Foolproof Fall Decorating Ideas for the Living Room

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Today we are demystifying fall decorating! Do you feel like you decorate for fall, but even after your efforts it falls flat? Learn these no-fail fall decorating ideas for the living room and create a cozy oasis for friends and family.

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Simple Building Blocks of Fall Decorating

Let’s start with the basics of fall decorating.

I find it is easiest to decorate for fall by starting with either a theme, a color palette, or both. This gives your decorating direction and narrows down your work load.

It also helps your whole home stay consistent and gives you a framework for fall decorating in every room.

1. Choose a theme.
2. Choose a color palette.
3. Narrow your shopping list based on what you already own.

Choose a Fall Related Theme

First, choose a fall related theme for your living room. Here is a non-exhaustive list of examples:

• Harvest (think hay bales, wheat, cornucopias, and scare crows)
• Halloween
• Orchard (think acorns, pears and apples)
• Fall leaves
• Pumpkins & gourds
• Sunflowers
• Hygge/Cozy (think blankets, pillows, hot drinks, candles, books or leisure items)

Pick an Autumn Color Palette

Next, pick a fall color palette.

Some of my favorite combinations include:

• Burnt orange, dark brown, plum, olive
• Deep yellow, light green, black, orange
• Burgundy, gold or copper, cream
• Orange, cinnamon, olive, black
• Pale pink, cream, deep green, brown
• Blue, orange, cream, brown
• Red, plum, green, gold, brown
• Fully neutral with cream, brown, black and a metallic accent of gold or copper

Narrow Your Fall Decorating Shopping List

Finally, narrow your shopping list.

Based on your theme or color palette, sort through what you already own for fall decor. If you need to purchase something, make a specific list of items that would help you accomplish your fall theme.

Items you might consider including:

• Fall florals (real from the store or your garden, dried or faux)
• Pumpkins
• Organic elements
• Books
• Fall textiles
• Cozy candles
• Rich metallic tones
• Architectural accents
• Coasters
• Artwork
• Family photos

Fall Decorating Ideas for the Living Room

Once you have followed the simple building blocks for fall decorating, it becomes very simple to pull together fall decorating ideas for the living room specifically.

The main components to decorating in most living rooms are:

• Walls (fall artwork)
• Coffee tables
• Console tables
• Display cabinets
• Sofas
• Side tables
• Fireplace mantels

However, my advice would be to choose 3-4 of the 7 areas to decorate for fall. Leave the other areas stripped of any season-specific decor so it doesn’t become overpowering.

Fall Decorating Ideas for Display Cabinets

My favorite way to decorate display cabinets for fall is with fall florals, pumpkins, and autumn color tone (but not fall topic related) accents.

For example, in our basement living room I’ve used overtly fall florals, simple leaf decor, and pumpkins to decorate the built in cabinet.

The rest of the space is decorated with items that aren’t overtly fall related, but have autumn tone colors like browns, olive greens, blacks and golds.

Using autumn colors, rather than overtly fall items like pumpkins, tones down the season specific decor that you need to purchase and store. Once autumn has ended, I can still use all of those items throughout the rest of the year.

Fall Decorating Ideas for Coffee, Side and Console Tables

I recently dove deep into styling coffee tables for fall, so I’ll let you browse that information at your convenience.

However, styling coffee tables for fall can be anything from one simple centerpiece, to an elaborate collection of layered trinkets.

I personally fall in the practical realm. You’ll always find these items on my fall coffee table:

• Coasters, for practicality
• Fall florals
• Coffee table book
• Candles

Fall Decorating Ideas for Walls & Mantels

Artwork can play a huge role in decorating a living room for fall.

The two best ways to display artwork are hung on a wall or hung/leaned on a fireplace.

I personally love the look of vintage style oil paintings. They are typically moody, textural and romanticized. I’ve rounded up some of my favorite options to create your own artwork with fine art prints.

Fireplace mantels can often be a tricky space to decorate for fall. My foolproof combination for fireplace mantels is:

1. Season specific artwork
2. Mirror
3. Vase of seasonal florals

When the items are grouped at varying heights, it works every time.

Fall Decorating Ideas for the Sofa/Textiles

Fall textiles are perhaps the easiest way to decorate a cozy living room for fall.

Pillows, blankets, area rugs, curtains and even tapestries are all easy swaps that can be changed with the season.

To decorate a living room sofa for fall, simply swap in 1-2 seasonal pillows amongst your everyday neutral pillows and drape a fall blanket on the arm. Done!

You can find some of my favorite fall pillow and blanket combinations in my storefront.

More Fall Decorating Ideas

I hope that these fall decorating ideas for the living room have been helpful to you!

Follow the basic framework for fall decorating. Choose 3-4 of the main areas of a living room to focus on. And then inventory what you have before shopping for new items.

If you are looking for more fall decorating ideas, make sure to check out the articles below.

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~Sarah