Your Fall Decorating Checklist

Much as the return of migrating robins is often thought of as a harbinger of a coming spring, the reappearance of pumpkin spice lattes—and the seemingly endless social media posts about them—heralds the imminent arrival of fall. Suddenly, your bright spring and summer decor may start to seem a bit stale. If you’re looking to update your home’s look for the new season, this fall checklist will get those decorating ideas flowing.

Spruce up your exterior. Maintain your curb appeal by updating your summer plants with ones more suited to the cooler temperatures of fall. If you keep a vegetable garden, plan which cool-season veggies you want to grow, and learn when you need to get them in the ground for an optimal harvest. Also, don’t forget to give a little TLC to your front door; it’s the one part of your house that literally every visitor will get to experience. Make that experience an inviting one by adding a wreath or plants to line the walkway or front steps.

Prepare for outdoor entertainment. Fall is a fantastic time to take advantage of outdoor living spaces as the weather cools and the humidity subsides. Add throws and pillows to your outdoor furniture to keep yourself and your guests comfortable, and make sure your outdoor fireplace or fire pit is ready for action to keep things toasty as fall progresses.

Switch to a fall palette. Earth tones are most strongly associated with fall, and including them throughout your home is an easy way to make it feel more like autumn. Curtains, bed linens, centerpieces, and more can all be updated with the browns, oranges, and reds typically associated with the season.

Update the guest room. The arrival of fall brings the holiday season following closely on its heels. For many, that brings with it an increase in houseguests. Freshen up your guest room by restocking it with amenities, season-appropriate linens, and other small touches to make your guests feel at home. They may not be impressed if it looks like the room hasn’t been tended to in months.

Use natural accents. It’s practically a cliché now, but one of the common pieces of advice about decorating is to bring the outdoors in. Fall seems especially well suited to this advice since the earthy tones most often associated with autumn—the varying shades of fall foliage—can be easily incorporated into your home’s decor. You can even find elements in your own backyard that can be used in projects like pressed-leaf art, centerpieces using plant branches, and more.

Embrace the pumpkin. You knew it was coming. Be honest—what would fall be without pumpkins? This gourd has firmly ensconced itself as a central element of the trappings of fall. As such, it should come as no surprise that there is a seemingly endless variety of options when it comes to pumpkin decor, including using them to create votive candles, vases, table settings, porch liners, and “mumkins,” to name a few. If you want to try something different, white pumpkins can be striking substitutes for their traditional brethren.

As summer rides off into the sunset, there’s still plenty to be excited about, and updating your home’s decor with this fall checklist will help you make the most of the crisp mornings and evenings soon to come.