The autumn season brings nights by the bonfire, family farm hayrides, and apple orchards galore. Not to mention beautiful earth-toned colors, festive wreaths, and cozy textiles to incorporate fall into your home. If you’re looking for autumn design inspiration but don’t know where to start, we’ve got you covered. We reached out to experts from across North America, from Chicago, IL to Nelson, BC, to give us their best fall design tips for your home. From decorating with seasonal accent pillows to bringing plants into your home, keep reading to see what they had to say.
1) Stay true to yourself when decorating for the season
Fall is a great time to heighten the amount of coziness in your home by adding in seasonal touches you love – from chunky knits to extra candles, autumn colors to pumpkins and mums, and everything in between. You simply can’t go wrong when decorating for fall if you’re adding pieces that speak to you. – From the Front Porch
2) Utilize shades of orange, green, and yellow
As temperatures cool, we are drawn to nature as the leaves change beautifully around us. We turn to outdoor activities like apple picking, going on hayrides, and gathering around bonfires. Changing out your pillows and throws to shades of orange, green, and yellow is a simple, inexpensive way to enjoy some of the brilliance of autumn inside your home this year. – Angela Scollar Designs, Decorating Den Interiors
3) Bring in beautiful fall colors through flowers
We begin removing the summer annuals in our garden and replace them with more cold-tolerant plants such as pansies, mums, cabbages, and ornamental peppers. It’s great to keep your flower pots filled during the fall months to provide beautiful fall colors on your porch and terrace. Another idea for fall is to create pots of flowers similar to your outside pots for your home interior with decorative items for the table, mantel, and other surfaces. – M. Lavender Interiors
4) Let earth-based autumn colors inspire your home decor
Nature’s greatest show of transitional splendor is the fall turning of the leaves. Bring the richness indoors with a celebration of earth-based autumn colors – curry, cumin, chile, and cinnamon. For a simple refresh think pillows in multiple prints of similar hue, trays, throws, seasonal produce and flora, and candles, candles, candles to scent the space. – Philomela, LLC
5) Try faux velvet pumpkins to compliment your home
You don’t have to stick with the traditional browns, oranges, and reds – my favorite accessories are faux velvet pumpkins in the colors that compliment your home. If you’re renovating, consider adding in warmer satin or antique brass in the fixtures such as lighting, plumbing, and hardware. – Payne & Payne Renovations
6) Create a dramatic powder room
Create a dramatic powder room by painting the walls, trim, and ceiling in a single deep tone, such as Sherwin Williams 2712 Rose Clay, or apply Tempaper’s Birds of Paradise to walls and ceiling. Complete the dramatic effect by replacing the wall-mounted vanity light with a pendant fixture such as by wiring to the electrical location and hooking the chain to the ceiling. – Victoria Sheffield Design
7) Bring out seasonal accent pillow sand woven blankets
As autumn comes around, many of us start looking for ways to add more cozy layers and warm vibes to our homes. Even if you live in a place with a warm climate, changing out small accessories can make a big difference. Bring out seasonal accent pillows and woven blankets to layer over the sofa, adorn your kitchen table with dried gourds and corn cobs, and swap out entire bedding sets to change the vibe of a bedroom. – Stalburg Design
8) Bring in trees and plants to your home
Don’t forget to add greenery for fall. Trees and plants come inside for the winter since outdoor living space time becomes more infrequent. – Raili CA Design
9) Let your walls talk
Window treatments are a great way to frame the windows and add depth to a space. They allow visitors to marvel at the framing of the decor and furnishings inside your home through the windows. Windows play the same role in your home. The final piece is the walls of your home. Allow the walls to be a gallery space throughout your home that tells a story about you or your family. – Trystin Kier Francis, Principal the Kier Company
10) Get your backyard ready for intimate get togethers
Here in the South, being fall-ready means being backyard-ready. Dust off that fire pit and string up some lights to make your backyard an oasis for those crisp fall nights. – Katie Davis Design
11) Bring in a sense of joy and an abundance of color
As we reemerge from this dark, inside period I believe that a sense of joy and abundant color will be prevalent in the world of design. New ideas combined with natural materials are the direction in which we are headed, so let your imagination run wild to welcome fall into your home. – Marjorie Skouras Design
12) Make sure to cleanse your home of unneeded items
Consider reorganizing the interiors of all cabinets, closets, and storage pieces, donating what you never use, and investing in storage organizers, shelving, new hangers, bins, and dividers. This also applies to your kitchen and bathroom cabinets, as well as the garage. The winter months bring a lot of stuff with them; your future self will thank you for setting yourself up for success this autumn. – Lisa Galano Design
13) Use natural elements in your design
I like to use natural elements like branches, pheasant feathers, and pine cones in my fall decor. During late summer, I keep an eye out for branches with interesting shapes or berries, such as pokeweed and beautyberry, and let them dry for a few weeks. The dried branches are perfect for adding texture and color for Fall. – The Roots of Home
14) Blend colored accents with modern materials
Blending colored accents with more modern materials like marble can create beautiful juxtapositions of color and texture and make a space feel more open. It’s a hue that has to be done right or it can be overbearing, so you want to make sure you incorporate it into the design in smaller doses. – Eilyn Jimenez, Founder & Creative Director, Sire Design
15) Create layers to make your room cozier
Layering a chunky knit blanket with warm patterned pillows or a layered rug scenario can create an extra unexpected touch. Layering a boucle ottoman in front of the fireplace can also add a cozy spot to enjoy a fire on a crisp fall evening. – A-Line Designs
16) Incorporate soft fabric textures with rougher materials
This fall is all about texture. We’re loving the mix of soft fabrics combined with rougher materials. An easy way to achieve this look is by creating a cozy corner with a concrete table lamp carefully arranged near a soft and simple throw blanket. – Stacy Garcia Inc.
17) Use lighting to highlight certain areas of your home
Lighting is very important in a space as your eye is drawn to what is lit – lighting that highlights the ceiling, as well as vertical surfaces, will make the room appear larger, rather than just direct downlighting at the center of the room. As we transition into autumn, consider lighting vertical surfaces that you want to emphasize, such as doors and cabinetry, artwork, or a tile backsplash. If you have the budget, incorporate a smart lighting system – these systems can create a variety of scenes based on the time of day and season and can automatically adjust light levels and color rendering to match our body’s circadian rhythms. – NANO Architecture | Interiors
18) Change out textiles in your home
Changing out home textiles is my go-to way to refresh a room for a new season. Autumn is all about layering in warmth as the weather shifts, and I love to apply this to pillows, throws, and rugs throughout the house. Choose textured neutrals in varying sizes, which creates an organic, cozy feel, while complimenting most existing decor. Try adding a basket with rolled throws and extra pillows near the couch, a small chair with a stack of extra throws or quilts to a bedside, or even an extra thick mini rug on top of an existing rug or carpet. – Skye McNeill, Textile Designer
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