after year. Get more ideas for sustainable entertaining from our Earth Day Party and Eco-Friendly Party Ideas here.
Free Printables
We also love to use free printables to add to our themed party decor. Search on-line for free or inexpensive party printables that fit your theme and colours and print them on your home printer or at an office supply store, or even at your local library. Can't find the perfect free printable? Make your own themed printables using free sites like Canva to design exactly what you're looking for.
You can create banners, cupcake pics, signs, water labels and more that really make your party pop. These are a fun and inexpensive way to make custom birthday party decorations.
Cricut Decorations
If you have a Cricut cutting machine, you can also use it to create more custom party decor. Create your own banners, labels, party hats, table scatter and more using one of these machines at home.
Don't have a cutting machine? See if your local library has one available to use in their maker space. Many local libraries have one that you can use in the library for free.
Flowers
Flowers always make an occasion feel festive and are such a great addition to any celebration.
For our rainbow art party, we used flowers in every colour of the rainbow to create the prettiest display. Most were from the garden, so not too expensive.
And if your party is during the summer you can pick garden flowers or wildflowers to add flowers to the space without breaking the bank.
Paper Flowers
If flowers aren't in season you can always add paper flowers. I love this DIY birthday decoration idea, because it's an inexpensive DIY and so beautiful -find our tutorial with video on how to make paper flowers here.
Make different paper flowers out of plain or color paper, and add paint as well. These look amazing grouped together. They do take a while to make, so if you want to incorporate some paper flowers into your birthday decorations, be sure to give yourself enough time to make them.
Party Table
The table where your guests are going to be sitting down to eat at the party is a place to make a statement.
Start with a table covering like a table cloth, table runner, piece of fabric from the fabric store, or some wrapping paper.
Use your theme and colour scheme to choose your plates, napkins and glasses, and feel free to use paper products to fit your theme, or do a mix of both.
4. Food
I love to make the food feel like part of the party decor by matching it to the theme.
A dessert table is always so beautiful at a party. A birthday cake doubles as party decor and dessert.
Try choosing foods that fit your party theme like a cupcakes or birthday cake -like this fire breathing dragon cake for a how to train my dragon party food idea.
For a board game party, we made a giant candyland themed dessert table, that was as beautiful as it was delicous!
There's so many great wall decoration ideas for a birthday party at home. Making a backdrop behind your main food or dessert table is a great way to make big impact in your space.
Some of my favourite ideas to decorate for a birthday party backdrop are to use streamers, ribbons, or vintage fabric to make a hanging backdrop. You can also use paper streamers as a fun party backdrop.
5. Party Favours
If you are planning to give your party guests a little party favor to go home with, it's always fun if they fit in with your party theme.
These simple teddy bear loot bags doubled as party decor.
6. Photo Backdrop
Another fun touch to your party decor is to set up a unique photo backdrop for guests to take a picture.
7. Choose A Few Key Areas
We've got lots of great birthday decoration ideas, but don't let yourself get overwhelmed by them. It's often a great idea to pick just a few areas and make them a real focal point of the party.
You might want to set up just a few well decorated areas, instead of trying to decorate the whole space. One or two areas with lots of fun decor may have more impact than scattering around the decorations in a big space.
You do want to think about how the partygoers will use the space. We often like to set up different stations throughout the party.
Add something festive to the front door to welcome guests. Have party favours by the front door so that no one forgets theirs as they're leaving. Set up a drink station. Have a main food table and/or dessert table.
Consider if your guests are going to be seated for a meal, or grab a seat in the living room. Do you have outdoor space you can use? What if it rains? We've even been known to add a little themed decor to the washroom. But you can do as little or as much as you like.
8. Budget
It can be tempting to spend too much on birthday party decorations. We have a few tips on how to create affordable birthday party decor.
Our number one tip is to invest in some reusable decorations like fabric banners, ribbons, paper lanterns, and entertaining pieces like platers and drink dispensers.
You can look for these items at second hand stores, and add to your stash a little each year. Pick colours you and your kids love and use them year after year.
They may be more expensive than disposable the first time, but in the long run they're cheaper and better for the planet. If you can't afford them all at once, buy a few things each year to add to your stash.
Borrow pieces from friends and family. There's lots of entertaining pieces that only get used a few times a year, feel free to borrow things like a drink dispenser, platters, or even table cloths. Just be sure to return in the condition you borrowed them.
Join a Facebook mom's group and see if you can buy and/or sell your gently used birthday party decorations. Lots of party decor, even the disposable kind has lots of life left in it after one use, pass it on, or purchase it at a discount from another mom to help save money and the environment.
Don't go overboard. I'm not always the best at following my own advice here. But the truth is that it really doesn't need to look like pinterst. Birthday parties are for such a short time that it really doesn't make sense to over spend on decor. Spend your hard earned dollars on things that are more lasting than just a few hours of celebrating.
Frequently Asked Questions
Choose a theme and a color scheme to help tie everything together for a cohesive look.
Choose a few key areas like the seating area, and the food table to make big impact, but keep it simple. Choose a color scheme and theme and choose food and decorations that fit for a fun and festive party, while still keeping it simple. Add homemade party decor instead of party shop disposable items.
Set up different stations like main course food, drinks, dessert, and party activities so that guests can help themselves.
If you're on a budget for big impact with balloons and paper streamers. Make your own DIY banners and signs with free printables. Can't afford flowers? Pick wildflowers, use greens from your garden, or use house plants. Don't forget the candles. Need serving pieces, look at the thrift store.
More Birthday Party Inspiration
If you tried any of these At Home Birthday Party Decoration Ideas or any other ideas on my blog please let me know how it went in the comments below. Thanks for visiting today!
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