Dress your Home for Fall – Part One

Fall flower arrangements can dress your home up for Thanksgiving. Take advantage of nature. Try putting colorful corn into a glass container, filling it with water, and fill it with sunflowers, mums, and thistle. Add red berry sprigs if you can. If you have a field near your house, you can gather cattails and other dried grass. You can put all of them into a large vase without water. Hand tied bouquets look great too, they can be tied to posts outside your home or to stair railings. Make the most of pumpkins during the fall season. There are lots of centerpieces that use pumpkins, see my previous post on thanksgiving centerpieces to get some ideas.

Adding autumn accessories around the home will make it look festive for your Thanksgiving. These accessories can be made into decorations without having to spend very much money at all, and to save even more money, you can choose artificial plant elements so you can reuse these decorations year after year.

Buy or sew a table runner in a fall color. Good colors to use for fall are burgundy, dark green, orange, or yellow ochre. Maybe you will even want to make or buy a few, and alternate them. Next, buy some artificial fall leaves from a craft store. Artificial leaves are usually available in silk or velvet, velvet looks more interesting to me, because it has more variances and texture, but choose the one you prefer. Now, hot glue the leaves to the table runner in a random pattern. Try using more leaves on the ends of the runner and near the edges, leaving just a few scattered throughout the remainder of the material. Don’t be afraid to layer the leaves a little bit for a richer fuller look in some places.

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Easy to Make Fall Centerpieces – Part Two

One of my favorite centerpieces is one that ends up looking like a little pumpkin patch in the center of your table. This one could be used for a Halloween party just as easily as for Thanksgiving. Place a large pumpkin in the center of our table. Set medium and small pumpkins around it randomly. You probably will only need a couple of medium pumpkins and a few small ones, but depending on the size of your table, you may want more or less. Fill in the spaces with fall leaves. Add a few candles in between pumpkins if you want to. You can also add other thanksgiving garden items to the display if you choose, such as squash or apples.

To make a centerpiece that looks like a mini forest use small potted mini evergreen trees. You can get them as small as six inches high. Buy a few in varying sizes. Hot glue moss onto the pots for a really cute look, or if you don’t want to go to the trouble, just place the trees in matching decorative containers if you can find some that will suit. Cover the table in between the trees with fall leaves, mini pumpkins, and candles of any size.

You can place a large pumpkin on a pedestal cake plate for a quick centerpiece. Add berries, ivy strands, moss, or fall leaves to the plate around the base of the pumpkin.

If you want to buy mum plants, ivy, or ferns you can use them for fall season decorating that will be fresh for the whole season. All you need is a large basket or other container to place the mum pots inside. Arrange a couple of ferns or ivy plant pots between the mums inside the basket. Use moss to cover the plastic rims of the pots, or drape some fall colored material between the plants.

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Easy to Make Fall Centerpieces – Part One

If you are hosting a Thanksgiving meal at your house this year, here are some ideas to impress them with your table decorating.

A centerpiece on the table will be sure to draw attention from your guests and get you compliments. There are many options you could go with, and some of them are very fast to prepare if you are in a hurry.

A shallow glass tray filled with red cranberries topped with white tea candles can be a pretty centerpiece and it will take you less than five minutes to prepare. Since this decoration is on a tray, you can try displaying it around your home to see where it will look best.

Candlesticks and leaves can be arranged together to be a pretty centerpiece. First, arrange the candlesticks, or pillar candles, down the center of the table. This will look best if it is done on top of a narrow runner placed on the table first, in a color that will enhance the thanksgiving feeling, such as forest green, burgundy, or yellow ochre. Next, arrange fall leaves around the base of each candle. You can also add pinecones or twigs to the display if you would like. If you would rather have a portable decoration, lay fabric on a serving tray and use it for your decorating instead. This would look nice displayed on a coffee table or end table.
A green potted plant with trailing branches can be a great starting point for a centerpiece decoration. Ivy works well for this centerpiece, but other similarly shaped plants can work too. You now need a container in which to place the ivy pot. My favorite for this centerpiece is to use a hollowed out pumpkin, but a basket would work too. Fill any gap between the edge of the pot and the edge of the container with fall leaves, and scatter a few down the table on each side of the container.

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Make your Home Cozy for Winter – Part Four

If you have a fireplace winter is the season when you really want to use it to your advantage. Make sure your fireplace is the focal point during these cold months. Put those big floor pillows and blanket near the fireplace. Stack a few books or candles on one side of the seating area. Make sure the mantle is decorated for the season with warm accents.

