Fall is a fantastic time to spice up your home decor. Here are 5 ways to spice up your interiors for fall with styling ideas for warm accent colours and cozy accessories.
I’m travelling this fall. We’ve been in Boston for the weekend and yesterday we drove up to Provincetown where we spent the night! I’m getting a great education on exterior colours in Cape Code (check out some pics I posted on my Instagram here).
For example, I have always said that if you paint a white house with shutters anything but black, it looks like ‘We couldn’t afford to paint the house so we added colour here’. but here at the cape everything goes and that’s because the architecture is consistent! It’s hard to drive here because I want to stop every five minutes and take a picture!
Tomorrow my Boston Specify Colour with Confidence workshop starts!
My senior colour designer Tricia has whipped up a post about Fall decorating for your reading pleasure while I’m on the road:
For more fall decorating posts, check out this one: Add Some Fall to Your Living Room Using Brown (I did)
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I love everything about fall, especially the colour palette. Have you ever noticed that people tend to be drawn to the colours they look good in? Well I’ve got yellow green eyes and reddish hair, and I’ve always loved some of the least popular colours like olive and mustard.
My house has warm orangey oak floors from the 50s, so the warm tones of autumn tend to look good in my home too. Plus I was born in September, and I’m a weirdo that loved school, so I have a few special places in my heart for fall.
Fall Selfie
Fall is a time to slow down and cocoon a bit, something that makes me love it even more. Who doesn’t crave comfort food and cozy potlucks in the colder months?
It’s also great time to redecorate the nest a bit to create a cozy feel and do some entertaining. Here are 5 ways to spice up your interiors for fall.
1. Repeat the color of the pumpkins with Fall potted plants
I’m heading out this week to pick up some pumpkins for the porch. We don’t get the really interesting gourds and pumpkins here in Canada that Americans have so one way to make a plain orange pumpkin look interesting is to repeat the colour in the flowers.
Where, I live, flowers and plants don’t work outside in our freezing temperatures this time of year. I usually get a few pots of “fall” mums to enjoy for the last couple weeks of August and into the beginning of September so I don’t miss out!
2. Chalk paint pumpkins to get the colour you want
It’s amazing what you can do with chalk paint now! Love this creative collection of painted pumpkins. The instructions are here.
Fall here is stunning but very short. The trees are already bare, leaving me craving more colours like jade, forrest, olive, pumpkin, rust, cognac, saddle, mustard and plum.
Do you tend to change up your decor seasonally? I do, but I don’t go overboard. I might change out some art, cushions and maybe a tablescape just to have something new to look at. I’ve amassed quite a collection of cushion covers, Maria would approve 🙂
And it’s also absolutely possible to layer rich warm tones into a fresh, light and white room.
Here’s a beautiful display of mums indoors (below). That rusty orange looks great mixed with classic blue and white.
3. Switch out cushions and throws
You can switch out your cushions and add a cozy throw to immediately create a completely different and fall-cozy feel. Here’s a lovely white bedroom (below) with some spicy seasonal colours simply mixed in.
I love the rich look and feel of tribal fabrics. You can find lots of African mudcloth pillows on Etsy, they come in a nice range of blues, black, cream and also rust orange like the one in the room above.
And traditional kantha quilts come in a variety of colours and textures adding loads of personality to a room tossed on a sofa or folded at the end of a bed. This online shop has a wonderful curated collection of them including this one below.
Or you can go for more traditional fall motifs.
I just love this gorgeous watercolour fall themed pillow (below).
You could mix it with soft celadon, rich brown leather, dusty blues and it would be right at home in a white or turquoise room with some of the warm tones repeated like with this warm ochre wool throw below.
Warm and earthy colours can be happily incorporated as accents into a fresh light room the same way that white and wood tones balance each other out. The key is to repeat them and maintain a nice balance between warm and cool colours to keep it looking current.
If you can’t overcome your association of richer tones with the Tuscan or brown trend, where we were layering warm upon more warm tones to create the look, try combining them with more current cool colours and jewel tones for a fresh perspective.
This mustard gold sofa looks both rich and fresh mixed with pastel pink and cool cobalt blues in this youthful and casual white room below.
4. Add cozy velvet
Some mustard velvet cushions would do nicely in a room with navy or cobalt and gold accents.
