Nature-Inspired Ideas for Fall Decorating

Bring fall's best accents indoors with these easy nature-inspired decorating projects.

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Simple Staircase

Fall Leaf Wall Art

Modern Leaf Art

Mushroom Wall Art

Field of Mushrooms Dresser

Naturally Savvy Storage

Seasonal Tags

Embellished Throw Pillow

Seasonally Stamped Pillowcases

Page Holder

Buttoned-Up Hand Towels

Two-Step Candle Centerpiece

Fungi Tablecloth

Fresh Table Runner

Falling Leaves Rug

Greeting Tree

So Easy Table Runner

Effortless Pumpkin Centerpiece

Homemade Acorn Wreath

A-Maize-ing Wreath

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Simple Staircase

Bring harvest flair to a staircase with bundles of ornamental grasses (available fresh at some flower shops and dried at many crafts stores).

How to Make It
-- Bunch one or more types of grasses or wheat and secure with a rubber band.
-- Tie to every other baluster with raffia.

Find a decorator or designer in your area.

Fall Leaf Wall Art

Bring the beauty of fall to your walls with felt leaf shapes.

How to Make It:
-- Buy felt leaf shapes from a crafts store.
-- Cover the back of a shadow box with scrapbook paper. Attach felt leaves to paper with glue.
-- Add a decorative stick pin and nips of ribbon to complete the look.

Modern Leaf Art

Make a work of art out of leaf silhouettes.

How to Make It:
--Create your own leaf stencil. Draw it freehand, or you can trace and actual leaf. (To enlarge the leaf, you can scan it or use a projector.)
--Cover a blank artist's canvas in a color of paint or fabric of your choice.
--Cut large leaves out of patterned fabric
-- Glue leaf cutouts to a painted or wrapped artist's canvas.

Mushroom Wall Art

Give plain walls personality with a large woodland wall display.

How to make it:
--Using mushroom stencils (available from the link below), cut out shapes on fun fabric. To enlarge the mushroom, you can scan it or use a projector.)
--Iron fabric onto fusible webbing, available at crafts and fabrics stores.
--Adhere shapes to wall using Mod Podge, available at crafts and fabrics stores.

Mushroom Stencil

Field of Mushrooms Dresser

Wake up a secondhand dresser with a magical mushroom pattern.

How to Make It:
--Paint an old dresser with a base coat of silvery blue latex paint. Let dry.
--Cut different size mushroom shapes from contact paper, click below for a stencil. Attach the shapes to the dresser in a graphic arrangement.
--Paint a second coat of bright, light green paint over the first coat.
--Carefully peel off the mushroom cutouts to reveal the shapes.

Mushroom Stencil

Naturally Savvy Storage

Turn glass storage jars and old florist vases into a set of pretty cylinders.

How to Make It:
--Print color copies of detailed seedpods, leaves, and mushrooms.
-- Curl the papers inside the glass containers.
-- Line them along a mantel or shelf for an eye-catching display.

Seasonal Tags

Add a touch of nature to a cabinet, dresser, or doorknob with these tags.

How to Make It:
--Cut out pictures or make color copies of seed heads and glue onto the back of jewelry frames (available at crafts and jewelry supply stores).
--Hang at intermittent intervals from string or twine.

Embellished Throw Pillow

Punch up a plain pillow -- and a plain room -- with a leafy design.

How to Make It:
--Start with a beige or cream-color pillow.
--Create a large foliage stencil from contact paper and attach it to the material using tape and/or straight pins.
--Spray the pillow with bright green fabrics paint. For straight, tidy lines, tape off the edges of the pillow.
--Let dry and remove stencil.

Seasonally Stamped Pillowcases

Count acorns and leaves rather than sheep as you drift off on pillowcases dressed for the season.

How to Make It
-- Buy inexpensive cotton cases at a discount store.
-- Stencil the motifs with fabric paint.
-- Follow the instructions on the paint container for setting and washing the finished design.

