Essentially EmmaMarie

Fall Centerpiece Ideas

Fall Centerpiece Ideas

I love decorating for fall and one of my favorite things is to create a fall centerpiece for my table. In fact, I think the centerpiece was what made me really fall in love with fall decorating. There are so many options when it comes to creating a fall centerpiece! There is something to be said about not reinventing the wheel but rather to simply tweak existing decor by adding seasonal touches (post on that coming soon). It is also true that many times we get, well . . . a little lazy. Now I’m not judging—I’ve done it too!  We take one look at our fall decor and think either: (a) I have nothing good, or  (b) I have nothing and I need to go shopping! (My closet has that same problem.) Just as we are told to cure our closet woes by getting creative and trying to see how many outfits we can come up with just a handful of clothing items, so too can we apply this principle to our decor! (See my post about how to create a decor capsule here)  

This is my fall centerpiece from last year. If you have been reading this blog for any length of time, you will no doubt have seen pictures of my centerpiece before and may recognize that the bones of my centerpiece are the same. That’s great! However, there are many other centerpiece options that I could utilize to keep things fresh and exciting with decor I already own.

Play With What You Already Own

I have a bunch of amber bottles (flea market anyone?) and I have several plain white candles. This is where the power of a collection comes in. Group your collection together for maximum impact. Or, if you are like me and your collection is small, group two collections together to create repetition which in turn creates cohesiveness and impact.

Try Going Simple

Here’s a centerpiece idea if I want to go super simple with my decor. Frequently we over complicate things: in life, at work, and in our decorating. But it doesn’t have to be! Combine a few of your favorite elements, in this case, the green pumpkins and the greenery sticking out from beneath are a few of my favorite elements.  You create a little vignette out of them, and then walk away. Come back 15 minutes later and pay attention to your first reaction—you just might love it! 

Vary Heights 

In this centerpiece, I created a base using a charger; then I added the little bird on the candle stand as the tallest element; next, the lantern as a medium level, and the pumpkin as the lowest level. Lastly, I added some filler (in this case the pinecones) to round out the centerpiece and that brings the decor together! 

Incorporate a Trend

I’m not a huge trend follower for the primarily reason that I want my decor to be pretty timeless. I don’t want to spend a lot of money and time buying things that will be outdated in a few years. However, incorporating trends in small ways can be inexpensive and still fun! This year we are seeing a lot of blue and green pumpkins (see my post 2021 fall decorating inspiration here for more of this year’s trends), so if you like those color and already have them in your home, play with this trend. Purchasing a few small pumpkins and adding them to your centerpiece is a great way to dip your toes in the waters of what is trending and if you end up getting sick of them at the end of this year—there is always spray paint! 


Go Big

I tend to keep my decor pretty minimal in spring and summer, which means by the time fall comes around, I am absolutely itching to pull out all the decorations! Instead of keeping your centerpiece confined to a tray or charger, try splaying it over a table runner so it has a cascading effect. In this photo, I decided to repeat the wheat element that is sticking out of the top of the bottles and around the bottom edges. Repeating an element like this brings cohesiveness to your design and is a way to create a perimeter in a free flowing centerpiece like this one.


So, here you go! Here are six different fall centerpiece ideas where I was able to use elements that I already own. While you may not have as many decor elements (my dad would refer to these decor elements as “junk”), I am willing to bet that you have more options than you think! So pull it all out, forget how you’ve used the items in the past, and just play! Happy decorating! 

Other Posts You May Enjoy:

How to Create A Vignette for Any Room in Your Home

How to Create A Vignette for Any Room in Your Home

Snippet: I haven’t talked about vignettes in a while- but that doesn’t mean I’ve given up using them! I talked about how to make a vignette in  my post Vignettes: tell Me a Story, and that’s great for getting you started creating a vignette, but are you overlooking great places to use a vignette? Are there certain things cluttering up your area that could look cute and be functional my making them into a vignette? I bet there is! Here area few ideas for how to make a vignette in any room of your home to help elevate your everyday! 

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Fall Centerpiece Ideas

Fall Centerpiece Ideas

I love decorating for fall and one of my favorite things is to create a fall centerpiece for my table. In fact, I think the centerpiece was what made me really fall in love with fall decorating. There are so many options when it comes to creating a fall centerpiece! There is something to be said about not reinventing the wheel but rather to simply tweak existing decor by adding seasonal touches (post on that coming soon). It is also true that many times we get, well . . . a little lazy. Now I’m not judging—I’ve done it too! We take one look at our fall decor and think either: (a) I have nothing good, or (b) I have nothing and I need to go shopping! (My closet has that same problem.) Just as we are told to cure our closet woes by getting creative and trying to see how many outfits we can come up with just a handful of clothing items, so too can we apply this principle to our decor to come up with fall centerpiece ideas!

read more
2021 Fall Decorating Inspiration

2021 Fall Decorating Inspiration

Do you want it to feel like fall in your house? Do you want that warm, fuzzy, curl up under a blanket feel? Here’s how to add all the feels of fall to your home! There is such cute, fun decor out there this year; green pumpkins, white pumpkins, and tons of texture- oh my!

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7 Tips for Better Hosting

7 Tips for Better Hosting

My mother once found a 1950s edition book on the art of hosting and entertaining by Betty Crocker. In it the author talks about how her nephew attended a college in her town, so she opened her home to him and his friends so that he would feel that he had a place to call home as his parents did not live nearby. Anytime he wanted to have friends over, she would painstakingly labor and prepare beforehand. One such night she overhears her nephew, oblivious to the amount of work going on behind the scenes, comment to one of his friends, “You guys can come over anytime—my aunt always has stuff ready at a moment’s notice!” His aunt, hearing this laughed: she didn’t have it ready at a moment’s notice! It took a bunch of work to pull it off, but her guests were blissfully unaware! This is the number one rule for hosting: your guests must never feel like an imposition.

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