Next to Christmas, autumn is my favorite season of the year. I love watching the leaves change colors. I love listening to the Vince Guaraldi Peanuts soundtracks and marveling in the leaves fluttering down to the ground. (The song “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” is the perfect soundtrack for a beautiful fall day, by the way.) I love Halloween and Thanksgiving! I love seeing all of the Halloween home decor and the Thanksgiving harvest decorations around town. I especially love decorating my home with autumn decorations starting at the beginning of September through Thanksgiving in November
After my grandmother passed away three years ago, I proudly inherited most of her autumn decorations in beautiful fall foliage colors like red, orange, yellow, brown, and gold. Fall is the season for earthy colors. To bring the look and feel of autumn into my home, my first step is to change out my dining room table coverings. I love my plaid table cloth in the fall foliage colors of dark red, orange, and dark yellow. I also have some festive placemats covered in autumn apples that my parents bought me for Christmas one year. Instead of my usual plain kitchen towels, I switch my white ones out for ones in various shades of fall. In other words, bringing some harvest décor into my kitchen and dining room is as easy as replacing my usual linens with fall-inspired ones.
At the front of my house in the middle of the living room is a large picture window. Although I love looking at the big tree across the street changing colors and losing its leaves, I also like to decorate the window with harvest decorations. In fact, I can hardly see out my window these days because of all of the Halloween and fall window clings. I also have a light up “It’s the Great Pumpkin” Peanuts display in the window as well as orange and purple LED lights. One needs to look no further than my front window for my Halloween and Thanksgiving home decor.
I am not a fan of fake flower arrangements in my home for most of the year. However, during the autumn decorating season, I am partial to wreaths made from branches of faux fall leaves. I made one a few years ago by buying an inexpensive orange branch. I then cut the individual sticks apart and wove the pieces together into a circle. I hang the wreath on my front door for all the neighbors and passers-by to see. I also stick a few branches of leaves in fall foliage colors in flower vases and scatter the vases throughout my home. Colored corn is also a beautiful addition to the home during the fall. Fake leaf harvest decorations are so simple to assemble and bring a burst of autumn color into my house. Even kids can get in on the fun by making some simple but pretty Indian corn wreaths.
Autumn, Halloween, and Thanksgiving also pervade the rest of my home. On top of my coffee table and piano are Halloween and harvest decorations. I have pumpkins and leaves and scarecrows. I have Halloween and Thanksgiving cookie cutters and Halloween and Thanksgiving cardboard cutouts. I even have two large scarecrows on either side of my fireplace and a tiny scarecrow named Harry next to my front walk. Harry sticks around from September through the end of November. After Halloween, I switch out my Jack o’ lanterns and ghosts for cornucopias and turkeys. My fondness for the autumn season is obvious in the autumn home decor in and around my house.
Finally, I am sucker for holiday lighting. I drape orange lights over the tops of my windows. Stringing yellow lights over my mantle brings a feeling of fall to my fireplace. In the dining room I will add some decor to the table to brighten up the area, so when everyone is at the table eating dinner it feels extra cozy and has such a warm atmosphere – that’s my favorite part. In October, I also put up purple and green lights as well as pumpkin and ghost blow molds. Once November arrives, I swap out the Halloween light-ups for turkeys. Even some of my neighbors have been inspired by my harvest decorations. The older couple down the block has strung orange icicle lights around their front porch!
I love putting up fall decorations for home décor. However, even the least decorating-savvy homeowner can bring a little autumn inside with these simple harvest decorations. Happy fall!
For more decorating ideas, check out my Autumn, Halloween, and Thanksgiving Wreath Roundup. Also check out my Ideas for Decorating the Home for Thanksgiving.
Image Credits
Ideas for Harvest Decorations for the Home for Halloween and Thanksgiving: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bassclarinetist/3957842556/ (CC BY-NC 2.0) and https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Herbst-Dekoration-Kuerbis.jpg
Cobs of Colored Corn: http://www.freeimages.com/photo/harvest-09-1346652
Fall Door Decoration: https://www.flickr.com/photos/25148273@N03/3025701878/
Outside Halloween Decorations: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HalloweenDecoration0390Washington.jpg
Pumpkins and Indian Corn: https://www.flickr.com/photos/22809952@N03/4070147251/
Outdoor Thanksgiving Decorations: https://www.flickr.com/photos/indiamos/3023651561/