Use What You Have Fall Tour, Part 2

Need ideas for fall decorating. Our fall home tour and decorating ideas is the place to start! Use what you have in fresh new ways, or reprise a favorite way you styled some of your decor. The best way to decorate for fall is to use what you have and add some organics. This post has lots of fall-inspired ideas for YOU!

Welcome to part 2 of our Use What You Have Fall Tour.

Our fall tour with lots of decorating ideas is the place to start!

I have loved putting this tour together. It’s been so much fun bringing out oldie-but-goodie fall decor along with organics from my favorite Amish greenhouse down the street!

You can see USE WHAT YOU HAVE FALL HOME TOUR here.

A big thank you to Kelly at The Tattered Pew. Kelly’s home tours are filled with creative bloggers who strive to bring you the best of the season so you can use their ideas in your home. This wonderful fall tour is going on all week. Make sure to see the bottom of this post for other fall homes to visit.

I adore Kelly’s home and Kelly. Her home is so warm and inviting and she uses the color blue liberally and beautifully! And Kelly is such a darling, talented friend and blogger.

Welcome to everyone coming from The Tattered Pew!

And no matter how you found this tour, WELCOME! I’m so happy you are here.

The inspiration for this year’s fall tour came about by digging in the basement looking for a few things I could use to decorate our home. And while I was rooting around, I discovered things I had stored and loved from fall tours of the past years.

So I decided to use what I have and add some pretty organics and flowers from my garden and the Amish greenhouse down the road.

You can see PART I of our tour HERE.

We flung our front door open so you could see how I used lots and lots of years of fall decor, and hopefully get ideas to decorate your fall home! That’s my goal. Not so much to share my home with you but to share my fall decorating ideas with you. It’s so important to me that you leave every visit inspired and full of ideas!

We started in the foyer and then went through to the living room…

And then to the dining area…

Now, let’s head to the kitchen…

Our kitchen is open to the dining area and can be seen from the living room and the sunroom.

This fall I decorated my kitchen a bit more than usual. For me, it’s quite colorful and full of decor! Mostly organic things… pumpkins! I’m always a bit fall crazy, but this year really had to reign myself in! Fall is in the air and in my spirit, big time!

We have lots of company here and when our family and friends are overnight guests I like to set up a self-serve coffee bar. So I decorate my coffee area a bit so you could maybe think about a coffee bar for your own kitchen.

Kitchen countertops are usually prime real estate so try to clear off all clutter and designate zones for things like a coffee bar or a pop-up libation bar or a cooking and prep station.

You might like to read HOW TO DECORATE YOUR KITCHEN COUNTERTOPS and how to keep your countertops clutter free.

The flowers on the coffee bar are from our garden and a few from an Amish farmstand. I love these vibrant blooms!

I love to keep a small pitcher of seasonal bloom at the coffee station. It’s so nice to wake up to coffee and flowers!

You can see an EARLY FALL COFFEE BAR FOR SMALL SPACES and another FALL COFFEE BAR for lots of ideas.

My coffee bars all use the same basic elements like the containers with the wooden lids and the white serving platter turned tray and flowers, mugs, napkins, and a little decor. I keep the basics out all year but change the coffee bar slightly to reflect the season and who’s at our home.

At the other end of the counter is where we put up a pop-up bar when we entertain. But most of the time I stack a few of my favorite cookbooks there.

I read cookbooks like some people read romance novels. I love to learn about food and how the chemistry and art of cooking create something so scrumptious! And I particularly like to feed people.

And just like my decor changes, so do my cookbooks. Some cookbooks are decades old and some are new. I have such lovely friends and they often gift me their cookbooks. I love the idea that they used these cookbooks too! If you like to cook and have friends that cook, why not gift them one of your cookbooks with a little note inside.

I’ve had the cookbook, Great Good Food, for decades. The author also wrote The Silver Palette Cookbook, if you are old enough to remember. I still have that one too.

Great Good Food is a healthy-ish cookbook filled with the most wonderful recipes. It is very well loved and many of the pages sport spills and ear tags.

Some of my cookbooks are like comfortable old friends!

