Menu
Decor / Fall Decor

Living Room Fall Decorating Ideas

When it comes to decorating my living room, two of the most frequently asked questions I hear: What is popular this year for fall décor? And, how do I decorate my living room for fall? This may seem like an easy answer but with all the options --where do you start? Allow me break it down by showing you my living room and what I do. My hope is that you will be inspired to use this as a starting point and build off it for your own living room fall décor!

Updated July 6, 2023
Written by
0

What is popular for fall decorating?

Decorating with Dried Flowers

Warm Throw Blankets

Cozy Pillows

Artificial Pumpkins

Fall Inspired Art and Fall Wall Décor

How can I decorate my living room for fall?

Decorating with Dried Flowers

Adding dried florals such as flowers, branches, leaves, and wheat to vases, baskets, and wreaths have been very popular these last few years. By nature, dried flowers have a very earthy color palette and give off a cozy, warm and inviting feeling to any home. It’s easy to use them in a simple setting, like adding them to a vase or you can incorporate them into a more involved statement piece like a fireplace mantel. 

This year I decided to add in pampas grass to a dried leaves and acorn garland I purchased from an absolutely adorable boutique in Maple Grove, MN called The Rustic Shack. I checked their website and didn’t find the garland I purchased so I’ve provided as close to a match from Michael’s as I could find. The garland by itself was beautiful but I wanted a layered and very “full” look. To add in additional character, I placed deer antler sheds that my husband and daughter have found throughout the years within the garland. As well as finishing it off with flameless candles in various heights.

I also decorate an old vintage metal basket in my living room. This year I started with a super old wood top stool (my husband could NOT believe I paid money for this –but I’ve found SOOOO many uses for it!! #noregrets) and layered in artificial pumpkins, dried leaves (also from The Rustic Shack), and greenery stems from Hobby Lobby.

  • Amazon Pampas Grass: https://a.co/d/6Rzjgjq
  • Michael’s 6ft. Harvest Raffia Garland: https://bit.ly/3SGDFGL 
  • Amazon 9 Pack Flameless Candles with Remote: https://a.co/d/bKD8ZU6 
  • Amazon Faux Deer Antler Sheds (if you can’t get the real thing –in my opinion, these are the most realistic looking faux sheds): https://a.co/d/aN1nP5t 
  • The Rustic Shack in MN – True Story: I can’t even explain how special I felt when the owners of this boutique shop wrapped my dried leaves up in brown paper. This might sound minimal or not even something you’d consider “special” but I live very far in the boondocks and shops by me don’t do this unless the florals or greenery is real! It made my day! But their site didn’t have any available so I’ve included a link to Hobby Lobby with their dried leaves: https://bit.ly/3yn2DTr

Warm Throw Blankets

During the sunny fall days, the sunshine warms your face and can be one of the most comfortable and enjoyable times of the year. But as night falls, that warm air turns crisp and snaps of cold calls for snuggling into warm chunky knit blankets and throws at night.

We have a sectional couch in our living room so I like to add in multiple throws and blankets to allow each one us our own blanket. I often say, “to each their own” and this holds true by having multiple blankets for everyone to choose from at varying thicknesses. I’m always cold so I love thick heavy blankets, my daughter loves soft textures so her blanket tends to be furry, and my husband refuses to give up his fleece buck blanket he received 20+ years ago –so his is an old matted fleece that has lost all of its softness. (someday it’ll disappear!)

Cozy Pillows: How Many Pillows On a Couch?

How many pillows you have on your couch largely depends on the size of your couch or sectional, how many people you have in your household, and how much you want to deal with them (the pillows) on a daily basis. 

Let me explain, if you have a large living room with a large couch or sectional but only a couple of people in your home, you could have a ton of pillows to decorate with. On the other hand, if you have a large family and your large couch or sectional needs to be able to fit everyone comfortably, you may only have room for one or two.

And deciding how much you (and your family) want to deal with excess pillows on a daily basis needs to be considered as well. Do you have a spot to put the pillows when they are not in use? Are your pillows fancy that you don’t want them to be used on a daily basis? Or are you going to be constantly dealing with pillows thrown into corners or on the floor? This is a decision that only you can make.

