90+ Fall Decorating Ideas for a Beautiful Autumn Season
Candlelight Dinner
Complete your tablescape by adding candles in fun lanterns that complement your color palatte. Mix in simple canning jars for a more casual affair.
Spooky Pumpkins
Black and white 'Lumina,' 'Moonshine,' and 'Jarrahdale' pumpkins set a mysterious air in your garden. Cluster them on your steps or pile them up on a table. If you can't find white or gray pumpkins locally, try spray paint. We like using Design Master Colortool sprays (dmcolor.com).
Use Playful Place Cards
Write the name of each guest on a leaf place card attached to a little felted acorn that doubles as a fun party favor. Scatter loose felted acorns—or real ones—up and down the table to play up the natural theme.
Traditional Pumpkin Mantel
Choose an assortment of small pumpkins and squash in muted colors that complement the surrounding style of your fireplace mantel. Bring in other items from around your home that you wouldn’t normally think to pair with pumpkins, such as julep cups and old books covered in elegant paper. The key is to keep the look simple by sticking to the same basic color tones.
Take the Party Outside
Take the Thanksgiving feast outdoors. But don’t host your friends and family on folding chairs and paper plates―bring the good stuff outside. Surprise guests with a perfectly set table in the garden.
Gather Pumpkins
Create a pumpkin stack using a footed pot, dry sphagnum moss, and three pumpkins in your favorite colors and in graduated sizes. Use moss to level the pumpkins as you stack them, trimming stems, if necessary.
Offer Treats, Not Tricks
This buffet of sweets features store-bought goodies that guests of all ages will enjoy. For a unified look, place desserts on a collection of white cake stands and platters.
Create a Sophisticated Setting
Look to an heirloom china pattern for inspiration, like this palette of champagne and gold with subtle touches of pink. Don't be afraid to combine old with new, traditional with modern, and heirloom with inexpensive.
Plant Fall Color
The plumes of eye-catching purple fountain grass become more numerous as fall nears. Flank it with another explosive favorite, 'Fireworks' gomphrena, which is great in the ground or a pot. Add three 'Bandana Red' lantanas for bright blooms and two 'Margarita' sweet potato vines to trail.
Party Perfect Sideboard
Create a functional but beautiful sideboard by grouping simple fall arrangements, like these bouquets of orange dahlias, red and yellow roses, and calla lilies, with festive plates and serverware.
Tabletop Garden
For an arrangement that will last through Thanksgiving, place a potted oncidium orchid in a large, lined cachepot, and surround it with water-soaked florist foam. Insert cut fall foliage into the foam along with dried crepe myrtle pods and rose hips. Then add stems of orange dendrobiums in water-filled florist tubes.
Fall Table Setting
Host a stylish autumn get-together without breaking the bank by recycling things around the house. You can fill an oversize jug with branches of leaves cut from the yard for a free centerpiece.
Fall Door Knocker Accent
To accent the door knocker, zip-tie two crookneck gourds together, and then zip-tie them to a foam-core oval about 5 inches long. Cover ties with ribbon. Working at an angle, hot-glue sprigs of coontie palm, croton, holly fern, asparagus fern, and abelia to cover the foam core. Loop wire through one of the back ties, and hang above the door knocker. The hardy foliage will last about two weeks in cool weather and can be replaced.
Pumpkin and Gourd Wreath
To make the pumpkin-and-gourd wreath, first cover a 20-inch foam form with sheet moss, using a glue gun to hold the moss in place. Loop a 3-inch-wide burlap ribbon over the wreath to create a hanger long enough so it can reach the top of the door and allow the wreath to hang at eye level. Insert wooden florist picks into the bottoms of pumpkins and gourds, and hot-glue the connection to secure. Once the glue has cooled, stick pumpkins and gourds into the wreath. Fill in with more moss, using a glue gun. To hang the wreath, secure the burlap ribbon with an upholstery tack hammered into the top edge of the door.
Rustic Apple Picking Bag Decor
To make it, secure a handful of dried grass plumes, such as millet or miscanthus, with a rubber band. Add a rock to a vintage apple-picking bag so it hangs correctly, and then tuck in the grass.
Vibrant Fall Colors
Combine the season's hottest hues in a vibrant mix of 'Snapshot Orange' snapdragons, 'Purple Pixie' loropetalum, and bright 'Penny Clear Yellow' violas. Tuck in the showy foliage of 'Sparkling Burgundy' heuchera to complete the look.
Impressive Fall Planter
Get crafty this fall with our DIY fall planter. In three simple steps you'll have a finished (and impressive) arrangment that should last about a week.
Porch Pumpkin Patch
Decorate the porch with pumpkins, gourds, and hay bales for a look straight out of the pumpkin patch.
Dried Flower and Herb
Create a dazzling kaleidoscope of colors on your tabletop by mixing bunches of blooms and foliage in a rainbow of hues. The savory scents of the dried herbs will subtly enhance the aroma of a special meal. To illuminate your table, just add a glass hurricane and candle to the middle of the wreath. After displaying it flat as a centerpiece, you can hang it from a pretty ribbon to enjoy it from a different perspective.
How To Make It: Dried Flowers and Herbs Fall Wreath
Use Humble Materials
Give humble materials a high-end treatment. Here, a kraft paper place mat anchors each setting, while extra-large grain-sack napkins and a simple burlap runner complete the elegant yet rustic look.
Casual Centerpiece
For rustic centerpieces, like the ones here at Blackberry Farm, line the center of tables with an array of colorful gourds.