My favorite thing to decorate with in the fall is pumpkins. Lancaster County is pumpkin land. The farm fields are dotted with all kinds of pumpkins! I found the pumpkins this fall at a couple Amish stands along the road. We are so lucky to have lots of little farm stands and nurseries everywhere we travel.

Pumpkins here are abundant and very very inexpensive and often have scars and warts and all kinds of imperfections. I’ve come to embrace their imperfect beauty!

Our kitchen is spread out but the U-shaped working area is the heart of the kitchen.

Our island is really incorporated into the kitchen and is a great place to add a little season decor.

The island is also slightly curved and it is where people tend to congregate. My sweet sister, Lisa, says I could do cooking shows in the kitchen!

When we entertain or have family over for meals, I never feel alone in the kitchen. Everyone gathers around the island or the banquette by the windows.

This year I went a bit brighter with our fall use-what-you-have decor and added a bit of orange. It just would not feel like fall unless I planted a few mums in pretty pots in our home.

And this year the orange mums begged to come home with me. And you never argue with a mum (British humor intended)!

If you are not a fan of orange, try a deeper burnt orange hue. And add lots of white around it. It’s like magic!

This white ice bucket is one of my favorite things to plant annuals in. It gets a lot of use in our home!

I think of mums as long lasting cut flowers. As the booms begin to look spent I pinch them off to encourage new flowers to bloom. And when mums start to look a bit tired I plant the whole mum outside and pot a new mum in the indoor planter.

This is one of my favorite seasonal decor tricks. Plant pretty perennials indoors and then transplant them in my yard. I do this with herbs too!

I have a decor mantra I use all the time. Here it is…

THE CHEESE STANDS ALONE!

This saying, taken from the nursery rhyme The Farmer In The Dell, reminds me that I should not let any decor stand alone. Because it will be “the cheese”. Most decor looks best grouped in three. Three is decor magic!

You can see USING THE MAGIC RULE OF THREE. This post will give you a lot of tips and some easy interior design processes you can use in your home.

Of course, we arrange things in larger groups, but the bottom line is not to let any decor be the cheese!

The center of our U-shaped kitchen is the prep area. It’s so convenient. I can easily get the sink and the stove in a couple steps.

This area stays clear of decor, well most of the time. The green pumpkin scooted over into the prep area a little. It better watch out, I love to cook with fresh pumpkins! And my sharp knives are handy!

Here’s a picture from the inside of the U.

And next to the prep area is storage and our stove. I would love to put a rug in the kitchen but honestly, it’s pretty impractical. It would look so pretty but I think it would get in the way. In the U of the kitchen, cooking is like a dance routine!

And here is the other side of the green pumpkin and a fall arrangement.

Oh, the beauty of nature’s imperfections! Isn’t that the best stem? I’ve said this so so many times but for anyone coming here for the first time, make sure to save all your pumpkin stems.

When you are done with your pumpkins at the end of the fall season, you can usually pop the pumpkin stems off the pumpkins by placing your thumb at the base of the stem and putting pressure on it. You might have to flick your thumb to snap it off at the base.

If that doesn’t work, cut the stem out!

Make sure you dry the stems completely and then store them away until next fall.

You can pull off the stems of your faux pumpkins and glue the real stems on them. What a difference. The real stems will make your faux pumpkins look so much better!

This fall I added a blond wreath to the stove hood. I have three of these leafy wreaths and have often used them for fall and Christmas decorating. If I find something I just LOVE I tend to buy a few of them.

I cut one of the wreaths apart and tucked the leafy stems into arrangments. If you visit PART I of this fall home tour you will see them in a basket in the foyer and tucked into the velvet pumpkin arrangement on the Curlacue chest.

I wish I would have gotten a couple more!

It’s all about knowing your color palette and style! You might like to read, HOW TO CHOOSE A COLOR PALETTE FOR YOUR HOME.

On the stove, another white platter turned tray holds some of the last herbs in my herb garden!

I just love cooking with herbs! I usually plant herbs indoors right after Christmas and enjoy them through the cold winter months. And then I plant them in my outdoor herb garden in the spring.

But this year I think I’ll plant herbs in early October because having some fresh herbs on hand for Thanksgiving and Christmas cooking is sublime! With a little care and know-how, you can plant and have beautiful herbs for your holiday cooking too!

You might like to see HOW TO GROW HERBS INSIDE AND OUT.