Page Holder

A bit of ribbon and a couple of acorns are all you need to fashion a fun homemade bookmark.

How to Make It
-- Satin ribbon offers a pleasing counterpoint to the more rustic acorn. Use a needle and coordinating sewing thread to gather the ribbon ends.
-- Attach the ribbon to the acorn stem with a dab of hot glue.
-- Hide the ribbon end with wrapped thread.

Buttoned-Up Hand Towels

Humble leaf-shape wooden buttons in the colors of fall foliage announce to your guests that autumn is your favorite season.

How to Make It
-- Stitch buttons onto purchased hand towels with matching or contrasting thread.

Two-Step Candle Centerpiece

Turn a simple votive candle into a sophisticated display by adding nature's bounty.

How to Make It
-- Set a candle in an amber glass holder and ring the outside with moss, oak leaves, acorns, and red berries.
-- Add sprigs of seeded eucalyptus (available at floral shops) for its fragrance and fresh gray-green color.

Fungi Tablecloth

Dress up a table with a playful tablecloth.

How to Make It:
--Cut a drop cloth to the desired size and hem the unfinished edges.
--Arrange mushroom stencils (available from the link below) in a random or graphic pattern and attach to the drop cloth using double-sided tape.
--Spray bright fabrics paint over the cloth, let dry, and remove stencils.

Mushroom Stencil

Fresh Table Runner

Dress up a sideboard, tabletop, or dresser with a fresh table runner.

How to Make It:
--Start with a plain, purchased table runner.
--Add a custom design with an intricately cut self-adhesive felt design from a crafts store.

Falling Leaves Rug

Take an ordinary outdoor rug from basic to awesome with a simple stencil design.

How to Make It:
--Choose an outdoor rug with a short, tight nap.
--Make your own stencil by tracing a shape onto poster board or stencil material
. --Cut out the stencil and pin or tape in place on the rug. Using good-quality outdoor paint and a small roller, roll paint over the rug.
--Remove the stencil, then reposition and repeat until you're satisfied.

Greeting Tree

Although the trees are losing their leaves outside, you can hang them back up inside for a welcoming entry display or party centerpiece.

How to Make It
-- Anchor sculptural branches (we used manzanita from a floral shop) in a decorative pot with florist's foam or rocks, and cover the top with moss.
-- Decoupage color copies of gathered leaves onto small cards and tie to the branches.
-- Ask guests to inscribe lines of their favorite seasonal poems on the backs of the cards.

Find a decorator or designer in your area.

So Easy Table Runner

You may have trouble keeping the piles of foliage outside in order, but these leaves march in perfect rows across a table runner.

How to Make It
-- Use a stencil or rubber stamp and fabric or crafts paint to decorate a plain linen cloth.
-- Keep the job easy and the rows evenly spaced by cutting nine leaf designs into one 8-1/2-x-11-inch piece of stencil paper.
-- Follow instructions on the paint container for setting and washing the finished design.

Find a decorator or designer in your area.

Effortless Pumpkin Centerpiece

A single pumpkin set in a purchased wreath made of preserved oak leaves makes a bold centerpiece for a dinner party or a charming front porch decoration. The wreath can be stored and reused next year.

Find a decorator or designer in your area.

Homemade Acorn Wreath

Greet guests at your door with an acorn-covered wreath.

How to Make It
-- Using a hot-glue gun, cover a small wire or cardboard ring with moss.
-- Add acorns to the moss-covered ring to create a miniature wreath. If necessary, secure the acorns to their caps with glue.
-- Hang in a window, from a doorknob, or on a chair back.

A-Maize-ing Wreath

Add fall flair to a plain door with a pretty wreath.

How to Make It:
--Start with a purchased twig wreath, red silk leaves, and miniature Indian corn (husks included)
--Secure leaves and corn with wire or hot glue.
--Hang and enjoy.

Nature-Inspired Ideas for Fall Decorating

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