Illuminating Pumpkin Display
Combine carved pumpkins and embellished luminaries for a warm outdoor welcome.
"Pumpkins" and Acorns
It's cute as can be, but don't call it pumpkin! It's actually pumpkin-on-a-stick eggplant (also called scarlet Chinese eggplant), which turns a brilliant red-orange color when it matures and begins to dry. Look for it at farmers' markets or in the floral sections of large supermarkets, or grow it yourself from seeds.
How To Make It: "Pumpkins" and Acorns Fall Wreath
Bring the Indoors Outside
Give your outdoor space the feel of a dining room by surrounding a rustic picnic table with upholstered chairs like the orange wingback options used here.
Embelish Store-Bought Fall Decorations
Embellish a store-bought garland by adding bittersweet, fall foliage, or dried hydrangeas. Finish the look with pumpkins and cabbages on the steps and a pine-cone wreath (accented with leaves and flowers on the door.
Tip: Prolong the life of greenery with spritzes of water; coat pumpkins with Mod Podge.
Bag Some Leaves
Cast an inviting glow on your steps using paper bags stenciled with the shapes of fall foliage taken right from your own trees.
How To Make It: Paper Bag Luminaries
Carve a Pattern
Turn standard grocery store Halloween pumpkins into decorative votive holders that are embellished with polka-dot cutouts.
How To Make It: Decorative Pumpkin Votive Holders
Keep it Simple
If you love the look of hurricanes lining a front path, put an autumn spin on them by using oversize heirloom pumpkins in various shades of orange and green as bases—perfect for welcoming guests to a fall-themed party.
How To Make It: Simple Pumpkin Hurricanes
Corn Husk and Ribbon
Tamale wrappers create a hot look that's sure to spice up your entry. Simple corn husks are folded into loops for a ruffled effect that softens the straight lines of the paneled door. A bold chartreuse bow echoes the greenery in the pedestal urns.
How To Make It: Corn Husk and Ribbon Fall Wreath
Autumn-Inspired Bar
Use pumpkins as risers to elevate appetizer plates. Serve the crackers on the lower level and a variety of cheeses up top. Create a simple look by piling pumpkins in a Champagne bucket and weaving branches of berries around the rim. To avoid pumpkin overload, add a cut-flower bouquet arranged in a pitcher.
Tip: After your party ends, fit these pumpkins into other displays around the house.
Transitional Window Box
Plan ahead for plantings that will transition through the holidays with a few additions. Start with ornamental cabbage, bittersweet, pumpkins, dried hydrangeas, artichokes, and ivy, then add in gilded branches and berries to suit the season.
Tip: To withstand October's lower temps, plant window boxes with cold-hardy cabbages and ivy. Add the largest items first; then nestle in smaller things, such as branches of bittersweet. If it's a dry fall, water weekly.
Let Nature Inspire Your Table
Look to the land for seasonal table décor. Remove the top of heirloom pumpkins to create a trio of festive vases. Fill them with bouquets of roses, persimmons, wheat, dried lotus pods, hydrangeas, fern fronds and oak leaves.
Tip: Keep all eyes on the showy centerpieces by pairing the bold blooms with simple dishes and linens.
Cozy Outdoor Fireplace
Create a festive retreat for guests with lots of plush seating and a mantel swathed in a foliage garland made from a combination of oak and magnolia leaves. Swag only one side of the fireplace for a modern feel. Complete the look with simple and weighty pottery crocks filled with autumn leaves, hydrangeas, and berries.
Tip: Dry your summertime hydrangeas to use in fall arrangements.
Colorful Fall Foliage
Rake in the compliments with a wreath featuring brilliant autumn leaves. This works with maple, oak, sweet gum, hickory, dogwood—whatever is putting on a show in your yard. You can also make it with preserved leaves purchased at a crafts store or online (try save-on-crafts.com or drieddecor.com).
How To Make It: Colorful Foliage Fall Wreath
Versatile Fall Container
This vintage wicker planter, snagged at a flea market, overflows with mums and foliage. For another amazing look, try these plants in a window box.
How To Make it: Versatile Fall Container
Spice Up the Patio with a Harvest of Decorations
Bring the season to the table with a decorating recipe that calls for pumpkins and mums in warm shades of paprika, cinnamon, and curry. Add a helping of Indian corn on the side, and don't forget to sprinkle in assorted pecans, hickory nuts, and a few acorns gathered from your yard.
How To Make It: Harvest-Inspired Patio Decorations
Cotton Bur
No longer relegated to the field, humble cotton burs top a straw base to yield a surprisingly elegant accent for your door. Crown it with a purple burlap bow for a regal yet rustic touch, or swap in a festive gold or red bow to carry the look through the holidays.
How To Make It: Cotton Bur Fall Wreath
Apple Topiary
Looking for big impact with little effort? This easy apple topiary is one of the simplest centerpieces you'll make this fall.
Watch the full tutorial: Apple Topiary
How To Make Caramel Apple Place Cards
We’ve found the sweetest way to welcome your dinner party guests this fall.
Watch the full tutorial: Caramel Apple Place Cards
How To Make Apple Votives
Bring a romantic glow to your next fall celebration with these darling DIY votives.
Watch the full tutorial: Apple Votives
Indian Corn Badge
Ribbons of burlap create a rustic background for iconic fall plants that are bundled into sheaves to form decorative accents.
How To Make It: Indian Corn Badge
Bring the warm colors of autumn inside with these beautiful and simple fall decorating ideas with pumpkins, leaves, gourds, and more.