Have you decorated for fall yet? It always amazes me the cascade of fall photos I see flooding my social media as soon as the calendar flips from August to September, especially since it’s not like the weather flips at the same time! Regardless, by the middle of September I find that I too am ready to start pulling out my fall stuff and preparing myself for the fact that yes, summer is just about over (according to the calendar) and colder but cozier days are ahead.
Color
One of my favorite things about decorating is the array of colors. I love seeing the different color palettes for each season, as well as how they change from year to year. I tend to be a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to the seasonal color palettes. I like the traditional red and green at Christmas—fall is the only time of year when you will find orange in my house. I am really not the biggest fan of that color!
However, this year I have decided to stay a lot more neutral. Perhaps life seems a bit more chaotic this year but I am wanting calm and simple in my décor so for the first time not a speck of orange will make an appearance. Instead, whites and creams, muted shades of green, and just a touch of amber brown will be in my color palette.
This year some of my favorite fall color palettes are:
· Creams, whites, greens, and navy
· Whites, creams, browns, and burnt orange
· Whites, creams, and deep purples
· Very saturated burnt orange, wine red, and mustard yellow—because it is fall!
Going Simple but Keeping the Details
I’m not going crazy this year creating elaborate vignettes and looking for more surfaces to decorate; instead I’m keeping my vignettes simple (check out my post Vignettes: Tell Me a Story for details on what exactly a vignette is) and adding a few subtle touches such as a dried sprig peeking from under a pumpkin, or just dried wheat rather than a flower arrangement in a vase.
Limited Color Palette
I have talked a lot about color palettes, (see my post about creating a cohesive color palette here, and how to use a color palette here) but this year I am really keeping it simple with just neutrals, and a touch of brown and green. If you are feeling the need to bring cohesion to your decor, or to simplify your decorating, just pick 3 colors, and only use decor if it is in that color family.
Bringing in Nature
Nature never goes out of style and thank heaven for small blessings like that! Take a walk outside and gather some branches, acorns, and pinecones and use them in a vase or an accent bowl in your house. I can get carried away adding different elements and colors to my accent bowl but this year I did reel myself in and stuck with my color palette and am very happy with it.
Lights
Whether it’s real candles, lanterns, fairy lights or cafe lights, a little bit of light added in small doses can go very far in creating a cozy feel.
Creating One or Two Showstoppers
Rather than creating a bunch of different small vignettes, create one or two really nice ones and let the rest go. I really enjoy creating a centerpiece. Our home is fairly open and the table is visible from every living area in our house so a fall centerpiece goes a long way to adding the seasonal element to our home. Check out my post on Fall Centerpiece Ideas for more fall decorating inspiration.
I hope this helps give you some fall decorating inspiration! What are some of your favorite fall decorating ideas this year? I’d love to hear from you! Connect with me on Pinterest and Instagram where im@essentiallyemmamarie. I look forward to hearing from you!
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Summer is just around the corner! Actually, in Pennsylvania, we are hoping it is right around the corner. It has been a very chilly and rainy spring! Regardless of the weather we have been having, or perhaps because of it, I am in the mood to get flowers, spruce up our outdoor areas, and ready to start enjoying the fresh air—as soon as the weather cooperates!
If it were feasible, I would live outside in the summer! We enjoy having campfires on the weekends and eating dinner on the front porch during the weekdays. There is a lot of life that can be lived outside in the summer but sometimes the outdoor areas need a little refresh, a few tweaks to make certain areas much more livable and enjoyable for dining and hosting outside. Today I thought it would be fun to share some ideas that I’ve seen/heard/done to inspire you to make the most of your outdoor areas this year.
Rooms
Just like you have rooms inside your home, so too can you set up little “rooms” or areas to your outdoor space. You don’t need a huge area to do this. In fact, defining a few spaces can make your outdoor area feel larger than it actually is.
