Getting The Attic Ready

Benvento Amici, (Welcome Friends)
As you know, the air is getting cooler. Summer has faded into a sweet memory. And we're getting the attic ready for Autumn. We're updating our inventory and looking forward to Christmas. Each month we try to send out decorating tips from Kathleen Wilson, The Budget Decorator. She has great ideas which don't seem to cost the proverbial arm and leg. She always puts a new spin on items that chances are I have lying around. Check out her tips for fall.

Fall Decorating for Every Room in Your Home

By Kathy Wilson

The Budget Decorator

The change of the seasons is a special time for home decorator’s…and Fall decorating is a great way to cozy up your home for the colder months ahead. Fall decorating doesn’t have to be just about Thanksgiving, and it doesn’t have to be limited to the main room in the home. Here are some easy and inexpensive home decorating ideas to bring the glory of Autumn’s bounty and warmth throughout your entire home.

Make branch bowers for every room in your home. Gather interesting branches from your yard or a neighbors. Curling, knarled, and colorful branches add extra character! Gather them into two bunches, and join the two bunches at the cut ends with wire to make one long swag. Wrap ribbon and tie bows around the center of the swag to hide the spot where they are wired together. Now just stick in a couple of fall dried flower bunches or fall craft berry picks and hang over mantels, over headboards, and make smaller ones for over bathroom mirrors and closet doors. Designer look, for pennies!

Gather fall leaves and press between paper towels and heavy books for several days to a week. The resulting natural beauties can be scattered over shelving, fireplace hearths, or even over your tablecloth for your first dinner party of the Autumn Season!

Pick up a roll of raffia or natural colored twisted paper from your craft shop. Layer the towels in your guest bath, then tie them with the raffia for a rustic touch. Slip in a cinnamon stick for a heavenly fragrance when company comes to visit. (Or even when they don’t! ) Use the same raffia as tiebacks on the shower curtain, front drapes, or even round throw pillows on the porch!

Pick up a grapevine wreath and soak it in hot water overnight. Clip with pruning shears, and unwind the wreath. Now wrap the wreath around a chandelier, pot rack, or porch railing for a gorgeous testament to the beauty of nature! Tuck in some dried flowers and grasses here and there for interest. When winter arrives, change out the dried flowers for evergreen sprigs!

Now is the time to start drying some of the flowers from your yard, or perhaps with permission from a neighbor. Air drying is by far the easiest way to dry flowers, but not all flowers can be air dried. Some good choices? Roses (choose them in bud) hydrangeas, grasses, yarrow, and sedums. Tie them in bunches and hang them upside down to dry, it should take a few weeks. You can even display them while they dry by securing the ends with rubber bands, them tying ribbon around the bands to cover, hang from curtain rods, pot racks, over backsplashes or create a simple rack for them from a painted board and small nails or cup hooks.

Visit your farmers markets and pick up inexpensive fruits and veges to display and eat! Squash, corn, pomegranates, apples, pears…the list goes on! Small acorn squashes, apples, and even pumpkins can be hollowed out to hold candles for evening dining. (Don’t wait for company to make your meals a celebration, but this is perhaps something the kids could help with on the weekend!) Have a bowl on your kitchen counter and even in your entry, stack squashes and pumpkins on the front porch, and make sure you make at least ONE apple pie this season!

Simple, easy, and fun to do with the family! Fall is a great season to celebrate the simple things that make life special, including time spent in our homes with our loved ones. Make memories.

Kathy Wilson is an author, columnist and editor of The Budget Decorator, Decorating Your Small Space, and Decorating Cottage Style.

We also have a new special for the month of October: Wood and Metal Autumn Wreath for just $10. And remember what we say around the attic - Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much!

Love,