Use What You Have Fall Home Tour

We all love home tours! So today, I’m opening up our home so you can see how I used what I had to decorate our home for fall. Lots of easy-to-do ideas. Let’s get fall-inspired!

Hey Friends, as I prepare for two home tours coming up very soon, I thought you would like to see last year’s Fall Home Tour! Enjoy!

Welcome to the Use What You Have Fall Home Tour! StoneGable has been on tour in the fall for over 10 years! And during those years, I’ve accumulated lots and lots of pretty fall decor!

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So this year, I am using what I have in my fall stash to decorate our home.

Come in, let’s start in the foyer.

This year I gathered up the best of my fall decor stash in the basement, along with some beautiful organics and just a couple of new things to create a welcoming fall home!

The wreath on the front door is one new item this fall! I found it at a local shop and could not resist it! It’s big and off-white and loaded with faux-dried silver dollars. It’s a neutral alternative to the colorful fall wreaths I most often hang on the front door.

Here is the FALL LEAF WREATH I made last year. It is one of my most popular pins on Pinterest because it is so so easy to make.

Fall starts at the front door and moves into our foyer.

The backbone of my fall decor is items from our yard and the Amish greenhouse down the road! Beautiful fall organics! Do you use things like pumpkins and gourds and seasonal flowers and the bounty growing this time of year? It is a lovely way to decorate our fall homes!

Hydrangeas are ready to bring in and dry! It just wouldn’t be fall without drying hydrangeas in our home. I literally bring in armfuls of these beautiful blooms!

Drying hydrangeas is the easiest thing to do! I found two drying methods I like the best. The trick is to know when to cut hydrangeas and bring them inside! You might like to see HOW TO DRY HYDRANGEAS THE EASY WAY.

These hydrangeas will stay in the foyer until I decorate for Christmas.

I love the coziness and golden ambiance of candlelight in the fall. So our fall tour features many different candles, candleholders, and lanterns. As the evening gets shorter in the fall, the beautiful soft light from candles creates a golden warmth!

Up from the basement came velvet pumpkins and acorns this year!

I am so excited to reprise them. They have not made an appearance in five years! How time flies. I chose the pumpkins with more saturated fall colors. The neutral velvet pumpkins in the basement will have to wait for another fall season.

Let’s chat about color palette for a minute. It’s one of my favorite subjects because of color’s ability to be totally transformative! Colors working together in a room create cohesiveness, flow, and great beauty!

This year you will see a much looser fall color palette in our home. I usually like a very tight color palette but this fall I wanted to celebrate lots of fall colors.

So you could say that this tour is a mash-up of so many things I love about fall!

Here is one of my favorite posts. HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT COLOR PALETTE FOR YOUR WHOLE HOME is another huge post with tons of information and decorating lightbulb moments that will help you decorate your home.

I switched out my more summery baskets and totes for a very sturdy basket with lots of pretty blond, caramel, and brown hues. I keep my grab-and-go baskets on this vertical coat rack in the foyer but this fall the baskets hanging there are just for looking pretty.

Let’s head down the hall towards the living room.

Our hall is very long and wide and opens up to our living room. We put a bookcase where the hall end and the living room begins. You can see it on the right side of the image below.

Two of the joys of living at the Tanglewood House are how open it is and the windows. There are lots of them!

Those joys also cause a challenge for me. Because wall space is at a premium finding room to place furniture like the bookcase means being very creative!

I love bookshelves! Not for books as much as a place to display the pretty decor I’ve collected. So finding a home for this bookcase is a big decor win.

Quite a few years ago, I came up with a no-fail system for decorating bookshelves with or without books. And it works every time!

If you have bookshelves in your home, you might like to read HOW TO DECORATE A BOOKSHELF. I share my bookshelf decorating system and more!

Look for an upcoming post to see how I decorated the bookcase for fall.

And here’s the first peek at our latest project…

I’m so excited about this almost-done project.

After 3 years of living with a big golden oak staircase and loft, Bobby finally painted it.

Bobby and our son Christopher came up with a way to paint the golden oak and get rid of the tale-tell grain!

A stair runner is coming in three weeks, and as soon as it is installed, I’ll show you a very easy DIY for getting rid of golden oak grain and how we painted our big set of stairs!

Let’s walk past the bookcase and into the living room.

The buffet decor is pretty simple and calm. This buffet just begs to be the center of attention in our living room. But there should be only one focal point in a room, and the buffet is not it. So I really try to use an edited hand when decorating the buffet!