5. Switch out your artwork
Try to integrate a new accent colour with a patterned fabric or art piece that incorporates the existing palette with the colour you’d like to introduce.
West Elm has lots of art to choose from.
Here’s a nice print framed in gold that would help tie mustard in with blues and pinks below.
You can mix toasty colours into the coolest of rooms to change up the feel in a pinch. Look at this beautiful blue living room with just a touch of orange to enliven the blues.
Here’s a classic cream and white bedroom with simple and cozy orange accents and a similar style fringed pillow below. Maybe the solid silk fringed pillow is a trending classic right now?
I’d also like to declare purple to be a fall colour. Everything from violet pink to plum and wine. Wine certainly belongs with the harvest 😉 In fashion this decadent hue shows up every fall, why not in interiors?
A little bit of violet brings depth to an otherwise light or neutral room. It also pairs well with blues, greens, and warmer ochre and gold. Why not pop on some fun colourful lampshades for some moody atmosphere?
This combination of purple, wine and orange is perfect for the season (below).
Here, both mustard and wine warm up an otherwise navy and white room (below). Beautifully done!
Painting and colour by True Colour Expert Heidi Nyline’s company Warline Painting in Vancouver
Notice how in all of these rooms, the warm accent colour is repeated more than once in order to make it work. If you have more than a couple of accent colours already in your room, you might need to eliminate one and put a few things in storage to be able to introduce another strong hue.
Try orange if you have lots of greens or turquoise in your decor. If you have cooler or deeper blues like indigo, cobalt or navy, try mustard or gold. Soft browns and purples seem to work well across the board so you can’t really go wrong.
Just be sure to get at least a few things in the new colour to make it look intentional. You may find you like it so much the the fall season becomes perennial in your house 😉
And don’t forget to keep your whites, creams and pastels mixed in for freshness and balance. Just like adding white or cream to an earthy colour scheme makes if fresh, crisp and pale colours will keep warm tones balanced and current looking.
Have you done any fall decorating this year? What are some of your favorite ways to spice up your interiors for fall?
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Thanks Tricia!
Here’s a pic of my Atlanta Specify Colour with Confidence workshop from last week. Speaking of purple, can you see my new purple glasses?
Atlanta Specify Colour with Confidence Workshop
Have a great week my lovelies!
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I love to decorate for the seasons!!! Pillows, throws, art and seasonal items all come out for each season. I am finding that my basic neutral palette with aqua, turquoise and blues goes great with the seasons, whether it is adding oranges and deep yellow and brown in the fall or the reds at Christmas. I am thrilled how these colors all seem to work well together. In the summer the aqua, turquoise and blues get amped up with more whites. Springtime fresh greens and yellows seem to compliment the aqua and turquoise too. If it doesn’t look good, away it goes till the next season. Never boring, always fun to bring out the stuff at the beginning of each new season? great post Tricia
It’s nuts but until a few minutes ago, it never occurred to me to put potted mums INSIDE the house. Duh! Thanks for whatever you did to make the idea sink in.
Great post, Tricia. Years ago I used to switch out the throw pillows seasonally when I had a dark green sofa. But I never found the right teal pillows to “summerize” my more recent red sofa so I just stored the wintry throws away and kept the pillows as is. But it always bothered me. We moved to a new place this summer and I decorated our new smaller living room in red accents, with orange and eggplant purple chairs and one wild print chair with both colors (no sofa). It all ties in with a large art photograph and I love it. Only purple is in my wardrobe though. 🙂 I’m looking out the window right now at trees that match the living room! The purple chairs have orange velvet pillows and I just got wine red velvet pillows for the orange mid-century barrel chairs, so I have about six months to figure out a spring/summer change.
Nice post Tricia,. Today I am going up to my attic to retrieve my fall flowers, pillows and throws. I love changing colors by the season. The color change makes me happy and because I grew up in the Midwest I miss all of the beautiful shades of fall. I use to love going to different towns that had big maple trees and look at their new coats. You have so many good ideas in this post! I enjoyed looking at all the pictures that you posted and seeing the variety of color combos. Thanks!
Maria I like your new glasses and what a nice group of new students!
