It’s almost officially fall and I am so excited, despite that it’s still 90 degrees here. I have learned that the temperature really makes no difference. You are officially allowed to decorate for fall when the calendar says September. If you’re really anxious, you can decorate for September in August. Either way, if you live in the South, you should not feel bad about decorating for fall even if it’s 90 degrees.
What are your favorite ways to decorate for fall? I love fall branches and colored leaves. The problem here is that the trees don’t turn until it gets cold, which is November, I think. Can’t entirely remember. Also, Middle Tennessee is notoriously allergenic in the fall (actually all the time), so we don’t want to bring in branches anyway. The solution? Non-fake looking faux branches, or else preserved real ones. The real-looking ones can be expensive, so I try and buy a few on sale at the end of the season and save them for next year. This has turned out to be a much better investment than buying fake looking ones at the fabric/craft store. Here are some from Pottery Barn that I have used for a long time (they’re on the hearth):
You can make these expensive faux branches go further with real firewood, too:
And these are sale branches from last year at Pottery Barn, too:
In the event that you’re wondering how I have my house all clean and styled, I assure you that right now it actually looks like this (the above pics are from right after last year’s magazine photo shoot):
There’s actually a kitty hiding in the mess above. And here’s what the kitchen currently looks like, all decorated for fall:
Our kids were in charge of decorating with these, in case you were wondering. This is how good it looks when the kids decorate.
I also love Turkish rugs for fall. They’re finely knotted rather than being glued to a canvas backing, so they’re like a sweater. Our kitties love them, too!
We use these everywhere at home, and they come in doormat size, runners, and all kinds of different rectangle sizes. I have my favorites but I switch them from room to room a lot and they change the look.
The one above has been in our kitchen for the past year and a half and I love it there. I also would like to use it on the stairs if we remove the carpet, so it may find a new home there and we’ll put a different rug in the kitchen. I originally just did rugs in the kitchen for the magazine photos, but we ended up enjoying them in there. They’ve been a necessity ever since. We just vacuum them and spot clean when needed.
And, my perennial favorite is transferware! Brown is my favorite for fall. We actually have this plate collage up year-round, but I especially love it for fall:
Most of the plates on the wall are antique, but Spode still makes transferware for everyday use. We love the turkey plates and start using them in September and switch them out for Christmas dishes after Thanksgiving.
We also discovered this year that if we buy some kinds of fresh pumpkins we like and throw them in the backyard when they rot, we get a huge crop of free pumpkins the next year! This is what our no-effort gardening technique produced:
All the pumpkins here came from our yard (except the pumpkin candleholders from Williams Sonoma). There are a few more, too. While the pumpkin plants totally took over our small backyard, it was worth it. This year, I’m going to buy a few interesting new pumpkins and “plant” them at the end of the season for next year (throw them in the corners of the yard).
If you haven’t visited our shop in awhile, come on by! It has changed a lot! We’ve added lots of lighting, rugs, tile, vanities, handmade sinks, and custom vent hoods! Here are two of the vent hood samples:
These are absolutely amazing! I can’t wait to see them in action. We also got a giant order of FUL candles in time for fall and Christmas. These sell so quickly that they’re hard to keep in stock. I ordered lots of the fall/winter scents in both sizes to be prepared.
image from FULcandles
That’s all for now! Come and see us if you’re local and we’d love to meet you!!
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