Autumn has arrived and now is a great time to start making some simple changes in the home to reflect the changing season of shorter days to longer nights. With October coming to a close, now is a time to bundle-up, stay warm and get ready for the holiday season. Whether you plan on staying (mostly) indoors or entertaining lots of guests, Pop of Modern wants to help you get ready for the darkest time of the year.
To keep you and yours warm, cheerful, and pleasantly entertained, we've got a few decor guidelines that should help spice-up the home for the darker and colder time of the year. The guide includes lighting, fall colors, cozy fabrics and eye-catching centerpieces, along with a few links to PoM's decor items to help you get started on your next Autumn Decor Project:
Lighting is key during the darker, colder winter months. Traditionally this done with fire and candles, but placing some extra lamps in corners and nooks, or hanging some brightening pendant lighting above a gathering space can make a much needed difference in a home or office. This will help combat the chilling side-effects of getting less sunlight hours. Brightening up the spaces you spend time in will help cheer you and others up as well.
2. Warm-Up the Space: Candles, Matches, & Spicy-Smelling Treats
This is important, especially if you are entertaining. Candles with a complimentary match set are easy, warm decorative pieces that can be placed to bring the eye(s) where you want them to rest. It's also an added ritual to invite others to light the candles, while you finish preparing drinks and/or food!
Don't forget to brew some chai tea (or pumpkin spice lattes) for you and your guests and let the warm, spicy smells of cinnamon and co. waft through the home. Not only do spicy treats and teas give an inviting, cozy feeling for all those who encounter it, spices like cinnamon, clove and ginger have the added benefit of supporting the immune system and warding off colds and flus during this time of the year.
Besides needing the warming effects of added textiles during this season, layering throw pillows and blankets will give just the right feel to a space. In fact, you might not be able to get rid of guests if they get too comfortable! All jokes aside, it's important to support the rest needed during autumn with fabrics that keep one cozy and ward off any chills.
Warming colors and fabrics will also be eye-catching and present fond recollections of this time of year. We recommend wall hangings and tapestries as well in jewel tones such as emerald green, amber-orange, or golden-yellows placed on bare walls to help add texture and warmth to otherwise 'cold' spaces.
4. Match the Colors to the Season
This should be a no-brainer for most, especially since most of us have been trained to recognize certain colors to certain seasons. But for those who don't necessarily live in an area where the seasons change and demonstrate the colors changing too, it helps to use the corresponding seasonal colors for many reasons. Jewel-tones, similar to falling leaves of autumn are the best bet for colors. Deep yellows, oranges, reds, browns and dark greens are some of the best colors to work with, and when it comes to entertaining guests you can't go wrong with glassware and other practical decor choices in these colors.
5. Decoration is Admiration: Make an Entrance or an Altar
It's not hard to understand why traditionally, Halloween, All Saint's Day, Dia De Los Muertos/Day of the Dead, Samhain, etc. all take place during fall/autumn. This is a time to acknowledge the changing season from light to dark, and well, also to honor the dead. Many of these traditions make use of altar-building and decorations placed at entrances to acknowledge that which has passed (or those who have passed).
Pumpkins with or without the Jack-O-Lanterns placed at the entrance, candles placed in windows or around fireplaces as well as decorations that remind us of someone or something special, are great ways to add fall touches to the home. Make sure to place these decorative and symbolic reminders where others can see them too. Besides at the entrance of a home, altars in certain corners, around fireplaces, or in the main-part of the room display the importance and admiration you have for these traditions, certain persons who have passed, and/or the significance of this time of year.
Even if you don't have a lot of money to spend, even gathering pine cones, small twigs and branches into a basket or vase can be a beautiful decor centerpiece in and of itself.
Now, this guide is by no means final, but we hope it will get you started and excited about being in fall! Let us know in the comments or on social media what gets you ready for this time of the year.
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