Great post and tips, Tricia! Love the fall colours. One small request…perhaps to specify where you live in Canada lest everyone think we are a perpetually frozen bunch here ? Not sure if you are located on the West Coast too (I know Maria is) but is not nearly as cold here as you have written. I live in Surrey and our hanging baskets usually hang in til the end of October and our trees still have most of their (colourful) leaves. Beautiful day yesterday and was out without a coat it was so warm in the sunshine. Thanks for the great ideas to Autmn up the house, love your blogs.
Haha, yes to be clear I’m in one of Canada’s more northern cities, Edmonton Alberta. The vast majority of Canadians live in more southern and warmer areas than here. Outdoor planters are usually finished by mid September here, but it’s always nice and sunny 🙂
Tricia, I really enjoyed your post as it re-introduced some fall colors into my thinking. Love the eggplant/purple and have always loved yellow/mustard. We must redecorate our entire lower level due to hurricane damage so now I’m thinking of using white and cream as a backdrop for various colors we can mix in by season. Needing inspirational and encouragement, this sounds delightful. Thanks!
I too have come to appreciate autumn colors, in part because of the warm wood tones in my house. We’ve had a gorgeous fall around Seattle. I’ve been so inspired to create autumnal decor, ala these recent tessellating leaf coasters: http://quirk-shop.com/2017/10/16/inspiration-weekend/
I love decorating for the seasons. And this post might make me get off my duff & bring out my Fall things. Thanks Tricia for inspiring me.
Great post, images…well done!!
Thank you for the beautiful styling examples. I love the idea of painting pumpkins. We have the fancy gnarly ones here, but they are expensive.
On another note, I feel most grateful to have my possessions and will appreciate them ever so much more now, after thousands have lost their homes to fires here in California, In the US, we celebrate Thanksgiving, and I have a lot to be thankful for, from pillows to pumpkins.
I love fall colors, but outside, not in. I look like death in rust, olive, mustard, etc so they will never be part of my own decor other than a seasonal pumpkin or floral arrangement, but I do appreciate the well done rooms and pretty accessories you’ve shared in this post.
Never though of purple as a fall color, but I can see it….especially with purple pumpkins. Be still my heart! Do they really exist in nature? If so, I must have!!
An interesting post for autumn and love the pics.,Tricia. I enjoy reading your posts. Here In Australia we are now in the opposite season to you, namely, spring, so am looking for more summery looking goods. Hoping to find something I like when I go to the shops today.
Anyway, keep the post coming.
Freezing temps this time of year? Oh, my. that is such a foreign concept to me. I live in the desert. Still in the 80s and 90s daytime, but it’s finally cooled off enough at night that after 10 (when it drops to 78, 77 or so) I can open the window and enjoy the cool evening. I finally saw fall colors last fall. OMG, were the trees beautiful! Pictures are lovely, but whole nother ball of wax to be there and see it in person. And people decorate their yards with fall / Halloween displays! (With our warm temps here, can’t put out a carved pumpkin. It won’t last more than a day or two. ) Also loved the crisp evenings, but comfortable daytime temps. Loved my week long visit!!!! And acorns (and squirrels) all over the place!. (as an aside, I’ve never driven in snow, never shoveled snow. I have visited snow, however. I’ve touched it before.)
That was just an outstanding article! What a joy to read with perfectly chosen examples. I adore the warmer colours and appreciate a nod to their use.
Really enjoyed your post, Tricia! My favorite quote is: “And it’s also absolutely possible to layer rich warm tones into a fresh, light and white room.” I am trying to do that right now! I love red-orange with teals and that is what I’m doing in my living room with my white furniture!
Well done and very informative! Also appreciate the links you included. Do love the colours of Fall, however the thought of old man winter following …. brrrrrrr! (Am a Canuk and live in north eastern Ontario in a snow belt region.) -Brenda-
P.S.: Regarding the spelling of your name; my daughter’s is the same and even fourty-three years later she is often referred to as Patrica and claims during her school years, she spent most of the time correcting her teachers because it wasn’t Trisha … ☺.
@Maria: Love your new eyeglasses. Hope you were also able to visit Nantucket while in Cape Cod as with its cobblestone streets its like taking a step back into history; not to mention it has fabulous shopping boutiques.
I love orange!! But I didn’t realize it until my mom sent me an orange blanket completely out of the blue. I folded it at the end of my bed and the bright happy colour just made me smile! That triggered a complete bedroom transformation for me and now I have a happy, colourful bedroom that I absolutely love. I also try and sneak small pops of orange or coral into other rooms in the house too.