If you have only a small back yard or patio area you should still consider setting up a table and chairs, then angling away from the table you can set up another chair or two to make two separate little seating areas. This little break will make your area feel bigger than having everything grouped together.
Know Your Priorities
If you have a small outdoor area you may have to choose: would you rather have a more comfortable sitting area, or would you like to have a table and chairs that is more conducive to tasks and eating—but a little less friendly when it comes to reading a book.
Make it Cozy
If you have a decent size porch or patio area, think about adding an outdoor rug to your space. Just like inside, a rug is a great way to define a space, and if you have little kids, it is also a great way to give them a little softer place to play. Adding a rug to a sitting area will make it a little cozier, and sliding an outdoor rug under a table and chairs will instantly upscale your space. As an added bonus, if you have a deck or patio that you don’t like or one that is needing repaired or replaced, a rug can help refresh it, making the space a little more comfortable until you are ready to tackle it.
Add Lights
Stringing a few Edison-style lights or café lights outside can make it feel like you are at a cute beach-side bistro. Of course, they are lights which means you’ll have more light outside—perfect for reading at night! You can attach poles to your railings to add height to string the lights between. If you have a patio instead of a railing, you can pour cement into cute pots to secure the poles to give yourself something to string the lights to and from.
Add Plants
Just like inside, adding a few plants to an outdoor space will make it come alive—literally! If you have neighbors that are really close, you can try making a privacy fence with a fast growing vining plant, such as morning glory—fix a few strings from your yard to your porch roof to give the plant something to grow up. This will provide you with some natural shade, a noise barrier and beautiful flowers!
Add What You Need
I see over and over again, in my house and at homes of others, that we avoid buying the little things that would make the biggest difference in our ability to use a space. If you need a little stand on which to set your glass while reading on the outdoor chair, it’s worth buying, making, or getting inventive to find something that fits that bill!
A couple years ago I looked around my house and realized that I did not have anything alive in it … I mean beside myself, my husband, and our pets! But there was no greenery! No plants! There are several reasons to incorporate plants into your decor:
· Plants add life and dimension to our décor, and
· Act as natural air purifiers
According to the list I found, the spider plant, English ivy, and pothos are on the list of the top 20 indoor air purifying plants.
I will be the first to admit that plants are not my forte—in fact I have killed quite a few over the years but, unfortunately for the poor plants, I have persisted and have now kept a number of plants alive, some even thriving! Through this process, I have learned of a few plants that are hard to kill house plants and easier to care for than others. The following are the plants that I like and have been able to keep alive—and the ones I really like in my decor!
Spider Plants
While I detest the name, I really like the plant! My mom always had spider plants when I was growing up and spider plants are the easiest plant to keep alive that I have yet tried. Seriously. I have over-watered (you can root a new plant in water so I don’t really think you can overwater them), under watered, and everything in between and they have still lived. They also don’t necessarily need a lot of natural light in my experience! They tend to grow to fill the size pot you plant them in so if you don’t want a bigger plant—don’t give them more room!
Ivy
I have had my ivy plant for about two and one-half years; my mom gave the ivy to me for Christmas a few years ago and she is astonished every time she comes over and finds the ivy still alive! Ivy is the second longest plant survivor in my house—the first being my spider plant. I water the ivy once a week and she seems very happy. I did move her at Christmastime from our front room (that gets lots of light) to our bedroom (which does not get a lot of natural light) and she did not like that. Except for that, the ivy has been happily growing and I believe she will continue to!
Pothos
I am on my second pothos—the first one I killed. This was especially bad because the plant I killed had been grown by my sister-in-law from a clipping of my husband’s now-deceased grandmother’s plant. Thankfully she knew better than to entrust the main plant to me! She also has a difficult relationship with plants and therefore did not judge me (at least to my knowledge) for killing her plant. She has since given me a second plant-clipping and this one is doing much better than the first!