Pillow Sizes

It’s fun to include various sizes of pillows to create different looks for your living room. It’s a general rule of thumb that you can use the back of the couch or sectional as your largest size or starting point (this is the actual couch/sectional – not an added pillow). The next pillow size should be a few inches smaller than the back of the couch or sectional. Then reduce the next size a few more inches. You can play around with sizes to create a balanced and cohesive look.

Pillow Shapes, Patterns, and Textures

I like to mix various pillow sizes, patterns, and textures on my sectional. I will often select two of the same in a shape or pattern to have a balance but the other pillows will be other textures such as fleece, faux fur, velour or patterns such as plaids, stripes, solids, or a design.

Artificial Pumpkins

Nowadays you can find artificial pumpkins in just about any color, shape, and size. And made out of just about any material imaginable: glass, wood, metal, ceramic, riffia, wool, woven, woobie, rattan, knitted, tweed… I can go on and on but I’ll stop!

The nice thing about decorating with artificial pumpkins is –there is no mess! You don’t have to worry about real pumpkins getting mushy or rotting. My mother in law always warns me about how cute the real pumpkins look until one day you notice a discoloration on your table right  under the pumpkin where an oozing gooey nastiness is rotting away the pumpkin! Ahh! I’ll take artificial pumpkins any day.

Flameless Candles

Don’t get me wrong, candles are great! They make your home smell amazing –and I’m not a baker at heart so having the smell of baked goods or pumpkin chi really brings in the full effect of fall. 

But what I’m not a fan of is: 1) kids and candles, 2) dry leafy decor next to a hot flame, 3) the residue they sometimes leave on my ceiling or nearby fixtures, and 4) well, kids and candles…they are fascinated with fire, dipping their fingers in the wax, and making a mess.

I bought my first box of flameless candles from Amazon a few years ago. It had candles of varying heights, several options for a fake flame flicker, and a remote! GAME CHANGER! The soft warm glowing flameless candles are perfect for adding to a fireplace mantle, under a cabinet, hard to reach high places, and dangerously low places where kids often reside.

This year I added multiple flameless candles to my fireplace mantle. Adding these in took it from a nice, pretty fall mantle to a glowing masterpiece! I also added a couple to a kitchen island centerpiece and to a shelf in our dining room. It’s so nice to just walk around and point the remote turning them all ON and when it’s time for bed, take another round and point the remote to turn them all OFF. There are also timer settings in 2 hour increments so I wouldn’t have to do this.

Fall Wall Décor

Creating a fall inspired living room includes finding fall inspired art, prints, wreaths, and even curtains! This can be anything from fall pictures of your family, landscapes, trees and leaves, pictures of pumpkins, fall inspired photos, and as long as it makes you think of fall –it’ll pass!

On my fireplace, I have an older family photo of my husband, daughter, and I sitting on a bench all wearing cowboy boots. It’s framed in rustic wood with an off white matte and it makes me think of fall. I also found this grid-type wood thing at on of my favorite hidden vintage shopping hotspots, Hartje’s “Cabin Shop” outside of LaValle, WI,  to find one-of-a-kind décor pieces.

And around the rest of the living room, I decided to keep the original green wreath on this vintage window frame so that it’s not too much orange. I added new orange and yellow flowers to the green stems in my three clay hanging pots and I for the first time ever –swap out my plain gray curtains with warm oranges and an orange floral inspired curtain print! Some people hang curtains and that’s what stays up all year long. And that’s fine! But I have a simple double rod and when I can find cheap and fun seasonal inspired curtains to match the room – I’m doing it! I found mine this year at Ross For Less.

If you’ve enjoyed reading this, have been inspired with ideas for your own home, and want more –please sign up for my newsletter and subscribe to my YouTube Channel. I promise I won’t spam your inbox (I can’t stand that) and I love showing you more in-depth decorating in my videos. I also explain how to DIY various home décor projects. I love decorating but I refuse to go broke doing it!

Thank you so much for spending this time with me! Let me know in the comments below if you have any questions or suggestions. I am just as inspired by you and I hope you are with me!

Our Living Room Furniture, Rug, and other Décor

Further Reading...

Dining Room Décor: When To Decorate for 4th of July

July 6, 2023
early-fall-dining-room-decor-ideas

August Decoration Ideas

August 22, 2022

No Comments

    Leave a Reply