Decorating Your Home for Fall (& a Fear-Free Halloween)

When it comes to decorating your home for different holidays, there are different challenges and different appeals. In the spring and especially in the summer months, decorating can only go so far because many of those holidays like Memorial Day and the 4th of July are primarily celebrated outdoors. The holidays that fall later in the year, however, offer a different charm for decorating. Because fall and winter holidays come along in the colder months of the year, your family and friends will be spending a lot more time inside, which brings more opportunity for enjoying seasonal and holiday decor. 

This is the fun of fall decorations. It is more than a wreath on your front door or some seasonal hand towels in the kitchen – decorating your home for autumn is an opportunity to create a warm and welcoming atmosphere. If you’ve spent much time online, it doesn’t take long to see that fall is the season of the year with the most clearly defined aesthetic. There are fall holidays – we’ll cover Halloween decor later in this post and Thanksgiving in the next one –, but lots of people get just as excited to dress up their space for the season as a whole. So how can you capture that cozy, autumn feeling in your home? That’s just what this post is for. And, as an added bonus, we’ll share some ideas for how to decorate for Halloween without making your house look too scary or gross.

Decorating for Fall

The words you want to think of when it comes to fall decor are the words warm and earthy. Everything in your space should give the feeling of coziness and warmth to you, your family, and your guests. And, you’ll want to take every chance you get to bring in bits of the outside to the inside since the charm of autumn begins with the colors and harvest in the world around us. Here are three categories of fall decor where you can easily incorporate the themes of warmth and earthiness to fill your home up with the lovely feeling of fall.

Colors

No matter what particular color palette you choose for your fall decor, your colors will undoubtedly be warm ones. Come September, tis the season for all the yellows, oranges, and reds there are. Echoing the color palette on the leaves of the trees, these colors check both the boxes that fall decor should – they are both earthy and warm. Bring the outside inside by adding pieces of marigold yellow, burnt orange, or deep maroon all around your home. 

Textures

Once you have your colors as a foundation, the next step for your fall decorating is textures! Fall is the time of year to lean into lots of different textures, from throw blankets to wall decor. Bringing in textures like woven baskets or chunky knit blankets into your space adds dimension and makes it feel more lived-in, which in turn makes it feel more welcoming. You could put up a bouquet of dried flowers to decorate your wall or add a yarn or macrame wall hanging. Colors aren’t enough to capture that cozy feeling we associate with autumn. You’ll need some tactile pieces to bring it out in your house!

Objects

Here is the category of fall decor that is perhaps the most fun – adding your decorative items around your home! Bring out the warmth and earthiness of fall by putting out the pieces that we associate most with this season. Think of colorful leaves, decorative – or real! – pumpkins, ears of corn, bales of hay, apples, and beautiful fall flowers like chrysanthemums. Hang garlands of leaves on your mantle or set yellow flowers on either side of your front door. Make a centerpiece of mini pumpkins or set up a friendly scarecrow by your mailbox. And don’t hold back with lights either! Scented candles are welcome here, or you can hang string lights inside or outside to add to the warm, welcoming atmosphere. 

What About Halloween?

Once your home is decked out in fall color and coziness, there’s the question of October. Maybe you’re a fan of the creepy, crawly decor of Halloween, or maybe you wish your neighbors would rein in the zombies and skeletons a bit each year. If you’re in the latter category, here are some ideas for how to add some extra flair to your house specifically to celebrate the charm of October (without scaring your neighbor kids away).

• Add more pumpkins! You can really never have too many pumpkins, and October is the time to add your jack o'lanterns too (whether you prefer scary jack o’lanterns or happy ones).

• String up a garland of paper bats or stick them up on your walls. (Diy some here!)

• Buy or make some cute little ghosts to decorate your house or your yard. (This ghost blanket might be just the thing you need.)

• Lean into darker colors in the month of October or even add some sparkle to your decor to add to the magic and mystery of the month.

Dressing up your home for autumn is a chance to light up your space with warmth and light as the year starts getting a little colder and darker. With color, texture, and lots of natural pieces, you can make a space that is cozy and welcoming for yourself, your family, and your friends. And the best part of fall decor is that, when in doubt, you can always add more leaves and pumpkins! For more ideas, look out for our post about decorating your house for Thanksgiving, coming soon.