Air Plants
Ok, I will admit to having killed one of these too—but he lived for two years before his death! (I had named it Harry-because he looked like a Harry of course!) These little air plants can be tucked in so many different places in your decor and look so cute! They don’t take much water; some you have to run the water over for a second or two a few times a week, others you may have to soak in water weekly. Other than that, they really don’t require much. We were away for several days during the winter months and had our thermostat turned down much cooler than we normally would and I believe Harry died because it was too cold for the few days we were away. Air plants are native to the tropics.
Pearl Plant
This plant is technically categorized as a succulent but I don’t think of it as a succulent at all. I find it to be easy to care for, like an ivy, but not requiring a great deal of natural light. With a little water once a week, this plant has been growing very nicely for me.
Succulents
These are not plants that I have had very much luck with. I know, I know—they are supposed to be very easy to take care of, and so hard to kill but I’ve lost track of how many I have killed over the years. I mention succulents in this post, not because I have had great success with them, but because I know others who swear by how easy they are also. If you think you are hopeless when it comes to plants because you can’t even keep a succulent alive, you are not alone! Please try a spider plant or an ivy. If you do decide to try a succulent, here is what I have learned: succulents are supposed to be easy because they don’t require much light or water. I think I have drowned mine by giving them too much water. Apparently they don’t want water every week, or at least as much as I was giving them.
All of the above plants are currently enjoying their life in my home; they exist on one watering a week and a moderate amount of natural light—minimal care that even I can handle! If you have tried having plants in the past and have given up on them altogether, I hope this post encourages you to try again and see what happens!
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A vignette is just a grouping or gathering of items, arranged together in a manner that is pleasing to the eye.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when creating a vignette:
· Add an odd number of items to your vignette
· Use objects of varying heights
· Use objects of varying texture
· Try using something quirky or unexpected in your vignette
· Add a natural element when possible
A Few Ingredients
Here are a few items (I think of them as the key ingredients) that I like to keep on hand for spring. Just as flour, sugar, and baking soda make a good base for some baked goods, so too these items will help you to pull together a vignette.
In a vignette, you want to have a few items that you are showcasing. What really upgrades your vignette are the little connecting pieces that don’t steal the show but support the showcase pieces. For a spring vignette, I like to include:
· Green moss balls
· Faux moss
· Twine balls
· Pinecones
· Faux eggs
· Something seasonal like dried flowers, bird or bunny figurines
Things to Keep in Mind
· Remember you want to keep an odd number of items in your vignette but some items, grouped together, will read as one item. Say for instance that you have two faux eggs with a pinecone grouped together—that will read as one item not 3.
· Don’t overcrowd your vignette. If you are putting items together and feel like there is a lot going on—there just might be! Try taking a few items away and see what you think.
· Set it and then walk away. It is easy to start over-analyzing everything you are doing so try setting the vignette and then walking away for a bit before coming back. If you do this, you will most likely easily see what needs to be changed—or you may decide that it is perfect the way it is!
Especially for Spring
I love adding faux moss and moss balls, Easter eggs and twine balls to my vignette but what about the bigger pieces? For spring, I love adding bird figurines, little bunny figurines, a plant, and possibly even an Easter sign or vintage floral postcard.
Easter Vignette Ideas
Here are a few things I have added to my vignettes this spring.
This vignette was done in a dough bowl and I added:
· Moss balls
· Faux Easter eggs
· Pinecones
· A twine ball
Birdcage Vignette:
· A wooden bird figurine perched on a candlestick
· Two antique bobbins
· A round little vase for some dried flowers
· A Faux Egg
· Moss in the bottom
Vignette in a box:
· Moss
· Two bird figurines
· Vintage bottle vase
· A sprig of dried flowers
I hope these ideas help to inspire you to have fun and get creative with your decor this spring/Easter season. As always—happy decorating!
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We have made it to March—my official least favorite month of the year. March is the month when we get our first few nice days and I decide I’m ready for spring and then it decides to snow again. Given this tug of war that the weather plays on us, it quickly begins to feel like spring lingers on forever, but never really arrives. However, while I may have to wait on spring outside, it can be spring inside my home. I have decided to start decorating for spring!
