Dress Your Home for Autumn

When you dress your home for fall, start with a gorgeous display at your front door to give guests a preview of the delights that await them inside. Photo by Bryan E. McCay

Even though life is insane this time of year, fall is my absolute favorite season. Atchison, the historic Kansas river town I call home, is filled with drop-dead gorgeous trees on fire with red, orange and gold leaves.

On the fateful year I missed autumn, I was working about a million hours a week, leaving for the store before the sun came up and arriving home long after it set. One afternoon I stepped outside and, to my horror, realized the trees had shed their brilliant leaves. Autumn had come and gone, and I’d missed it all. I vowed then and there that I would never let this gorgeous season get past me again.

Now I celebrate autumn with gusto, bringing the beauty of nature inside through my home decorating. I like to reinvent my home décor each season so it always feels fresh and new. While I don’t rearrange my furnishings during these seasonal makeovers, I do mix up my accessories, moving about the treasures I keep our year round and adding in new seasonal accents.

I start decorating for fall during the steamy days of August, partly because I’m impatient for the season to change and partly to get my house ready for the annual Nell Hill’s Fall Open House. During my open houses, thousands of visitors tour my historic home and garden, gleaning ideas for their own seasonal decorating. This September, I’m going to combine the open house with a huge book signing celebration to mark the release of my newest book, Nell Hill’s Entertaining in Style.

In my new book, I share lots of easy ways you can make over your home for fall each year. I always start by filling my house with the yummy colors and rich textures of fall. The upholstered furnishings in my living room are covered in a creamy white fabric so I can completely change their look simply by switching accessories. All it takes is a paisley throw and some plump pillows covered in a weighty fabric like hound’s tooth plaid, and your sofa is ready for fall.

At the roadside pumpkin patch, I load up on my favorite fall decorating pieces: gaggles of gourds and piles of pumpkins. The odder they’re shaped, the more I like them. Armed with this harvest of gourds, yards of faux bittersweet and reams of bare honeysuckle vines, I use nature’s bounty to brighten my home, inside and out.

When decorating your home’s exterior, think of your front door as a blank canvas just waiting for a killer presentation. Instead of hanging a ho-hum wreath, why not surprise visitors by incorporating unconventional items into your display, such as an oil painting, a mirror or a lantern? Add in tendrils of fall berries and a beautiful accent ribbon, and you’ve got a head-turning look guests won’t soon forget.

In your foyer, greet guests with a floral arrangement with a seasonal twist. For a fast and easy display on your entry table, fill a tall, twiggy basket with fallen branches and sprays of faux berries. Or, showcase an old iron lantern filled with a bright assortment of petite gourds.

To add tiny touches of color in unexpected places, put a line of mini pumpkins on your kitchen windowsill. Hang wreaths of fall berries from your window latches. March a phalanx of pumpkins up the stairs. Put some plump gooseneck gourds in a low basket on top of a bookcase. Wind faux pumpkin vines up your banister, loop them about your mantle or entwine them around your dining room light fixture.

To give your mantle or dining room table a fun look for fall, gather an assortment of pillar candlesticks. Remove the candles and place a bit of peat moss on top of each stick. Then, crown them with pumpkins or gourds. For a dramatic touch, mist fall leaves with a bit of gold or silver spray paint, then scatter them at the base of the candlesticks like confetti.

Don’t let fall pass you by this year. Fill your home with the season’s bounty by adding natural treasures to your home décor.

Written in collaboration with journalist Micki Chestnut.