The last postcards of summer landed in your mailbox a few weeks ago and the kids are scuffling through sidewalks full of leaves on their way to school. It’s time to change out the beach glass and shells in favor of autumnal decor. Here are a few unique decorating ideas that will help you apply a little seasonal love to your home.
Borrow from Nature
Oddly shaped colored squashes, clusters of changing leaves and bundles of dried wheat stalks will add a seasonal touch to your living space.
You can simply add seasonally suggestive colors in overlooked but highly visible places in your home: a seasonal centerpiece instantly enhances the dining room. Plants on kitchen counters and cabinets refer you to the season in which they flourish. Windows cry out for a bit of the natural world they allow you to look out upon. You can capitalize on this by changing curtain colors and the cozies you put on your sills.
Elsewhere around the house, when the weather is crisp, a nubby white throw blanket adds a cup full of cozy to any living room. In spring, pussy willows, sky blues and fresh fruit like lemons or berries enliven a kitchen, just as clusters of fresh cut garden flowers enliven a screened in porch when the fireflies are lighting up summer evenings and there’s a paddle posed against the front door.
Try putting some seasonal fruit in the kitchen. Indian corn left on a kitchen countertop brings the fall harvest inside with you. In addition, edible seasonal fruit makes an elegant decoration, especially if accompanied by branches, leaves, pinecones, and puffballs.
Accessorize to Match the Season
Seasonal pillows can give your furniture a sharp new look. Buy pillow covers in colors that suggest a season to you and change out the old for the new in five minutes’ time.
Accessorizing is a great way to redecorate quickly and cheaply. You can add a seasonal wreath to your front door woven out of branches of turning leaves interspersed with dried mushrooms, corn husks, and strands of straw. Closer to Thanksgiving, you’ll want to trade this for an evergreen wreath or something holiday-inspired. Take mental notes on colors and plants as the seasons change. Be crafty, and trust your own instincts when it comes to what the season means to you.
Seasonal Sleeping Quarters
You can also switch out your linens to boost your desire to sleep each night by way of a seasonally inviting bedspread. In warmer months, airy sheets in cool bright hues like turquoise or butter lemon spice up the night, and when the weather starts to cool, exchange your bedding for a weighty comforter in dark, warm shades. In colder climates, the switch from cotton to flannel sheets signals the start of both winter and the festive season.
A new area rug can pull a room together. These floor coverings are so portable, inexpensive, and useful they can transform any space through any seasonal change.
Use Distinct Seasonal Themes
For fall, welcome the cool weather with bouquets of changing leaves. Then create a unique centerpiece for your table, and decorate above your kitchen cabinets with colored squashes and leaves of different sizes.
In winter, keep up the cozy theme you started for fall. Use plaid patterns that bring to mind cabins and wool blankets. You can also rely on shades of brown, red, and green. When the snow flies, incorporate icy blues and moonlit silvers in your interior decor scheme.
In spring, lavish flowers and fresh scents in every room always help create a clean, fresh, and airy feel. A large vase of flowers reminds everyone of the then very welcome seasonal change, as do items connoting warmer weather, like small decorative bicycles and red wagons on the porch or just inside the front door.
In summer, seashells and driftwood make perfect decorating elements for your mantel or hearth. Sheer white curtains billow to announce the season in front of open windows that blow the freshness of summer warmth throughout your home.
Seasonal Decor by Holiday
Holidays are often decorated for, and so doing can summon the aura of entire seasons themselves. Here are some basics of the upcoming festivities.
- Halloween: Use classic jack-o-lanterns on your porch and candy corn in decorative bowls to decorate for Halloween. Try some of the less-usual pumpkin shapes and colors to keep things classy and fresh.
- Thanksgiving: Place a cornucopia centerpiece on the family table.
- Christmas: Plenty of lights, of course, and holly berries or poinsettias bring a natural vibe to the most wonderful time of the year.
- Valentine’s Day: Use hearts and doilies in colors of red, pink, and white throughout the home.
- St. Patrick’s Day: Classic green shamrocks look splendid adorning your mantel or front door.
- Easter: Pastel-colored eggs make the perfect accent in a clear vase, surrounded by fresh sprigs of lilac.
- Fourth of July: Use red, white and blue accents where you can.
Let your imagination be your guide as the seasons change, and you’ll find inspiration in nature for your unique decorating ideas.