50 Fabulous Fall Decorating Ideas

Natural Tablescape

Simple white plates paired with timeless flatware and thin stemware keep this more rustic setting looking elegant. Bold orange napkins give the setting a pop of seasonal color.

Etch Your Pumpkins

Announce your address in style by cleverly etching your house number (or your initials or name) into a pumpkin. You can pile a combination of traditional and heirloom pumpkins on your front steps, and top with your etched design.

Fall Foliage Arrangement

The key to arranging leaves is to group them by size and color as you would flowers. Fiery red maple makes a beautiful focal point when countered with the feathery foliage of dawn redwood laden with globes of gray-green fruit on the fringes.

Line Your Steps

There's a reason you see mums each fall—they work. Once buds begin to open, you're guaranteed blooms whether your display is in sun or shade. To prolong the show, water when dry and remove spent flowers. Pair with Mexican sage and boxwoods for this stunning display.

Make Pomanders

Display oranges studded with dried whole cloves for a festive and fragrant addition to your fall decor.

Fun Serving Pieces

Topped with silver serving pieces, pale gray and green pumpkins add interesting height to your buffet.

Welcome Friends

To arrange the perfect Southern table, keep these tips in mind:

• In the napkin arena, nothing's nicer than a generous 22-inch hemstitched piece of white linen, monogrammed and crisply ironed.
• Create a look that is "uniquely you" by combining simple stemware with more decorative china, or vice versa.
• Try to incorporate as much vintage silver as you can find - they add sparkle to a table.
• Don't forget to set place cards with your own handwriting for a personal touch.

Front-Door Harvest

Pair pumpkins with potted kale to create a warm welcome. Grace an entry with a garland made of clippings from the garden.

Shed New Light on Canning Jars

Peel off the labels of pickle and okra jars, and use a cord kit (paperlanternstore.com) to illuminate each one. Equipped with a dimmer and hung at varying heights, they provide the ideal mix of rustic and industrial.

Pile Them On

For a quick and easy approach, group your favorite tiny pumpkins on a side table, and let the collection speak for itself. There is no right or wrong way to create this display. This arrangement looks unintentional, adding a carefree, casual seasonal touch.

Blooming Pumpkin

To make this arrangement, choose your favorite pumpkin (we like the flat-bottomed Fairytale) and pick up some violas, pansies, red and green leaf lettuce, thyme, and rosemary to decorate. Clean the pumpkin with a Clorox wipe, cut a hole in the top, and scoop out seeds. Line with aluminum foil or a plastic bag, and fill three-quarters full with potting soil and plants. We used Sorbet violas and Crystal Bowl pansies.

Pumpkin Topiary

Vertical displays make a big statement at the front door. Tucking in cool-weather edibles such as ornamental flowering cabbages, kale, and bay leaves adds a distinctive twist. To create topiaries, sandwich bay wreaths between pumpkins stacked in concrete urns, and top with a small pumpkin.

String Together a List of Blessings

Print out individual words on tabs, and fold them around twine. Weave the twine along the center of the table.

Make Custom Candleholders

Transform mini pumpkins into luminarias by cutting a 1-inch-wide circle into each pumpkin, scooping out the centers with a tablespoon, and inserting votive candles.

Fancy Pumpkin Display

It’s simple to decorate pumpkins with just a few supplies from the hardware or crafts store. Create stylish seasonal decor with some gold and black paint and place them all around the house.

Rustic Centerpiece

Naturally shed antlers lend a new twist to table decor. Pile them up with different-colored pumpkins, pine cones, and loose nuts and bring the outdoors in.

Make an Impression

Double the impact of an arrangement by placing it in front of a mirror, like this one made from a barn window.

Add Height to Your Pumpkin Display

Arrange branches, dried grasses, moss, squash, and small pumpkins in a vase as you would a traditional flower display. Then, choose a single pumpkin with an interesting shape or a twisted stem to showcase. Place it on a smaller table or stool to help set it apart from the rest.

Message Pumpkin

A picture may be worth 1,000 words, but a few words can have major impact. Carve a message on your pumpkin. Southern Living Associate Garden Editor Rebecca Bull Reed created this work of art and added the wise words “Spooky is what you think you see.” What do you see?

Spotty Pumpkins

Gold metallic paint gives ordinary pumpkins a wow factor. Stick round labes on a pumkin and trace the shape with a pencil. Remove the labels and paint inside the traced circles with gold paint. For another effect, apply labels to pumpkin, and then cover entire pumpkin in gold paint. Remove the labels when paint is dry.

