Fall is a wonderful time for renewal and revival for your spirit and your home. Fall brings the excitement of the holiday season, time spent with family and friends, memories of years past and for us here in Las Vegas a welcomed relief from the heat. Even though I don’t like the cold of the winter season, I have always enjoyed the crisp fall air and love to smell burning fireplaces in the night air.
October is the start of the holiday season and I know we are all getting busier and busier in our lives, but I feel that it is important that we take some time to renew and revive ourselves at this time of year. So here are a couple quick and easy decorating changes that you can make to welcome in the Fall and the enjoyment of the season.
Quick Tip # 1 – Your sense of smell is a great avenue to rekindle memories and bring the change of the season into your home with a new aroma. How many times have you walked into a friend’s home and the smell of cookies baking immediately brought back memories of spending time in your Grandmothers kitchen. There are some wonderful new scented candles and potpourri introduced every holiday season. Place a couple new candles around your home and a large bowl of potpourri on your coffee table. I love the potpourri that has large pieces of pumpkins, cinnamon stick and scented pine cones in them. Along with jump starting your nose, they are beautiful to look at and make a great fall accessory.
Quick Tip # 2 – Even though I know that we are welcoming the cool down in the temperature, there is nothing like the look and feel of a great chenille throw to snuggle up with. A soft thick throw will ignite your sense of touch and bring back memories. Maybe for you it was a time that you sat in front of a roaring fireplace with your kids when they were little, your father when you were small or even last year with your loved one while you were relaxing after work with a glass of wine. Look for a throw that brings in some of the colors of the season that will coordinate with your color scheme.
Quick Tip # 3 – Create a photo table of past years pictures of family and friends in your entry. To make this very quick and easy, use one of the small skirted tables that you put together by just attaching the legs. Then purchase some great seasonal novelty fabric; maybe one with autumn leaves or pumpkins and simply drape it over and tuck the ends under, so a no-sew project. Then purchase a piece of glass for the top and simply place the pictures under the glass. Even the smallest of entry ways should be able to accommodate for a 24 inch round table. On top place just one picture frame with a saying welcoming your family and friends to your home and the season.
Quick Tip # 4 – Give your bathroom an autumn facelift with new towels. Now you don’t have to purchase all new bath towels, just new fingertip towels that you place on your counters. There are great ones with embroidery or quilted designs on them and they are fairly inexpensive. New trends in guest towels are disposable paper towels. Check out the discount home stores for even season napkins. Roll them, tie with a little bit of raffia and place in a basket. Add some silk leaves, greens and braches for an extra fall feel.
From - www.decorpad.com
Quick Tip # 5 – Create a quick floral arrangement with dried branches, leaves and flowers for your living room coffee table, guest bath counter and don’t forget your own master bath. Start with two tall and fairly narrow containers, you’ll need one that is smaller and will fit inside the other. The inside vase is where you’ll place your floral arrangement. Fill the vase with silica sand instead of floral foam and just start placing the stems inside. I like silica sand since it is easier to work with, it holds the stems in place and if you are using a clear vase it is attractive to look at. With your floral vase completed, place it inside the larger vase. Now the outside one just needs to be large enough so that you have room to now fill around the inside vase on all sides with any of the following: dried leaves, candy corn, dried or very small pumpkins, Indian corn, potpourri, fabric, pine cones, silk flowers, branches or anything else that brings the look and feel of the autumn season in. Then as the holiday or season changes, you can quickly change out the arrangement in the vase and the decoration around it. How about paper snowflakes, ribbon candy or Christmas tree ornaments for Christmas? With then an arrangement of poinsettias. For New Years you can leave the poinsettias and place noise makers around the vase. Valentines Day would be a great time for even real roses, hint hint, and then fill the outside with the little heart candles with the sayings. Easter could be a spring bouquet with jelly beans. I think you get the idea. It is really something very quick easy and fun to do to give a room a quick seasonal change.
Quick Tip # 6 – Warm up your bedroom with a new quilt for the end of the bed. I know that you may not change out your bedding every season, but it is nice to have a summer/spring and fall/winter ensemble. Bedding ensembles can be expensive and then you have to have a place to store them, but you can make a dramatic change with just a few accents. A quilt always brings in the look and feel of the fall and winter because it brings the sense of warmth. With it you can add a couple new accent pillows in chenille or silk. You will be seeing a lot more silk this season as it is being called the new chenille. At the different home stores in town you’ll be able to find some great decorative pillows with wonderful trims for under $40.
Quick Tip # 7 – Fall is a great time to bring the outside in with color and textures, but here in Las Vegas it is a wonderful time to start spending some more time from the inside out. We are very fortunate to live in a mild fall and winter climate and need to take advantage of that and enjoy our surroundings. Sometimes it is nice to have a change of scenery, even if it is as simple as eating dinner on the back porch. So dress up your patio with touches of fall. Gather up some of your pillows, throws, candles, accessories from inside and take them out to make it your second living and dining room for the season. If you don’t already have an outside fireplace or fire pit, create one with an iron or pottery container. There are some inexpensive ones in the home stores that you can purchase complete. There is nothing like sitting outside on a crisp evening, watching a fire and relaxing with a cup of coffee or your beverage of choice.
Enjoy the changing of the season, renew your spirit, revive your home and create new memories for next season.