Here’s another example of a decor item I saw on sale in a local shop and couldn’t resist picking up six of them! These mini preserved boxwood balls in tiny white planters tugged on my heartstrings and I knew I would find lots of places to use them.

Three are on the mantel (again see PART I of this fall tour) and I put three in a small galvanized metal and brass tray by the kitchen faucet.

I figured if I could not use them they would make sweet little hostess gifts. Sorry, no sweet hostess got them. I kept them all!

I’ve used these to decorate for fall, Christmas, and winter.

Ready to head to the sunroom?

You will be surprised because I decorated this room very, very lightly this fall!

I’ve been working on a sunroom makeover! The makeover started with the rug and then we found the sofa. It took forever for the sofa to get here. But it was so worth the wait.

I used textural pillows in gray and a pretty gold-ish orange color for fall.

This image shows the colors best.

The center pillow is a textured lumbar with beading and tassels. This is one of the few new things I got for fall this year.

We bought the coffee table when we first moved to the Tanglewood House. The sunroom is very small but lives large! Finding a coffee table to work in this room and not be too bulky or take up too much space was a challenge.

This coffee table is very sturdy and works with the colors of our room. I did get a darker coffee table but returned it. The light color of the coffee keeps it from grabbing too much attention.

And I did something I did not think I would do again. The last time I did this was in the early ’90s!

I bought matching end tables! YIKES!

And matching lamps!

For this small room, keeping the furnishings as simple as possible was the right move. I did try a couple of different end tables in here but they looked distracting. I am the queen of furniture returns!

Bobby has become an expert at putting furniture together and taking it apart again. He also keeps all the boxes new furnishings come in so he can repack them when I decide I don’t like them! He is a keeper! Often the furniture is not!

Look for a post in a couple weeks about how to decorate a small room and have it live large.

We’ve had this camel color chair for well over a decade. Everyone LOVES this chair. It is the most comfortable chair in our home. It was living in a guest bedroom but I brought it down to the sunroom as a stand-in chair until we get our new swivel chair.

Swivel chairs are big right now! It’s a great option for a small room. I love Ethan Allen’s furniture! We got the new sofa and now are waiting for the swivel chair from there.

You can see where we have the tv in the image above. A swivel chair will be great for extra seating for tv watching!

With six grandchildren and two big dogs, I wanted very durable furniture and upholstery that would stand up to lots of wear and spills, even on a white sofa!

We are now planning another makeover. We are adding a big family room and bathroom in our basement.

We downsized and are adding on! It’s practical with a growing family, but I’m resistant to having more home to take care of. I love the size and footprint of our Tanglewood House the way it is. But I love my family so much more!

Back to fall decorating…

A simple tray of pumpkins sits on the coffee table. Sometimes simple is best, right?

I still have a couple more rooms dressed up for fall to show you, but that is for another time!

Thank you so much for stopping by and visiting our fall home tour! I hope you are leaving with some ideas to use in your fall home!

Now, please stop by My Wee Abode and visit Julie, one of my best friends! She is one of the kindest and most lovely people I know!

Bloggers’ Best Fall Home Tours

This week I am joining some of my blogging friends for the Bloggers’ Best Fall Home Tours. Thirty talented and creative women will be opening their homes up for you to tour all week long. You can visit each summer home tour by clicking the links below.

Monday’s Tours

The Tattered Pew // StoneGable // My Wee Abode

She Gave It a Go // Cottage In the Mitten // Simply2Moms

Tuesday’s Tours

Midwest Life and Style // Willow Bloom Home Blog // Bricks n’ Blooms

Cottage On Bunker Hill // Peacock Ridge Farm // Open Doors Open Hearts

Wednesday’s Tours

White Lilac Farmhouse // The Ponds Farmhouse // Eleanor Rose Home

Amy Sadler Designs // Shiplap and Shells // White Arrows Home

Thursday’s Tours

My Thrift Store Addiction // County Road 407 // Thistle Key Lane

Cloches and Lavender // My Family Thyme // tatertos & jello

Friday’s Tours

Le Cultivateur // Southern Home and Hospitality // Follow The Yellow Brick Home

WM Design House // A Life Unfolding // Dabbling and Decorating