Cornhusk Garland

Construct an easy-to-assemble Indian corn garland beginning with a piece of sisal rope. If you like, dye it dark brown or a golden maize shade. Wrap it with broomcorn, corn tassels (stalks are available at farmers markets), or other dried grasses. Place corn along the rope single file or gathered in bundles of three. Wire corn securely in place, and then tie raffia on top for a finishing touch. Hang your garland across a door or from your mantel.

Mix Colors

Don't limit yourself to just traditional orange in your display. Orange and yellow pumpkins really pop when mixed with bright greens. Try using small green plants as well as gourds and squash with green tones.

Set Up A Glamorous Banquet

For an elegant fall dinner, emphasize the beauty of the meal by serving it on gold and glass dinnerware.

Floral Pumpkins

To make these festive party decorations, pick up a carving or soft-skinned pumpkin, an awl (pointed tool), and some cut mums. Using the awl, poke a hole in the pumpkin and fill it in with a mum stem. Repeat this process until the entire pumpkin is covered. To help extend its life, keep this decoration in the refrigerator until party time.

Display a Terrarium

Terrariums are an easy way to grow plants indoors. Start by choosing a clear glass container with a wide opening. Gently add fine gravel to your container. Top with a thin layer of aquarium charcoal. (Both of these items can be purchased at a pet store.) Then add moist potting soil. These miniature landscapes can hold a collection of colorful plants for display or just show off one plant. Good choices include ferns, peperomias, succulents, begonias, Irish moss, miniature orchids, kalanchoes, and African violets.

Painted Pumpkins

Go for a mod look with a gold rectangle pattern. Then group painted pumpkins by the fireplace for added shimmer.

Mantlepiece Arrangement

Celebrate the bounty of fall with multiple show-stopping arrangements. Orchids, lotus pods, rose hips, and cattails brighten this dining room.

Elegantly Etched Pumpkin

Etching will leave an artful design on your pumpkin. The technique allows your pumpkin to last longer and is less messy than traditional carving.

 

Create a Fresh Centerpiece

Fill wicker-wrapped wine jugs with clipped fig leaves and spread them out along a table.

Fashionable Stripes

Choose a  smooth, flat-skinned pumpkin, and begin by coating with a base of black acrylic paint. Then, using the lines of the pumpkin as your guide, dress it up with gold painted stripes.

Use Color for Impact

A neutral backdrop of white linens and dishes puts the focus on punches of orange and green.

Don't Neglect Your Outdoor Space

A cascading display down the stairs allows you to use bigger ones that have more presence and are visible from the road. Position them on their sides or stack them on planters for an original look.

Spray Paint Your Centerpiece

A coat of metallic gold spray paint upgrades a grouping of glass candlesticks (thrift store finds!) and heaps of large North Carolina apples.

Tack Them

Upholstery tacks lend a graphic look to plain white pumpkins. Mix up the sizes and shapes of the tacks to create different patterns.

Top a Table

Easy-care succulents, such as sedums, echeverias, crassulas, and more, are all the rage. To display your faves, punch three holes in the bottom of a boot tray with a hammer and large nail. Fill the tray about three-fourths full with a premoistened mix of 3 parts potting soil and 1 part sand. Position two or three bricks in the center. Plant an assortment of succulents shoulder to shoulder around them. Fill crevices with Scotch or Irish moss, which thrives in well-drained soil in sun or part shade, as do succulents. Top the bricks with pumpkins. Water when the soil is dry to the touch. This display will withstand light freezing temperatures, so it's okay to keep it outdoors.

• Watch how to make this arrangement

Transform Your Mantel for Halloween

A stark color contrast gives your mantel an animated, playful feel, and the branches and moss add height and dimension. Use small containers in a black or dark wood finish along with items such as horns, crooked sticks, and Spanish moss. The darker colors will help the bright orange pumpkins stand out.

 

 

Broom Door Badge

Your fall decor is incomplete until you've hung something colorful on the door! Make this seasonal broom badge by grouping millet, dried hydrangeas, salvia, rose hips, and sorghum.

• See the How To Video

Pumpkin Flower Vase

Feel free to take a more natural approach with your pumpkin decorating and skip the spiderwebs and jack-o-lanterns. Simply carve a hole in a pumpkin and fill up with your favorite fall blooms.

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. 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.

• See a step-by-step guide for making this floral arrangement

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.