When I went to sit down and start writing this post, I suddenly had a strong feeling of deju-vu, like I’d been here before, at this very laptop, writing almost this very post. Well, it turns out that I had, last Christmas! It looks like “I have no time to decorate, but I really want to have fun with my blogger friends do one of these pretty home tour things” is about the oldest story in the book around here. Anyway, it’s a pretty good story, and it’s still lots of fun to decorate your home for different holidays even if you only have a few free moments, so I guess just consider this one the follow-up/sequel to last Christmas’ home tour! đŸ™‚ And if you’re feeling like you might want to also see some homes where the owners had more than 5 minutes to decorate, make sure you check out all the other homes on the Canadian Blogger’s Home Tour listed at the bottom of this post!
So let’s set the tone. One of my very favorite things about our home is where it is. I love being able to just step out the back door and go for a walk down the path and out into the fields. The fields start being harvested and left empty in late summer and early fall and that makes it really easy to walk for just about forever.
I come out here for a walk with the dog at least once a day and it really helps me to clear my head and think about what my priorities are for the rest of the day. I love how when the fields have soy beans in them, they start to turn yellow even before any of the trees so it starts to look really fall-y around here even if the weather is still really warm.
Here’s the lay of the land as you turn back around and start heading back towards the house on the grass path.
Let’s head back towards the house now so we can see what’s going on inside!
I’m really not in a place in my life right now where I have any free time for playing around with decorations in my house when the seasons change, but I love seasonal decorations and that feeling of time passing with the seasons that you get when you take a moment to acknowledge it. Getting outside and looking at the changes in nature around you is one way to get a sense of that place in time, but adding a few things around the house to celebrate can really help too! And the kids like it! đŸ™‚
I just took 5 minutes here and there, maybe once every few days over the course of a couple of weeks to put some stuff out around the house that made me feel cheerfully fallish and like I’d done my part to set us up for the season ahead. Of course, big fancy decorations are awesome too, but even just little things around a room can cozy things up and boost everyone’s spirits.
So here’s the living room this season:
I honestly don’t think it’s really all that well-suited to having its picture taken right now because there isn’t really a focal point and we’re still holding off on getting a new coffee table and replacing the console table that Jack somehow managed to dismantle in the last few months since he’s been walking. BUT. It’s actually really nice and comfortable and lovely to be in this room right now with all the little reminders of fall, our favorite season, all around.
There are pumpkins, of course, that I picked up at the grocery store when I was there anyway one day. So that really took no time at all! And bonus: Jack now knows what a pumpkin is and doesn’t call them apples anymore! Education through decorating!
Baby pumpkins fit anywhere, always look cute, and are really quick and easy.
I’ve been trying to find some fall wreaths to put in my windows but I couldn’t find any that I liked so I just glued some indian corn from the grocery store to some grapevine wreaths and used those. It only took 5 minutes out of my day to make them and they actually do have that nice harvesty feel like I was looking for in a store-bought wreath.
Draping a garland and a banner over this old window frame hanging here really had a nice effect for about a 45 second investment of my time!
I don’t even remember readjusting the lamp shade as I was taking these pictures, but it seems like it’s moving in every one! Oh well. Just another little touch of imperfection around here! Moving on!
Migrating geese, roosters, weather-vanes in general, they just all give off a fallish vibe so they got to stay right where they were! What could be faster or easier than that? đŸ™‚
In the dining room, I just used some more baby pumpkins and some fake fall botanicals out of my bins in the basement, and suddenly the whole room was seasonally-appropriate!
I’m pretty sure this whole room was fixed up on one 5-minute decorating break on one day.
See the way these catch the light and actually look better with sun shining through them? That’s how you know they’re the good ones! The really cheap ones always seem to look terrible if you look at them up close. I like to grab a few branches of these good fake branches at the end of the season when they’re 90% off at the craft stores and just stick them in my basement bins for the next year. They’re really almost free at that point and they’re so easy to have on hand for a quick spruce-up!
So that’s it for the fall stuff around here this year! It was quick and fun and my house didn’t become a giant mess like it often can when you get going with the whole seasonal decorating process.
Do you have any quick fall decor tricks that help you transition your home into the new season?
Now it’s time to tour some other Canadian homes all decked out for Fall. This Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we’re giving you an exclusive tour of our homes with lots of autumn decor inspiration:
Monday, September 28
Northern Style Exposure
Tuesday, September 29
Echoes of Laughter
Wednesday, September 30
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.