Lodge Decorating Ideas

Whether you are planning a birthday, reception, baby shower or celebration of the seasons, you can't go wrong with the great outdoors as your guide. Highlight camping, fishing, hunting, skiing, or lumberjack, along with seasonal flowers in spring, leaves in fall, snow in winter, and wildlife in summer or combine them all for your own mountain lodge theme experience.

We've put together some of our favorite suggestions for decorating your party scene in mountain-altitude fashion, including some cute food ideas and a S'mores martini recipe.

Have the time of your life when you let nature take its course with a mountain lodge, camping, fishing, skiing, hunting and/or lumberjack theme to celebrate the great outdoors, indoors or out. The first step is to choose colors and patterns to establish continuity, I suggest:

• Brown and green for colors
• Red & black buffalo plaid patterns
• Rough textures, like burlap and wood

Front Entrance & Foyer

• Create a rustic & welcoming entrance to your mountain retreat:

• Line the entrance walkway with candles in jars or hurricane lanterns on upright log pedestals of varying heights. Alternate: hang from trees
• Construct a lodge/camp sign with wood pieces for letters on weathered wood. Alternate: paint, burn, carve or print your sign
• Drive an ax into a log
• Set up a wood directional sign post
• String prayer flags or buffalo check, muslin & burlap garland
• Stand a black bear (or moose) silhouette in the distance, illuminated from behind with a low light lantern or flameless tealight candle; optionally add cubs (pattern here)
• Craft a wreath for the door from birch tree slices

• Lay down log rounds as stepping stones; optionally build a frame from 1x3s and fill with pine bark
• In the foyer, take a walk through a mountain meadow:
• "Plant" evergreen cuttings in containers to create a forest of  mini evergreens; optionally wrap pots in burlap
• Suspend evergreen greenery or light branches horizontally to simulate tree limbs. Alternate: use crumpled Kraft paper to make tree limbs
• Lay artificial grass. Alternate for winter: snowdrifts from quilt batting over a white sheet (More on Ski Lodge here)
• Fill the "sky" with light blue ceiling swirls
• Add round white paper lantern clouds or make fluffy clouds, DIY here
• Intermingle suspended butterflies; snowflakes in winter
• Make a mountain from a painted sheet or buy removable mountain wall decals
• Frame the doorway with log cabin wallpaper--use velcro tape to hang
• Use a twig pencil for the guestbook

Party Area

• Continue the wilderness experience in the party area with mountain animals, plants, trees, and features. Some ideas for inspiration include:

Bears
Stone & rock
Wildflowers
Elk
Hummingbirds
Evergreens
Campfires
Berries
Canoes
Ferns
Moose
Hurricane Lanterns
Trout
Stumps & logs
Antlers
Mountain peaks
Backpacks
Pine cones
Bees
Firewood
Fireplace
Mushrooms
Mountain Lion
Deer
Butterflies
Aspen trees
Oars
Beavers
Tree bark
Owls
• Then mix in outdoor adventures and recreation details specific to your theme, such as:
CAMPING
Tents
Cooking pans
Compass
Canteen
Coffee pot
Thermos
Campfire circle
Stove
Sleeping Bags
RV Campers
Matches
SKIING
Skis & snowboards
Skiwear & boots
Gondola/lifts
Trail signs
Skill level icons
Snowshoes
Trail maps
Sleds
Ice Skates
Ski resort posters
FISHING
Rod & reels
Rowboat
Fishing nets
Bobbers
Freshwater fish
Creel
Hooks & lures
Bait
Mounted fish
Tacklebox
HUNTING
Shotguns & rifles
Shells & bullets
Camouflage
Stuffed kills
Hunting vest
LUMBERJACK
Axes
Saws & sawblades

• Decorate the wall and transform the room; here are some suggestions:
• Cutout bear and animal skins from inexpensive fake-fur fabric
• Hang vinyl photography backdrops on a section of wall, behind the bar, and/or serving table, choose from:
• Natural stone
• Weathered wood
• Mountain scenes
• Stacked firewood
• Paint your own wood or stone background: 
• DIY stone here (substitute brown for black)
• DIY wood here

• Mark the spot with a focal point over a doorway, bar or fireplace:
• Crossed canoe oars
• Crossed skis
• Crossed ski poles
• Crossed sticks with marshmallows
• Crossed fishing rods
• Crossed nets
• Crossed axes
• Crossed shotguns

• Embellish railings and banisters with pine cone garland
• Spruce up the walls with points of interest:
• Use wood-grain contact paper to make signs and letters
• Display national park posters
• Mount a branch with hanging hurricane lanterns or fish

• Post campground and hiking trail icons (DIY here)
• Make or buy customized ski run signs with skill levels
• Frame vintage photos with weathered wood
• Hang lures, bobbers, and fish from a mounted arched fishing pole
• Build creative focal points and/or a dinner table centerpiece:
• Vintage hurricane or carriage lanterns

• Pine sprigs, branches, & cones
• Tree slices, bark, and red berries
• Brighten a collection of pine cones with fairy lights
• Weathered galvanized pails, buckets, & planters
• Spray paint tree branches white & arrange in ski boots
• Create an arrangement of marsh grass & fishing lures

• Paint the outside of a metal basin red with white dots & place over a log to make a giant mushroom
• Stand-up skis in a weighted, slotted crate
• Fill a creel with fishing accouterments or wildflowers
• For summer, light candles in the fireplace
• Keep it fun with some tabletop touches:
• Make mini mountains by painting snow on cones and triangles

• Bound bundles of birch logs or make your own with pool noodles (here's how)
• Decorate vases and pitchers with bands of buffalo plaid fabric
• Light a fire with orange, yellow & red tissue paper between logs

• Scatter round river rocks painted as honey bees and ladybugs
• Mount fake fish on boards
• Re-label Silly String as "Bug Spray", then set in a pile of plastic bugs
• Float candles in water with submerged tree twigs
• Glamp it up with pine cones painted in jewel-tone colors
• Paint small cans to make shotgun shell vases
• Hang giant fishing bobbers made with paper lanterns

Bar & Food Service

• Make a stacked firewood background behind the bar with birch tree slices

• Hang log cabin wallpaper on the front of the bar with velcro
• Create an indoor S'mores roasting station with Sterno & pebbles
• Drape fabric to create a tent opening behind the food service table; Alternate: Simulate a tent opening on the front of the table skirt
• Rest a weathered wood plank on mini whiskey barrels to make a riser for food or a bar serving shelf
• Change plastic utensils to inlaid-wood by applying a sliver of wood-grain contact paper to the handle

• Serve drinks with printed birch tree straws, here
• Arrange appetizers on tree rounds and upright logs of varying heights
• Drill holes in a log to hold appetizers on bamboo skewers
• Set out twig-shaped cutlery and appetizer forks, along with wood-grain plastic plates
• Use pie tins as plates

• Set-up a "Happy Trails Mix" bar in fishing tackle boxes
• For a hunting theme, serve camo trail mix with green & brown m&ms and green goldfish
• Use Doritos as campfire flames
• Fill bowls with Teddy Grahams
• Make homemade Kahlua marshmallows, here's how
• Here are some more fun food ideas, recipes here:
Bear claw pastries
Cucumber fish scales
Almond hedgehog
S'mores on a stick
Fishing bobbers
Fly agaric bites
Pretzel trees
Mountain cookies
Campfire cake

Hopefully we have your creative juices flowing, and find more mountain lodge & lake cabin theme inspiration at Lake & Lodge Decorations. Also, let us know about your experiences and ideas hosting mountain, lumberjack, camping, fishing, hunting and/or ski lodge parties.