I usually only decorate my house for Christmas beause it’s my favorite time of year and nothing is more festive than Christmas. However, I decided that this year I would do some fall decorating because we’ve been in an emotional slump and decorating the house always makes it feel happy. Here are some tips that I use to decorate. These tips can be used to decorate any time of year but you can see how I did it for fall decorating.

Tip #1: Pick a Color Scheme
Whenever I’m decorating or even picking colors for a website that I’m working on, I always start with three colors or color families that compliment each other. This doesn’t include black and white. If you need some inspiration, go to Pinterest and type in fall decor or whatever keyword you want to get ideas for color schemes and other ideas.

You can go the route of going with different color schemes per room or go with the same colors for your whole house. I decided to go with three different sets of color schemes this year just to try them out and see what I liked. My house is pretty neutral so any colors I choose won’t clash but you’ll want to keep in mind what colors are already present in the room that you’re decorating.

I decided to go with browns, oranges and maroon for my living room/fireplace. For my dining room, I decided to go with browns, oranges and greens. (These were my wedding colors so that made me extra happy :)). For my front door, I went with bluish green, cream and orange.

Tip #2: Pick Spaces to Decorate
I like to focus on a few places in the house and not go overboard on the decorating. You want to get the best bang for your buck and minimize having to store all that stuff. A little goes a long way. The places I find are the best places to decorate are:

1) Formal dining room table (not your daily kitchen table)
2) Fireplace/Mantel if you have one
3) Entry way/front door
4) Living room/family room

I avoid bathrooms and bedrooms. It’s just too much to decorate. I decided to go with the fireplace which is in our family room, formal dining room table and front door. I also did a sprinkling of decorating in the family room and kitchen area but I didn’t go heavy on that.

Tip #3: Take Inventory and Shopping
If you’ve built up a collection of decor, you’ll want to take inventory of what you have and start to group things together. Lay everything out so that you can see how all your pieces work together. If you need to go shopping, first start by decorating the area you’re going to decorate your items with and take photos. Next, make a list of things that you would like to add before you go to the store.

It can be very overwhelming when you walk into the store and see hundreds of things that catch your eye. I like to go around the store before I commit to buying anything and take photos on my phone. Refer to the pictures you took at your house if you have a hard time imagining if the item at the store will go with the look that you already started. Purchase only what you really love or even give it a couple of days and go back to the store later. Taking the photos of what’s in the store will help you decide when you’re back at home staring at the fireplace.

One other thing that helps is once you’ve gathered the items in the store that you want, start arranging them together in the store and see if it goes with your vision.

Tip 4: Arranging
Arranging your decorations is simple if you follow a couple of rules.

  • Keep it simple. Don’t try to cram all of your pieces into a space if they don’t work. Keep the color scheme and style in mind and only add in the pieces that work together or it’ll start to look like a cluttered mess.
  • Arrange things with odd numbers. Most of the time, I like to arrange three things together to give the arrangement balance. If it’s a larger area, you could add 5 main pieces. It’s like ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement) where odd numbers of the same type of flower looks best.
  • Different heights: Giving the arrangement different heights is also pleasing to the eye. If everything is the same height, it’s a little boring and you’ll find that something is missing. You can use larger and smaller pieces to give the arrangement interest or also incorporate decorative boxes, candle holders etc. to give some pieces height.

Tip 5: Command Strips/Double sided tape
I’m sure most people have used Command Strips but on the off chance that you’ve never used these, they are terrific! They won’t leave holes in your wall and you can reuse them for other things. There are so many different types from clear to black to the amount of weight they can support. Get your Command on! I promise, I’m not an affliate for them. I truely love them.

If you don’t have Command Strips and need to get started right this moment (believe me, I know how that feels like), double sided tape is seriously the best when it comes to hanging or securing light objects such as my garland on the fireplace. It’s surprisingly stronger than regular scotch tape so it’s better to use even if you don’t need the other side to be sticky. Also, sometimes, you have an area that’s not flat and you don’t have enough surface area to use a hook for your decorations. Double sided tape is great in those situtations.

Front Door/Entry

I just put up a wreath up for the front door/entry way this year because I didn’t want to commit to decorative pieces for this area this year. You don’t have to go all out in every section you decorate. I’m definitely feeling things out for the doorway this year so the one item I wanted was a wreath. It would be nice to add some orange and white chrysanthemums by the door but I haven’t gotten around to it. Just imagine they are there. 🙂

Oh wait! I should just photoshop them in to see how they would look.

Adding mums make such a difference!
  • I chose bluish greens, creams and orange for the color scheme because I wanted it to match the house.
  • I angled the wreath so the cream and orange pumpkins (the colors that pop the most) are angled at 2 o’clock and 7 o’clock. It looks a lot better than if they are at 12 and 6 or 3 and 9 o’clock. The same goes with wreaths with big accent flowers or embellishments, although this is a general rule.
  • I used a handy dandy Command hook here! No need to worry about holes and touching up paint later. Plus, I’ll use it for my Christmas wreath which is just around the corner.

The Fireplace/Mantel

Fireplace/Mantel Decoration
  • I used maroon, oranges and browns for the look here. There are some grey pumpkins but the wall is also grey so it sort of blends in and doesn’t count as part of the colors here.
  • I used candle holders to add height and dimension to a couple of the pumpkins on the mantel.
  • Add height to the ends of the mantel to give it balance.
  • Start from the outside and work your way in.
  • I used scotch tape and double sided tape to get this garland up. All of the ridges and rounded surfaces didn’t allow me to use Command Strips.
  • Fall is a great time to use textures such as velvet and warmer toned decor. I mixed the velvet with the wood pieces such as the main wooden arch above the mantel and the grateful sign.
  • Used the rule of odd numbers. I used 3 maroon pumpkins and 3 orange pumpkins in the garland. I also used 3 short pumpkins on each side of the mantel.

I played around with it and also added an arrangement to the left side of the mantel. It needed some more height. I also wanted to find a wreath made out of wheat to place on top of the wooden arch but I couldn’t find one that I loved so that might be a piece I add next year.

Fall Mantel Decor

I also added fall themed pillows with messaging to the sofa. They add a pop of color and I love the vibe they give the room.

Decorative Fall Pillows for Sofa

Formal Dining Room Table

Formal Dining Room Table Centerpiece
  • I went with browns/gold, oranges/reds and green.
  • I used 3 pumpkins to give the centerpiece balance. I also used different sizes and shapes to give it more interest.
  • I added short pinecones to give it dimension.
  • I sprinkled in some fall leaves to give it some volume otherwise it looked a little too simple.

Bird’s Eye View of Table Arrangement

I had a lot of fun decorating my house for fall this year! I loved it so much that I will definitely be doing it again next year. I hope you got some tips that you can use when decorating your house too. Happy Decorating!