Decorating For Fall

The air has shifted and it’s a bit more crisp outside. You’re starting to see leaves changing color and dropping all around. The local grocery store is now carrying one of my favorite things — fresh squeezed apple cider. You may be in the mood to dig some warmer things out of the closet that you haven’t worn for a bit or to put on comfy clothes and to cuddle up with a cozy blanket.

These are all signs that fall is in the air.

Well this fall in particular, I think we’re ready to bring on the next season! It has been a year that we all seem ready to move passed.

Nothing helps us embrace the season more than when we start decorating and adding some key elements that usher it in.

Picking A Theme

When I think of fall decorating I typically think of fall harvest. Pumpkins, gourds, and harvesting an abundance of crops before the cold comes.

Many people go with the whole Halloween vibe and decorate with creepy crawly and scary things. Although some of that is fun to do, I don’t tend to decorate like that, although I do have a few of those items.

One favorite is a front door wreath I made using a grapevine wreath and dollar store snakes. I wove them in and painted it all black. 

My current style, that I’m going to share with you today, is a rustic farmhouse style fall decor. Things that will carry me into both fall and Thanksgiving.

I personally like white and seafoam green colors, so I’ll be sharing how I use them to bring in the season.

The harvest style also looks lovely using orange, yellow, burgundy, and the like. Colors that blend with the trees as they change color.

If I had access to real bittersweet, I would likely go that route. In my local stores, including nurseries, they don’t even know what it is.

It is something my dad loved and we would go pick it from a friend of his. It is so beautiful coming out of a vase or on the front door. I miss it very much.

Another more modern and popular style is the black and white buffalo check that I see being used everywhere. You can decorate your whole house in a complimentary style or simply a tablescape.

I have seen people do similar accents by covering pumpkins or painting them. 

Front Door

The entryway is the first thing many people see.

The sky’s the limit when it comes to decorating style. If I had an unlimited budget, I may go all out with heirloom pumpkins, cornstalks, coordinating mums, and gourds. Then I could make the entry super welcoming.

Unfortunately, this year I’m not expecting lots of fall visitors, including trick or treaters, so I’m choosing to keep it simple. 

I like having the entry be a hint of what to expect inside and thus to flow into my other decorations.

In the past, I have updated my planters with mums. This year I’m just letting everything be. After looking at it a few more times though, I thought it looks a little too basic.

I ended up trying to make it more festive by adding a couple of pumpkins to welcome the kids.

In the end, it looked acceptable, but not fantastic.

I could have purchased some additional things, but I chose to just move these black metal lanterns to my deck and move some wooden ones I had in the back yard up front.

Sometimes we can change the look of things by moving around supplies we already own.

Anyway, the end result is definitely more my taste. If I had added additional pumpkins or mums, I’d have liked it better though.

I’m still thankful that I put in a little more effort, and embraced the season.

I had made a wreath using a grapevine wreath, Magnolia stems, pheasant feathers, and cotton stems the previous year. I added a galvanized steel sign from Hobby Lobby that says ‘Thankful’ and hung it on the front door to greet my family and friends.

In making my wreath, I used little pieces of floral wire to hold things in place and then secured them using a hot glue gun. 

My Magnolia stems were fresh and therefore only good for one season. You could use artificial, if you like, and they will look lovely for a long time. Or you can add new ones as needed if you have access to a Magnolia tree, or as I did this year, I added redbud leaves instead.

Surprise!

Well much to my surprise, a package arrived! This came from my aunt in Minnesota. I had no idea what was inside, but when I opened it, I was overjoyed! She sent me bittersweet!

This was some of the most gorgeous bittersweet ever!

Anyway, I immediately set forth to use it. It is a vine so quite pliable when it is fresh. So it’s nice to get it set up before it dries.

I decided to remove the leaves from my wreath and replace it with bittersweet instead.

I attached them by sticking them in to the wreath and then anchoring any areas that needed additional support with a little floral wire attached to the wreath.

I then took the remaining supply onto my front porch and added it to my wooden lanterns.

I absolutely love how this turned out! It was the perfect amount to complete the look.

Such a special treat to have the bittersweet as it brings back so many fond memories.

Look how inviting it is now! Woohoo!

Dining Room Table

My dining room table is one of my favorite things to decorate.

For the fall season, I like to add a number of mercury glass pumpkins that I’ve collected over the years. I love the blend of silver, white and glass.

The selenite and salt crystal candle holders look so nice next to the pumpkins.

Placement

When it comes to placement, I do not like everything perfectly symmetric, but rather harmonious. I do try to keep things relatively symmetric and yet have things placed more forward or back.

I have 2 runners on my table and tend to keep my decorations within the smaller one and not hanging over onto the other.

