Easy Fall Decor

I love autumn colors and decorations. In early October each year, I make a few purchases at the grocery store and quickly decorate my house with inexpensive decorations that will last throughout the fall season. I primarily use pumpkins, gourds, cinnamon sticks & Indian corn to decorate my windowsills, entryway, and mantel. They're colorful & festive, and they can be used for both Halloween and Thanksgiving.

In my last post, I mentioned a big party we had last week. We served a buffet dinner. Here's how I decorated the windowsill behind the buffet table:

First I folded some gold/brown colored cloth napkins in half to make a triangle. This was the base for my windowsill decorations. I combined different arrangements of corn, pumpkins, gourds, and candles.

Here's a simple glass vase filled with miniature pumpkins and acorns. I purchased a box of these acorns at Target. Nuts in their shell also work well in place of the acorns. Hazelnuts are a good choice, if available. Grocery stores often carry bags of mixed nuts in the shell at this time of year. Those are a good addition, too.

I stuck some miniature Indian corn in a small drinking glass. This gives some height to the arrangement.

Here's another arrangement along the windowsill.

I stuck branches of preserved leaves in a glass vase. The pine cones are glue-gunned onto sticks--often you can buy them this way at stores that carry dried and artificial supplies for flower arrangements.

Bundles of cinnamon sticks make fragrant, festive fall decor. These are tied together with raffia. When you're through using the cinnamon as decorations, you can rinse them off and use them to flavor cider or hot chocolate.   view cinnamon sticks on Amazon

You can add some height to an arrangement by elevating mini pumpkins and gourds with pedestal glasses or dishes (wine glasses, ice cream dishes, mini truffle dishes, etc.). In the following two photos, I've elevated a mini pumpkin and gourd by resting them in some antique sherbet pedestal dishes that I found at my friend Meda's antique shop.

Here's another grouping in the windowsill. The glass vase holds full size Indian corn. I used to struggle with how to use Indian corn in arrangements. It's awkward to lay it down horizontally. Placing it upright in vases makes it more visible and adds some height variety to the arrangement.

Here's more Indian corn in a vase, with pumpkins, gourds, leaves, and acorns at the base. This arrangement is in our entry way:

I put this basket of Indian corn next to our fireplace. Stems of dried berries are mixed in:

At our dinner party, I placed these small arrangements (candle, mini pumpkin or gourd, leaves, acorns) in the center of each of 4 small round tables. The candles and velvet leaves are from World Market.

I did splurge on some fresh sunflowers for our party. They're one of my favorite flowers, and they brightened up the buffet table.

All of the other decorations will last and can be left out until it's time to decorate for Christmas. Festive, easy, and inexpensive.

Make it a Yummy day!
Monica 

Want to make this decor HALLOWEENish?
Easy! Just incorporate some spider webs, plastic spiders, or other goulish decor.
When Halloween is over, remove those items and the remaining fall decor wil get you through Thanksgiving.

This post was updated November 2012