After scrolling through your favorite home brand’s fall look books and Instagram, it’s easy to get swept up in the change of seasons. You’re certainly not alone if you feel like you want to overhaul your entire home’s look with affordable home decor to reflect the festive feelings you want to capture over the cold months.
But it’s hard to know where to begin cultivating fall home decor if you’d like to copy your favorite designer’s looks without their budget.
Before You Begin Your Fall Decorating
To get started, choose one or two features or trends (so overwhelm doesn’t set in) that you like best. Then, when you’re thinking about how to add fall festiveness to your home, keep these tips in mind. They’ll help you craft a cohesive plan and save money.
Choose a Focal Point
If you don’t have a large budget or prefer minimal fall infusion, choose one area of your home that feels like a natural focal point and start your design plan there. Focal points are perfect for decorating military housing. For example, your front porch is the perfect setting for an autumn scene. Or, take advantage of a one-of-a-kind piece of furniture, like a dining room table, and show off its unique design with fall-inspired linens and dishes.
Invest in One or Two New Items
If you’ve fallen in love with a fall home decor item, like a unique collection of framed artwork, use it as the base of your decorating plans. Think of it as the featured item and surround it with things you already have at home, like antique candlesticks or heirloom serving pieces.
Reimagine Your Go-To Decorating Items
Affordable home decor starts with upcycling! If you’re ready to move on from your indoor faux orange pumpkin patch, spray paint it neutral colors like cream, beige, and fawn. Or, repurpose a grapevine wreath for your front door. Remove the old ribbons and dried flowers and add a new collection of fall objects that you can easily find near your home, like dried leaves and berries.
Read on for inspiration if you’re ready to try a popular fall decorating trend. Adding one or all three to your home is easy because they work well together. Don’t forget to light your favorite scented candle to perfect the ambiance.
Popular Fall Home Decorating Trends
1. Natural Wood Elements
Nothing says fall decorating like bringing the outdoors in, especially wood elements. Wood features immediately warm a room and add a hefty dose of cozy. You may already have some wooden aspects in your home, like a fireplace mantel or flights of stairs, to take advantage of.
If you don’t have a permanent wood component in your house, consider adding semi-permanent furniture like wooden counter stools or a new coffee table. This is another example of how to embrace military housing decor. Once you’ve picked your favorite location or feature, boost its appearance by creating a focal point with trendy fall accents. Remember that decorating accents look best in groups of odd numbers, especially threes.
- Display a collection of wooden cutting boards and bowls in the kitchen to match the new stools.
- Arrange wood-like objects on the fireplace mantel, such as pinecones, acorns, and bare branches in glass vases or jars.
- Decorate your wooden staircase and banister (especially if visible from the front door) with giant-sized pinecones and a variety of pumpkins, or hang a woody magnolia leaf garland on the railing.
Have you just moved in and want to personalize your space? Learn how to decorate your home, room by room.
Photo by Hamdi Kandi from Hamdi Kandi Studio via Canva.com
2. Woven Features
The perfect companion to a wooden element is a woven feature, especially baskets and fiber rugs. They each root in the same earthy vibe and, when paired together, add instant visual interest and the quintessential fall charm you’ve been craving. If you need a touch of softness in the room, layer woven blankets and pillows for a lush look.
- Add tabletop-sized fruit baskets (or seagrass), similar to what you’d find at U-Pick orchards and farms, for an instant fall update. Handleless baskets are the perfect fall disguise for plain lamp bases.
- Woven pendant lights are on trend and look to stay that way. Hang one in your kitchen to create an eye-catching focal point. Use bulbs with a warm golden glow instead of cool color-casting light bulbs.
- Highlight your staircase or wood flooring with woven natural fiber rugs and runners. A jute runner looks great in a long hallway or tacked onto a flight of stairs. Natural fiber rugs are inexpensive and easily found in most home stores.
3. Earth Tones and Monochromatic Palette
Earth tones and warm neutral colors are big trends and will fit perfectly into your home’s autumn makeover. Neutral and earth tone color combinations are endless, so pick the wall colors, furniture fabric, or accessories you love and create the sanctuary you’ve been hoping for.
If you need help choosing, look for inspiration in everyday colors like oatmeal, linen, burlap, brown sugar, rattan, sand, and stone. You can also add warm, muted versions of greens and reds found in nature, like lichen, moss, rust, and copper.
You’ve probably seen monochromatic looks over the years and swore you wanted to try the vibe. This simple decorating technique combines colors in a similar color range, for example, variations of warm neutral colors like latte or greige. If you like, add punches of color to monochromatic rooms for easy fall decorating and to bring a bit of festiveness to the season change.
- Warm oranges and red yellows are easy to incorporate into tonal decor, so add your favorite pumpkins, gourds, and foliage to make a temporary color statement. You can also bring in fall colors with woven blankets and pillows.
- To stick to the neutral color palette, gather cream and white pumpkins, white dried flowers, and berry wreaths and garlands. Spruce up a buffet or sideboard or add an unexpected seasonal touch to an interior door.
- Invest in new sets of garland for your mantel and archways. Look for strings of neutral-colored wooden beads and miniature felt and fabric pumpkins. A garland made of acorns, twigs, and brown leaves combines the earth tone and wooden trend elements.
Hopefully, cooler nights and the sounds of crunching leaves underfoot have arrived in your hometown. But even if you’re not quite there yet, you can set the mood inside your home with one of fall’s most popular decorating trends. Choose your favorite or dabble in a couple to create a look uniquely yours for months to come.