Wintertime is a great time for curling up with a book and a warm mug of hot chocolate. Make sure your family room has a wonderful place to read. If there is a comfortable chair in the family room make sure there is a small table next to it and an ottoman in front of it. Drape a throw over the back of the chair and place a cozy accent pillow in the chair. Optionally, add a warm little dog or cat as seen below. If you don’t have a chair do this with, use your love seat or whatever you have available.

Put warm colored candles in groups in your bathrooms. You can place the candles on a small decorative tray so it is easy to move around.

If you have potpourri around the house make sure you replace it with warm spicy scented potpourri.

If you like baking, make sure you have glass covered cake plates and keep them stocked with cakes, cupcakes, bread, muffins and cookies throughout the winter.

Get a decorative tray and keep it displayed in the kitchen always stocked with mugs, spoons, tea bags, and hot chocolate mix.

These ideas can help you change your attitude about winter and get excited about it. You may also enjoy winter more and spring will come before you know it.

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Make your Home Cozy for Winter – Part Three

House plants can make the home seem cozy and help you not to miss your yard as much. Flowers in warm colored vases displayed weekly can really liven a room up. Or buy some hanging plants to put in a room.

Candles are easy to store away during the summer and give the house a nice glow and scent during the winter. An added bonus is the fact that candles are cheap. Vanilla scented candles or candles that smell like baking can make a room feel warm. I’m not a big winter person, but I do look forward to breaking out the candles when the season comes. My favorite candle scents are birthday cake and pumpkin spice.

You can put slip covers over the seat pillows of a chair or couch for winter. Make sure you get slipcovers in a warm cozy color, such as dark brown, orange, or red. Also, look for slip covers in comfortable textures, like microfiber for example.

If you have kids yourself or have children visiting your home often, think about getting a few big floor pillows that match the accent pillows on your couch, in warm colors of course. Fold a blanket or throw and put it near the pillows, this will be enough for a kid to have a great place for reading or drawing.

Glass surfaces make a room look colder. If there are a lot of glass surfaces in your home think about decorating them with fabric place mats, or wicker baskets containing seasonal decorations. Framed pictures and candles would also help make a glass table look warmer.

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Make your Home Cozy for Winter – Part Two

A more permanent change you can make to warm up your home is to repaint. Unless you have a lot of time on your hands you probably don’t want to have to paint seasonally, so this is really only an option if you think you might like a warm color scheme for at least a couple of years. Warm earthy tones can really make a room feel warmer. Orange is my personal favorite warm color, I love it because there are lots of shades to choose from so you can make a room look modern and bright, or elegant and subdued with orange. If you have a south facing room that never sees the sun or a basement room with tiny windows, try painting an accent wall in a bright or warm hue. This can really warm the room up.

If you aren’t planning to repaint the walls, try buying accent pieces in warm colors to decorate your home. Couch pillows are easy accent pieces to use. Also try buying vases or photo frames to go with your winter décor. Throw blankets are another easy accent piece you can get in a warm color. Buy thicker throws for winter, and lighter (both and color and in weight) throws for summer.

Tiled floors or wooden floors can seem a little cold during the winter. It is easy to buy a few thick warm colored rugs to use on these floors while it is cold. Rugs are easy to store away during the summer. Look for rugs with red, orange, or brown color schemes to really warm up the room.

Check back Monday for part three of this blog.

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Make your Home Cozy for Winter – Part One

With winter on the horizon now is a good time to think about making your home cozy for the cold season. Most people spend a lot more time cooped up in the house during the winter, so it is worthwhile to make the house inviting and comfortable. Many of these changes can be done by investing in winter items for the home that can be swapped with summer items each year. This way you only have to spend the extra money once, and you’re set for many years to come.

Windows look great covered with sheer curtains during the summer, but in the winter it looks best to exchange these for thicker curtains. Full length curtains that touch the floor help stop drafts from entering your home. Velvet and corduroy are both wonderful fabrics to use for curtains in the winter season. But, any thicker fabric will do, or you can try layering fabrics to achieve a more feminine look.

Bedding for winter is probably the most important detail. Make sure you own a soft fluffy comforter. Ideally, buy a down comforter and a duvet to cover it. Duvets are great because you can use them without the comforter inside during the summer, or with a much thinner comforter at least. Also, duvets usually come with pillow shams so your bedding will all match. Extra pillows on the bed can make your bed seem cozier for winter too.

Check back tomorrow for part two of this blog.

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