I’m in love with the idea of “Harvest Decorating” as opposed to Halloween or Thanksgiving specific decor. I’ve never been particularly thematic, and I never really “get” headstones and amputated limbs as decoration. Even though Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, I’m pretty averse to slapping a giant spider on my front door and covering my windows in blood. Unless I’m into it aesthetically, I don’t want it. In getting into the spirit along with the holiday-oriented masses, I decided on alternative, yet beautiful decor that’s more “Happy Harvest” and less “On sale at the Spirit Superstore!”
Harvest time is about the weather getting cooler, the days getting shorter and family and friends coming together to share long meals and good times (or dysfunctional dinners depending on your family). Decorating with rich, spice-toned colors, along with soft, textured fabrics and pillows invites a person to snuggle up on the sofa and enjoy a glass of wine. For me, creating a space filled with gently scented candles, cut branches, generous throws, and baskets full of Fall treasures – gourds, pumpkins, acorns, or leaves – is the perfect antidote to usually overdone holiday decor. I know I’m not going to win the war against pilgrim-hat-wearing-paper-turkey aficionados – and that’s okay.
Personally I think Halloween decorating has gotten too graphic. I don’t love bloody, gory, and demented, and it’s not really fun for children to get the sh&t scared out of them by a man with a cleaver. I can guarantee if I hid in the bushes with an axe and jumped out at my neighbors on a random Wednesday, they wouldn’t like it very much. But I digress… On to pumpkins!
There are endlessly cool things you can do with pumpkins and other Fall flora. I love the idea of stacking pumpkins in the fireplace – unless you need that fire for warmth! You could mix it up by stacking it with wheat bundles, Indian corn or even filling it with potted grasses. Painting pumpkins is one of my new favorite things. It takes a bit more creativity but the results are beautiful!
A pumpkin is the de facto symbol of Halloween and yet, you can dress it up in a myriad of cool ways! Black and white argyle pumpkins are totally harlequin-Halloween to me. I mean, what’s more scary than a jester/mime? Seriously.
The above pumpkin was spray painted and the design was carved just into the skin to reveal the orange. It’s a piece of art. Way more gorgeous in my opinion than carving a football logo into it. Sorry neighbors.
The muted pastel colors of the fabric pumpkins on Martha Stewart’s blog are amazing. It’s not a color palette that works for the more traditional orange-pumpkin-people but for me, it’s a “Yes please!”
The amazing colors in this lichen-covered branch display with its unexpected florals makes an interesting, intricate, and magical Harvest arrangement. LOVE.
Even just filling a beautiful bowl with floating Fall candles makes a difference.
You can change it up a little by using materials such as burlap and linen. Their colors and textures are perfect for Fall decorating and can be purchased at any fabric store. Try bunching up a generous amount of linen loosely around the base of a terra cotta pot filled with potted grasses and surround it with tealight candles in vintage crystal goblets. Use the burlap to surround porch planters or leave it in piles and arrange pumpkins and gourds on top of it. Create Fall arrangements with clipped branches, grasses, and vines in vintage water pitchers. This year, try something different!
Happy Harvest!
Melisa
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Be creative,
