Adding Fall Color to the Living Room

One of the biggest mistakes we can make when decorating our homes for any season is spending too much time looking at what everyone else has or is doing, and not giving enough time to figure out what is most important, relevant for our space, our wants and unique needs for our circumstances. It feels safer to do what everyone else is doing.

I had to keep this advice in mind after thinking I wasn’t even going to share how I decorated my living room this year for fall since the room is in a state of limbo. Along with this there are no large surfaces to decorate since there is no longer a mantel or a coffee table in the room.

I have found that I am beginning to like the white painted brick wall without a mantel. It makes the room feel more spacious.

I do however like to decorate the room for fall, so instead of a mantel being the focal point, I created a new focal point where I placed the paneled green screen against the wall.

I really like the way the screen looks placed to the left on the wall. It hides the firewood storage area and acts as a nice colorful background for the floor lamp I transformed with sisal cord along with the big wicker basket I made into a side table.

When considering how to decorate the living room, I like to use as many items from nature that I can find to bring inside and items I already own. This year, I also didn’t want to purchase anything new.

I was happy to find a skein of purple raffia left over when I made rustic fall tassels a few years ago. I hung the tassel from the knob on the bulb socket of the floor lamp.

Raffia or yarn tassels are very easy to make, you can find out just how easy in my post about How To Make Tassels 3 Different Ways to Accent Home Decor.

Over the years I have added more and more battery-operated white pillar candles, not only to my living room, but all around the house.

This candle is from Pottery Barn. It is pricy, but worth it as I use it and others every night. It looks so real and I have not had to replace a battery yet after two years. :-)

I like using these so I don’t have to worry about leaving a candle lit unattended. I bought the hyacinth glass hurricane on the table over the summer at Walmart. The faux fall leaves I bought at the craft store years ago.

I also have a few battery-operated candles from Amazon in a dough bowl on the console table. Two of these stopped working a few months ago. They are less expensive, but don’t seem to last as long.

I have a large real white unscented candle from Walmart on the two-tier thrift store table I made over recently. The cylinder glass vase is from Pottery Barn.

The table looks perfect decorated for fall. In keeping the decor simple, I placed a few fall items that I have always loved. One is a small ceramic pumpkin that is very special to me.

My mom made it back in 1973 when she was taking ceramic classes. That was a popular thing to do back then. She loved decorating the house for fall, so bringing it out every fall reminds me of her.

I also like to display Susan Branch’s book entitled, Autumn. Paging through all the colorful illustrations always makes me smile and want to “cozy up” the house.

When the winter comes and we want to use the fireplace, I will move the sofa back over to the mirrored wall. I really like it placed here though so I may hesitant doing it until absolutely necessary.

The pillow covers on the sofa pillows are a few years old. I found them on clearance at Pottery Barn.

I decided to use the purple and white Buffalo Check cover for the ottoman I made a few years ago. You can see it and its twin in this post, Quick & Easy Cozy Fall Decorating Tips.

Instead of raffia tassels for the ottoman covers, I made yarn tassels with wood bead tops.

On the console, I added branches from the yard mixed in with faux fall florals that I used to decorate my foyer for fall in past years.

All during the season I will bring in and add more natural fall elements as I find them outside.

I wasn’t going to hang the throw blanket holder back up that I made last winter. Without the stone fireplace, it is just hanging out in no-man’s land. But it is such a functional item I put it back up for the time being.

So as you can see even with the room in a state of change, plus no mantel or coffee table, I still made changes using what I already owned to bring a little bit of fall to the room.

How about you? How are you going to decorate your living room for the season.

Do you have any special decorations or items you like to display?