Spring is such a fun time of year to do a decorating refresh! After the Christmas decor has been put away, things can seem a little bare. Sometimes it is nice to keep out some of the sparkly branches, and other times it’s refreshing to just rest in the minimalism of having very limited decor. Usually though, by early spring I am itching to add a little bit of color and a few other spring touches to my home!
As always, I like to start with doing a little audit of my home. I ask myself these questions before I reward myself with the fun part of decorating:
· Has my home gotten cluttered? What needs to be purged?
· Is there something broken that I’ve been putting off fixing or touching up?
· What isn’t working well? Do I need to rearrange or rethink anything?
· Is there anything I’ve been meaning to buy that will make daily life easier that I just need to sit down and order?
After I have gone through those questions I get to the fun part—the actual decorating!
Flowers
I love flowers in my decor. I tend to stick to decorating with dried flowers as they last practically forever, generally look better than faux, and are lower maintenance than real. Spring is a great time to reintroduce some flowers and greenery to your decor. I like to keep the colors of my flowers muted for spring because: 1) that’s more my style, and 2) I like to save bright pops of color for summer.
Greenery
Speaking of flowers, spring also a great time to add in greenery. Faux moss or moss balls add natural touches of the season; if your home is still feeling a little sterile maybe think about welcoming an additional house plant or two into your home. Plants are natural air fresheners and even a plant killer like me has managed to keep air plants, spider plants, and several different types of ivy alive!
Color
Spring is a time of year when we see a lot of pastel colors… I’m not the biggest fan of pastels though. If you are not a pastel person or don’t have a color pallet in your home that works well with pastels consider adding a few of these colors to your decor for spring if you are craving color after winter’s barrenness:
· Salmon Pink
· Deep Turquoise
· Light Aqua
· Sea Green
· Sage
· Green Grass Green (also known as John Deere Green..)
· A Bright Daffodil Yellow
· Bright Tulip Red
· Spring Crocus Purple
Cute But Not Too Cute…
Spring is also when we see a lot of bunnies, birds, chicks, and other such little cuties appearing in decor. The key to adding these to your decor is to not get too cute with them. Usually a safe way to do this is to try to find vintage versions of these (or at least ones that look vintage), or versions of these done in an unusual medium such as wood or glass and then adding them to your decor. Also, instead of pairing a chick with an egg try mixing it up; don’t add more than one little cute figurine to your decor or vignette at a time. Instead, pair a cute bunny with a few vintage items. This will add an unexpected touch to your decor, lending just a touch of visual tension and will keep things interesting!
Keeping Your Decor From Getting To Summery
Besides keeping your colors more muted and toned down, I like to pair my spring decor with vintage items. I love adding soft white flowers to a dark amber bottle as a vase. I will always love white vases and such but during spring I love playing up the vintage with the lighter spring colors as I think this juxtaposing adds an earthy depth to your decor that really makes it pop!
Holes
Do you have any holes in your decor? Is there something you’ve been telling yourself for months or maybe even years (like last spring and the one before that) that you’ve been wanting for your decor? While I am not a big proponent of buying new decor every season (See my post on how I repurpose my decor for my centerpiece here: Centerpieces Throughout the Year), I am a proponent of thoughtfully adding a few new touches when needed—-especially if it is something that you keep wanting season after season.
I hope this helps to inspire you to refresh your home and to get excited about the season we are about to enter! Be sure to check back next week when I’ll be giving some ideas for different spring and Easter vignette ideas. Be sure you’ve joined my email list (you can do this by inserting your email address in the box at the bottom of your screen) so you don’t miss it!
