Fall Decorating 2014: Maps, Globes, Hydrangeas & Pumpkins

Even though it’s only a few days after officially turning fall, I still feel behind in my seasonal decor post because I’ve been reading other blogger’s fall decorating posts for about a month now. I just couldn’t get into it that early. I mean, I like fall, but I’m never quite ready to leave our fleeting warm weather. We actually had a few summer evenings where we could sit out in our gazebo at 9:00 at night without sweaters. That’s big in the Pacific Northwest – and I l.o.v.e.d. it.

But I’m tired of watering and the idea of fires and boots and cozy evenings wrapped in a throw are not unwelcome now at the end of September. Plus, I harvested some amazing pumpkins that I grew to decorate with (and no, I do not eat pumpkins in any form, it is evil to me, uck – that is my trial in the season of pumpkin this and pumpkin that, ha!) and the gray-green of the Jarrahdale Cinderella-type pumpkin – which are squash, I know, but the shape is pumpkin-like, so I’m going with that – helped guide the color scheme (they were listed as gray-blue, but I’m happy that mine are more gray-green).

I planted three hills of the Jarrahdales, only two came up and out of those grew three large pumpkins, one of which became the base of a pumpkin topiary on the front porch along with a ‘Lumina’ pumpkin (I grew 5 of these). Keeping it simple, I added a couple of mums and dotted sweet little ‘Baby Boo’ mini pumpkins all over. Every mini pumpkin you see in the photos on this page were grown in our garden – how fun is that?

I am really loving our fall mantel! Our daughter found the chalkboard map at Target on clearance and begged me to get it, declaring it ‘cool.’ I didn’t really know where I’d use it, but then thought why not create a fall mantel around it? Since it has a bit of a school-ish feel to it, I added books, a small globe and a clipboard. The color comes from green mason jars left from our summer mantle but updated with late season green-purple hydrangeas to compliment the gray-green pumpkin.

To the clipboard I added this autumn definition printable since it seemed to fit perfectly with the school ‘theme.’ (And that’s in quotes because I didn’t think of this at. all. while putting the mantel together – isn’t that funny? It’s only coming to me now as I’m writing about it…do you think it was in my subconscious the whole time – you know, fall=school?) I’m really into old wooden clipboards right now and just bought a ton of them at Goodwill for .99 each which I’m using for organizing as well as decorating.

My favorite thing, though, is this wood trough/box that Brian made me out of old barn wood from our neighbor – I can think of a ton of ways I’m going to use this in the future! Right now it’s holding our drying PeeGee hydrangeas on our dining room table. I set it on top of a coral grain-sack-like runner that is my only nod indoors to traditional fall colors. This combo makes me smile every time I walk by.

You may remember this incredible pear that my aunt made from a gourd, since I like to use it every fall – so how perfect was this pear printable I found? Plus it’s another place to use one of my old wood clipboards! Other than these things, the rest of my fall decorating consists of placing more mini pumpkins here and there, adding some more feathers and bringing out our thrift store transformation fall book page coasters.

Seasonal decorating doesn’t need to be a lot or complicated – in fact, it only took me about an hour to pull this seasonal look together from what I had, clippings from the yard, and our pumpkins. The only thing that’s new is the chalkboard map, and that’s not even very fall-ish. A few items like pumpkins and flowers are all that you need to welcome fall to your home, really.

Do you like to decorate for fall? Do you use a lot of natural items, too?

 

This is linked to Fall Porch Party, Link Party Palooza and Vintage Inspiration Party.