As I arrange the pumpkins on the stairs outside of our front door, I wonder if it’s possible for them to bake as they sit outside. The calendar may say that fall has officially arrived, but the weather here in the Deep South is late to the party.
I can feel beads of sweat gathering on my forehead as I place each pumpkin exactly where I want it on the stairs. It’s a meager attempt to make it look like fall, even though it doesn’t feel like it yet.
Over the years I have accepted that Fall in the South doesn’t look like it does in movies like Good Will Hunting and Practical Magic. Fall reveals itself a little slower and more subtly down here.
Summer tries to linger a little longer in the South. So, I stopped dragging dozens of fall décor bins up from the basement, and I adopted a collected approach to fall decorating. A collected approach to fall decorating is a more natural way of letting a Southern home move seamlessly into the season.
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Letting Your Home Move into Fall
Fall in my home often feels like a time of transition. Summer has kept me busy with gardening and traveling, and our holiday calendar for the next few months is already filling up.
Despite the warm weather, I am ready to nestle down in my home for the season. I’ll do some fall decorating, but a complete room overhaul is unnecessary when careful thought is put into seasonal additions.
For my husband and me, our home is our retreat where we can withdraw from the hectic world after a long day. We like our things, collected and curated, and we prefer not to put them all away to make room for décor that is only brought out for a few weeks.
During the fall, I’ll leave most of our furniture and collections out where they’re normally styled. With a few thoughtful additions, our everyday things transform into part of the seasonal décor.
Making Fall Decorating Feel at Home
As a lover of all things old and worn, I naturally gravitate towards a muted color spectrum. The traditional colors of Halloween would be garishly out of place in our home. In spaces filled with worn rugs, old books, and patinated copper, bright orange and black would feel out of character.
In our collected home, fall colors are successfully incorporated with existing décor when they reflect what is happening outside in nature. Instead of bright orange tones, I lean into softer terracotta colors that can be seen in dried grasses and leaves. Rather than using black, I prefer to use rich browns often associated with autumn sticks and pinecones. Each collected home is different, and the seasonal colors you choose should complement your existing décor.
With a collected approach to fall decorating in mind, I decorated a drop-leaf table that sits in the bay window of our living room. I left our oversized blue and white ginger jar and a thrifted lamp in their normal places, and I added a few touches to make this space feel like fall.
Two handmade terracotta pumpkins crafted by a local artisan are placed onto silver trays we’ve collected over the years. The pumpkins are rustic and even show marks from the potter’s hands where they formed the stems. When placed onto silver trays, the pumpkins are transformed into pieces of art that belong beside our other antique furnishings.
Behind the pumpkins, a piece of burnt orange velvet ribbon makes the ginger jar feel like it’s included in the season. This color was thoughtfully selected to bridge the color of the terracotta pumpkins with the existing pieces on the table.
Rather than using an “instead of” style of decorating for fall, I aim to use my favorite and familiar things in new ways.
Using Familiar Things in New Ways
When I shop for seasonal décor, I find myself evaluating each piece for the different ways it can be used throughout the year. I’m not attempting to participate in minimalism or deprive myself of decorating in a decadent way. Rather, it brings interest and joy into my life when I think of creative ways that pieces can be repurposed.
As collectors, we have things in our home that can be used in ways we never thought of. A shawl can be turned into a table scarf, or perhaps a collection of frames can be filled with family photos from a pumpkin patch.
This year I purchased small grapevine wreaths that can be used in spring to symbolize a bird’s nest, and in the fall, they became pedestals for tiny pumpkins to rest upon.
Limelight hydrangeas that filled our backyard with a bright, refreshing ambiance over the summer are now dried and used in vases and wreaths in our fall dining room. A creamer and sugar set found at a local estate sale became vessels for pheasant feathers, which are then tucked into small vignettes.
In a collected home, items can be brought together and reimagined in new ways each season. As our spaces evolve and change over time, the way we integrate these pieces into our seasonal décor is constantly changing.
Finding Your Own Collected Approach
This year when you decorate for fall, consider using pieces you already have in your home and adopting a collected approach for styling your seasonal décor alongside them.
By restyling what you already have, repurposing new decor in creative ways, and making selections that complement your existing decor, your collected home will be beautifully decorated for the fall season.
Looking for fall decor seen in our home or pieces that can be seamlessly added to your collected fall decor? Find these and more in my Amazon storefront.