This fall, the buffet offers a bit of calm in a room that has a lot of fall decor and color!

The only nod to fall on the buffet is a candle ring with fall elements!

I’ve slowly been adding a little more black to our home. Black has a wonderful grounding effect on white. And black and white is a big classic.

Besides the bookcase and the stairs, there is a little smattering of black in every room of our home. But only a little because a little black goes a long way!

Did you know our eyes LOVE when we use repeated things in a room? They see this connection as very, very attractive. And our eyes love it even more if those repeated things are placed around the room!

This is a design principle called Rhythm. It is one of the easiest ways we can make a room look gorgeous!!!

If you look around my fall home, I use rhythm and repetition liberally!

Here are just a few repeated elements scattered in different places in our home to create rhythm…

• the color black
• and the color orange, brown, and green
• pumpkins
• faux fall leaves
• nubby textures
• round shapes
• candles
• gourds

I’m a huge fan of decorating with the principles of rhythm and repetition! If you want to learn this designer secret, you can read RHYTHM, AN IMPORTANT ELEMENT OF DESIGN. I promise it will help you to be a better decorator!

Lately, I’m been a bit obsessed with drink tables!

A little bright orange velvet pumpkin sits on a little table next to the sofa. I’ve started to get these versatile tables to put next to seating in our living room and sunroom that don’t have a convenient place to put down a drink!

What a game-changer! These drink tables are handy and adorable!

The pillows on the spindle chairs are my favorite fall pillows! I got these pillows years ago, but they are still in very good condition.

These stylish lumbars are embellished with pretty heavy embroidery, which keeps the brown pillow from looking too heavy.

A lumbar pillow is a great idea to add to a chair.

I often get asked what to do with a pillow when people want to sit in a chair. Most of the time, people don’t mind lumbar pillows. They actually feel comfortable if tucked into the middle of their backs.

Before my guests sit down, I tell them to toss the pillow on the floor. And then they can use the pillow or not.

Next to the spindle chair is a large glass jug with a couple faux fall oak branches in it.

I haven’t used this jug in ages and ages.

I am very pro faux flowers, plants, and branches! Right now, the leaves on the trees have not started turning their autumnal colors. So finding fall colored faux branches is a decorating blessing!

I’ve decorated with real branches of fall-colored leaves in the past, but they only last a day before the leaves start to shrivel. They look so pretty on fall tours, but they just don’t last! That’s why I gladly opt for using faux!

All the long-stemmed faux branches are stored in the basement in a tall kitchen trash can with a garbage bag over them. This keeps my faux branches almost dust-free.

I’m very picky when it comes to faux fall leaves. When they are realistic looking, I think they add beauty and interest to fall decor. But fake-looking fakes look… fake!

Faux flowers and branches are an investment. And the investment pays off by being able to use them year after year!

Buy the best quality faux anything you can and buy and make sure they are on sale. I found these oak branches on sale after the fall season at the Pottery Barn. They carry beautiful quality faux.

The mantel is the fall focal point of our living room. It’s the first thing to get noticed in the room.

I usually keep our mantel uncluttered. The fireplace area is quite symmetrical. Symmetry is another thing our eyes love and are drawn to! When you want a way to easily make a room look lovely, add a bit of symmetry. It’s part of the decorating principle of balance. You can read more about WHY BALANCE IS SO IMPORTANT WHEN YOU DECORATE.

This year I added a trio of brass candlesticks with burnt orange candles to the ends of the mantel. Next to them, I placed white ginger jar containers holding faux green branches with burnt orange berries.

I use these greens often. They seem to make anything I put them in look better!

You might like to read EASY FALL MANTEL IDEAS. This is a huge post with everything you will need to know to help you create the perfect mantel every single time! It’s really a must-read!

In the center of the living room is our new upholstered coffee table.

The upholstered coffee table also works as extra seating. It’s quite versatile.

Have you ever thought about adding an upholstered coffee table to your living room or family room? Here is a post, THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT UPHOLSTERED COFFEE TABLES. It also has lots of links to help you find great upholstered ottomans and coffee tables.

On the table is an arrangement and a velvet pumpkin.

For fall, real pumpkins and tiny dried gourds are arranged around real deer sheds, and a candle in a gold-tone hammered bowl.

Another velvet pumpkin sits near the arrangement on the upholstered coffee table.

This velvet pumpkin has a collar of feathers! I just love the feathers! So far, our little cat Teddy has let them alone.