I’d like to start off by saying, I am not here to point fingers! We all have had our less-than-stellar decorating moments. Some decor faux pas you may be aware of, other you may not. There may be a few sections in your house that you have a feeling that something isn’t quite right but you just keep hoping that if you ignore it may fix itself…
Feeling Off
Do you have a spot in your home that just doesn’t feel quite right? You just don’t quite like it. You think you need to repaint, or reupholster an item, or buy something new, but even when you do these things you still don’t like it, then something is definitely off. Here are a few of the top mistakes I’ve observed that can make a room feel off.
A Too Small Area Rug
An area rug should comfortably gather all your furniture together. What does that mean? It means at least the front two legs of all your furniture should rest on the rug—hopefully by at least six inches! Please do not leave a slight gap around the edge of your rug and the front of your furniture. If you think your rug is too small it will be worth the pain to pack it up, return it, and get a larger one. Trust me on this one—your rug is not going to grow! If your rug was very expensive or perhaps a one-of-a-kind vintage rug and is too small, try layering it over a larger rug. This will add depth to your home will allow you to keep your favorite rug.
Furniture placement
Speaking of furniture—don’t push it all back against the wall! This is something common that we do especially if your house isn’t huge. Pushing all your furniture back against the wall can backfire, making your room feel smaller rather than larger. If you can, pull at least a few pieces out from the wall by six inches or a foot. Try it!
Too Much Stuff
Are you a collector? Do you love an eclectic vibe? Collections are great but display them with care. If you don’t have a large collection that can be displayed together to really make a visual impact then display only portions of that collection at a time.
Likewise you may prefer a fuller room rather than a minimalist feel. Again that’s fine. Just make sure that you are:
· Displaying things that have meaning to you and aren’t just taking up space, and
· That you leave a clear walkway to create flow in the room.
White Space
Speaking of too much stuff, remember to leave some white space where your eye can rest. Even if you are a maximalist, there should be some space in each room where your eye can rest without being bombarded with stimulation. As I mentioned above, make sure there is a defined walk way to each area of the room. You want to be able to vacuum or have someone with a cane to be able to easily navigate your space, without having to move things first!
Too Many Cords
Electronic cords are part of modern day life but make sure they aren’t the focus of it! You want to hide as many cords as possible out of the way and out of sight. Try taping cords down the back of a console stand to keep them hidden. If possible, plug end-table lamps into an outlet behind or even under your couch. If you have a bunch of cords laying on the floor beneath your TV stand, try applying a few Command hooks to the back of your TV stand and loop the cords over the hook so the cords are hidden behind the TV stand and not on the floor underneath it.
Keeping Something You Hate
At some point we have probably all been given an item that we do not love; in fact we may hate it. If you never liked a piece don’t try to style around it. You could try painting or reupholstering it but if that doesn’t work then it is time to let it go. It’s okay if it was your great grandma’s—if you hate it, it is better to pass it along to someone who will love and cherish it as much as your great grandma did.
Trends
Maybe you have all the new trendy item displayed in your home; maybe you have a bunch of items that used to be trendy in your home—a long time ago! Either way, having too many trendy pieces in your home can make your home start to feel cheap. Add a few touches and ask yourself if you like the item because you like it, or if it’s because you liked it back when you bought it many years ago.
Curtains
Curtains are not to just cover your window. They are to be a statement! Hang the curtains within 4-6 inches of the top of your ceilings if you live in a standard 8-10 foot ceiling home. If you live in a house with very tall ceilings then I probably wouldn’t go more than 8 inches to possibly 10 inches above the window itself. See how low you can go; you can let them puddle (crease) on the floor with several inches on the floor for a romantic look; you can let them kiss (just grazing the floor) for a modern luxe look, or you can have them just hover about a centimeter above the floor which may be the best option if you have little kids, or rambunctious pets!
Add Character
Hotel rooms done by a designer are nice, but they are just that—a place where you swing by and stay for a day or two before departing. Your home should not feel like that. You want to add character to your home. Add a few pieces of art that you simply adore. Add a few pictures of your family. (Just don’t go overboard with too many everywhere!) Display the weird knickknack that no one other than you knows what it is—this is your home and if you love it, it should be displayed.
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