I tend to look at the spacing and try to keep some uniformity there. Usually a 2-4″ space between objects, whatever looks best. If something doesn’t look right, I move it a titch until it does.

I also like to lean some of my pumpkins as I think it adds a little visual interest.

In addition to the mercury glass and white pumpkins, I also like to decorate with some dried elements, although it doesn’t likely fall in the feng shui wood element, I think it brings about a certain serenity and seasonally look. I like to add in reindeer moss to keep it fresh looking.

Painting the Pumpkins

The white pumpkins are inexpensive plastic pumpkins that I purchased the previous year, and had my hubby spray-paint. He used a high gloss white to blend with my candles.

Before he began, I covered the brown stems with painters tape to protect them from overspray.

Although these turned out pretty well, you do want to be mindful of not letting your spray paint go on too thick and thus drip. Spraying slow, even, thin coats will give you the best results.

Also it’s always a good idea to spray outside when the temperature is between 50-90 degrees and to protect your surface and cars from overspray.

Some of these pumpkins were all black, and I had him paint the entirety of those white.

As I walked through Hobby Lobby recently, I noticed they had some newly shaped pumpkins that had a long curved stem. These were plastic and could be painted to your color preference too. In general, they had a nicer more natural or heirloom shape if you’re in the market to pick some up.

Mantle

Continuing the flow of my decorations, I wanted to add some additional pumpkins to my mantle that were in the seafoam green color to match the lambs ears.

I chose to use common acrylic craft paint. I watered it down a bit and it went on fast and easy.

These were significantly easier to do than I expected. I just went over the previously white painted pumpkin with the craft paint avoiding the stem and allowing them to dry. 

When I was finished they were almost too fake looking so I decided to add a bit more brown shading into the creases of the pumpkin.

To do this, I added a bit of brown paint to a paper towel and kind of rubbed it into the cracks of the pumpkin. 

This worked great and I really like how they turned out. My first one wasn’t quite as nice as I let it sit a bit longer. I ended up dampening a paper towel to remove some of the excess and streakiness.

You want to quickly rub it into one or two creases at a time, remove the excess until you achieve the right look before you move on to the next couple of creases. This paint dried quickly and looks streaky if it sits too long.

I decided to add one of the greenish pumpkins to the silver vase of cotton stems, succulents and lamb’s ear I keep on my mantle.

Along with the remaining pumpkins, the look was complete. 

Setting The Table

Setting the table for Thanksgiving is a special treat. In addition to all of my mercury glass, pumpkins, and candles, I also like to use my hand blown Italian glassware and Grande Baroque silverware. 

I’m very into place settings and love to experiment with different things. I collect many dishes and tend to mix things up every time I set a formal table. 

Sometimes I use coordinating chargers, and sometimes I have a color theme. Sometimes I go for fancy and sometimes casual.

This is a fun element to consider based on the menu you plan to serve and the formality of the event.

Other Considerations

Sometimes people collect tons of decorations throughout life. Sometimes they forget what they have and so they buy more. Sometimes people want to do a color theme that changes year to year.

Whatever you have collected, and determining which spaces you plan to decorate, different rooms or vignettes, it’s nice to consider where to put each item ahead of time.

Sometimes we want to do a lean year, and not put so much out. Sometimes we want to do a different style.

It’s nice to go through our things, purge what we no longer need, and enjoy the things we still love.

I have friends who decorate almost every room in the house seasonally, including the bathroom. 

Well, I really do not want to do that much work and I also prefer a cohesive look that flows throughout my house. I don’t just want to pick up a plastic garland of leaves at the dollar store, for the sake of having fall coloring in my house.

So, that being said, set out the things that speak to you. The things that usher a new season in and bring you joy.

Vignettes

I tend to do a few vignettes throughout my main floor that flow together nicely. Some of them don’t change that much seasonally, but they all look harmonious together. This one happens to be a little buffet in my non-formal dining area.

Generally speaking, I do a few small spaces. I start with my front entryway and the first thing you see when you walk in my front door, my dining room table.

I then carry the look into my living room and add a few touches to my mantle. My cocktail table coordinates with that and I add a thing or two to a little buffet in my non-formal dining area. That’s it for me. Simple and suffice.

Changing It Up

Over the years, I have added mums in my garden, and in my entry pots too.

Sometimes it’s fun to add a dash of color to the fall landscape as we never know what kind of season we are going to have. Sometimes it’s more colorful, sometimes things just turn brown and gray in a hurry.

If it brings you joy to spruce things up seasonally, I say go for it! We all have different taste, but it’s therapeutic to find joy in being creative. So add a thing or two, move things around, or try something new.

Hoping you got a few new ideas on how to add some fall touches to your home. Enjoy the season and your surroundings. And have a ‘Happy Fall Y’all!’