Fall Decor & Mantle

Fall is my favorite. 

It's my favorite weather, my favorite smells, my favorite scenery outside. 

And all of that translates into my favorite decor. 

I love pulling out my boxes of pumpkins and sifting through vintage finds that I've tucked away each year that just scream 'fall' to me. I love wheat stalks and my dried okra pieces that my dad gave me. I love pumpkins most of all. 

So before fall even hinted within our weather, I decided boxes needed to come out and, a few weeks ago, fall graced our house :) 

I always seem to start with decorating the mantle. It's my go-to spot and I guess it's the centerpiece of the house so I always start with it. 

This year, I created a large attention-grabber piece with a few pieces of scraps from the garage and some wooden letters from Michaels. 

I'll share my pumpkin sign how-to next post and you wont' believe how simple it was! 

Since it was the focal piece, I opted for a simple set-up underneath it. I mixed my torn books, various neutral colored candlesticks & a whole mess of cute pumpkins. My wooden bead garland topped it all off for a cute, messy, eclectic kind of look. I laid the entire set up on top of this beautiful wheat inspired stalk from Hobby Lobby. It gives it such a pretty, soft fall look to it all. 

All but one of the pumpkins in this set-up were either Target Dollar spot or Dollar Tree finds over the years. 

This vintage little yellow scale is one of my all-time favorite pieces to pull out of my fall decor boxes. I love it's bright color and faded, rusty edges. 

I added touches of fall all around the house- mostly subbing out spring/summer type pieces for a pumpkin here, candlestick there. I am loving neutral colors with pops of brass & gold lately. I added pumpkins under my cloche on the entertainment center, added a vintage milk jar and a sweet little wooden sign. 

This yellow leaf pillow was one of my very first DIY projects years ago. It's a placement from the Dollar Tree I believe and it's stuck around :) 

I love the yellow color so much. 

The black and white pumpkins were an impulse buy at Target a few weeks ago. Not sure exactly why I had to have them, other than they are buffalo check and I'm obsessed. But then I quickly realized how little black & white I have in my house- haha! 

I set Little Miss up with a canvas and some fall colors and asked her to make me a fall painting :) 

So now her art is part of my fall set-up too which makes me super happy! 

This vintage-styled mantle sits over my mint foyer table and is a statement all in itself. 

I love piling all the gorgeous, neutral colored, weather pieces I can find onto it. 

They just seem at home here. 

The piece in the middle is a random assortment of weather weathered wood with chicken wire stapled to the back. It's my favorite wreath/frame/sign holder ever. Flanked by two huge white shutters I dragged from the attic and slapped white paint on. 

Baby shutters, more candlesticks, my Target clearance mirror and... pumpkins... fill in the gaps. My other most favorite antique find is that cute little post office box cover. It's a treat to unwrap each year in fall. 

This cute little letter board was a recent Target dollar spot find. I opted to add Scrabble letters rather than the chipboard ones it came with and I'm loving it. 

Pumpkins & metallics win again here. 

My DIY pumpkin basket (you can read the transformation here) made the perfect table centerpiece. It's filled with faux pumpkins and flanked by dried okra stalks and brass candlesticks. Weather wood planks make a make-shift tray for it all to sit on. 

I kept most of the same set-up on the sideboard that was there for spring/summer but, again, pumpkins came to the rescue. I arranged them on top of the candlesticks/platters and traded out a framed print with the birdcage filled with books. 

I feel like I went simpler this year than I have in other years... I'm loving the use of vintage pieces tucked in with pumpkins as a pretty tribute to the season I love so much. I focused on the pieces that truly bring my joy and let the pumpkins fill in the gaps :) 

I hope everyone is enjoying the fall season so far. We are anticipating fun holidays coming up and a big wedding in our family soon. So excited to soak in more fall memories as the weeks go by. Love all of you and I'll be back soon with a fun tutorial on that pumpkin sign!!

See you soon :)