Jump into fall by decorating your home for the season! Small touches here and there can make a huge aesthetic difference—and you can feel good about your efforts by going green.
Be sure to reuse whatever items you can, and stick with biodegradable and natural materials.
1. Autumn wreath
Give your front door some fall flair with a wreath that incorporates natural elements like pinecones, mini pumpkins, gourds, acorns, and dried berries.
You can create a basic plain wreath out of non-seasonal materials—succulents, grapevine, or even burlap twisted into floral bunches—and then just update the ornaments according to the season and holiday.
2. Fall foliage centerpieces
Take advantage of this time of year and bring some greenery indoors! You can create some beautiful centerpieces for your table or line your mantle with foliage, berries, grass, little pumpkins, and dried flowers. Keep it organic, or use vases and jars to enhance the display.
You can set some candles among the greenery for a beautiful evening glow—with the flames a safe distance away from flammable materials, of course.
Alternatively, fill cylindrical glass vases with fall ingredients like acorns, mini gourds, cranberries, colorful dried beans, and small pinecones.
3. Kid-friendly pumpkin planters
For this activity, you can recruit your kids for some help: have them select medium to large pumpkins, carefully cut off the tops (or handle the knife yourself), and then empty the insides. Have your kids draw faces on the gourds with a permanent marker. It’s up to you whether you want to carve out the faces or not—either way will work to great effect.
Once you’re ready, insert a plant pot into the pumpkin cavity, add potting soil, and either plant some seeds or transfer an existing plant into the pot. Aloe vera, chrysanthemums, succulents, grasses, and cacti are some wonderful options.
Keep the pumpkin planters indoors or on the porch if it’s not too cold out—and get your kids to help you keep the plants watered!
4. Pressed leaves
Collect some colorful leaves—again, a great activity for kids—and press them between the pages of a large book (with a weight on top) until they’re fully dried and flat.
Then arrange the dried leaves between two small sheets of glass of the same size, and secure your display by wrapping the edges with a “frame” of linen book cloth tape. You can swap out the arrangement as the seasons change and simply reuse the glass.