However, I have found him carrying the tiniest orange velvet pumpkin around. He usually likes to carry golf balls. But fall is for pumpkins, and he’s changing his toy of choice for the fall season! The tiny orange pumpkin is now decorating a place Teddy can’t get to!

The Curlcue Chest lives on a little wall that is just the right size for it! This piece of furniture, more than any other in our home, represents the StoneGable style. I think it has a comfortable elegance and is one of a kind. These are good things to strive for in a home.

The simplest fall velvet pumpkin arrangement sits on the Curlacue.

Because velvet pumpkins are heavy and they have a plush nap, they easily stay where I put them. All I had to do is add brambly bits and pieces, a handful of pods, and a few blond-colored leaves, and… voila! A velvet pumpkin arrangement!

Do you save the stem from any real pumpkins you use in the fall? I do! Just look at how much more beautiful these velvet pumpkins look with real stems!

And popping off the stem of a pumpkin is easy, especially when it is the end of the fall season.

Here’s how to pop off the stem of a pumpkin, big, little, and anywhere in between. Put pressure near the base of the pumpkin stem with your thumb and push the stem away from you. If your pumpkin is not too fresh, the stem should pop right off.

If your pumpkin is too fresh, you can put it outside and wait until it is a bit mushy and then pop off the stem, or you can cut the stem out.

Just make sure to keep pumpkin stems in a dry location with lots of circulation until they are completely dried out. Then store them until next fall.

To add real pumpkin stems to a faux pumpkin, remove the faux stem and glue the real pumpkin stem on the faux pumpkin. I like to use hot glue.

Faux pumpkins with real stems are so much more realistic and pretty!

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO FALL CENTERPIECES is a guidebook filled with lots of designer secrets and ideas for creating beautiful fall centerpieces.

Let’s head over to the dining area. It’s just a few steps away from the Curlacue Chest!

We don’t have a big formal dining room in our downsized forever home. We have a dining area. This is the most open room in our home.

The dining area has a cozy vibe! If you have a dining room on the smaller side, you might like to read 6 TIPS FOR DECORATING A SMALL DINING ROOM.

Here’s a closer look at the tabletop…

When I started to decorate this area, I really had no plan! I found the big jar with the metal work around it at a local shop, and it was my starting point!

Then I brought up fall decor from the basement and began to play. I added and edited decor until the table arrangement felt balanced and filled with fall elements! Decorating is all about adding and editing. It takes time and is worth the effort!

Here in Amish country, we can get all kinds of pumpkins at Amish farms and greenhouses. And they are so so inexpensive!

When the weather gets cooler, I’ll take the pumpkins like the green one out to sleep in the garage overnight. This will extend the life of the pumpkin!

There are a few tricks for keeping pumpkins looking their best! You can find them in 8 TIPS FOR KEEPING PUMPKINS FRESH. I’ve been using these tips for years, and they work!

When my son-in-law Jonathan goes pheasant hunting, he saves the pheasant tail feathers for me! I usually use them later in the fall season, closer to Thanksgiving. But while I was in the basement rummaging around for fall decor, I found them and decided to use them early this year.

The glass cylinder the feathers are in has no bottom, so I stood it on a wood round to add height and give it a rustic look. I think this is such a handsome and simple way to display feathers!

The seedy faux flower heads are perfect for fall decorating.

When splurging on faux flowers, I like to buy enough of one kind to create a full look in a vase. I don’t like skimpy-looking arrangements! I used 12 of these interesting seedy flowers in the glass jar.

Have you ever mixed real and faux flowers together? It’s a great way to bulk up real flowers! And when great faux flowers are mixed in with the real thing, it gives faux blooms more cred!

I’m fussy about making faux flowers, plants, and branches look as real as possible. HOW TO MAKE FAUX FLOWER LOOK MORE REAL is a reader favorite.

Did you know StoneGable has opened online Fall Harvest Shops filled with everything you need for decorating your home this fall?

There are hundreds of items I’ve handpicked with you in mind!

To shop for what you need or browse and get lots of fall decorating ideas, go HERE.

Our tour today is coming to an end, but my FALL HOME TOUR is not over! Mark your calendars for Monday, September 26th. That is when our front door will be wide open again for part 2 of the Use What You Have Fall Home Tour!

I’m so thrilled you came to visit today!

The next home on our Fall Home Tour is Shiplap and Shells. Kim has a beautifully eclectic style and a home that is filled with one treasure after another. Make sure to visit her fall home tour.

Happy Fall, and I hope you are leaving with a fall idea or two to use in your home!