I’ve heard it said: a necklace is the least necessary item in an outfit—and the most important. Have you ever heard that? It makes sense, right?

Tchotchkes are like that, too. The right accessories personalize your home in a powerful way. What you choose to display—and how you arrange them– will create the look and feel you want to have in your home.

So, let’s say you’re all decluttered —or nearly so— and you want to decorate for the season. Maybe you gave away all the right things? Maybe what’s left is meaningful…but it’s all unrelated and sort of random. Where do you start? What do you do now?

No worries. It’s not hard. I’ll help you make sense of it. You may need to buy a few things to help fill things out— or you may not. You’ll know by the end of the blog post what to do for fall— and really, any season at all.

So, let’s decorate for fall like a minimalist, shall we?

When you think of fall, how do you feel?

Me? I love fall. It’s just so beautiful and lush. I want to hug it all!

I get excited. I long to be outside in the cool air and bright sunshine, hiking in the woods. For a long, long time, fall meant a new school year: so it always feels like a great time to start something new (like a blog!)

When you think about fall, what words come to mind?

Mine: Cosy, invigorating, exciting, energizing, inspiring, happy, abundance, new starts.

For a brief while, the trees burst with deep, saturated colours—golds, greens, oranges, mustard, and a few precious reds here and there on the prairie. I celebrate it by bringing as much as I can of it inside. I do that with little vignettes. I have two spots. The one I’m featuring today is this spot with shelves over our TV.

This sweet little vignette didn’t just happen. I followed a super simple process which I’ll take you through— and then you can easily create your own little happy spot– whatever the season!

1: Identify what about the season brings you joy.

You can do this with words and images–or just images. Whatever works for you.

If you’re more of a left brain person, think about these two questions when you think about fall:

• how do you feel? Write those words down.
• what words come to mind? Write those down, too.

See if you can find images which capture those words and feelings for you. At least, have them in mind as you browse. My favourite place for this is Pinterest.

If you’re right brained, just start with the pictures.

I look for images, generally photographs of the outdoors, to re-discover what fall means to me.

I fell in love with these:

2. Look at the colour story! (and then narrow it down).

Orange, mustard, aqua, grey, rust, flame red, green, brown. So many colours!

Too many, actually. I focused on those I particularly loved: the aqua, orange, mustard and reds. Write them down.

3. Gather

I shopped the house looking for whatever I had in these colours and brought it all together in one place.

Next, I thought about the things I wanted to bring in from outside, like pumpkins and gourds and leaves, acorns, bark and so on.

Then, and only then, I thought about shopping.

Sometimes when you declutter, you get rid of something you wish you’d kept. It happens. I, for example, love plates. Love, love decorative platters, dishes, and cute luncheon plates. When I decluttered, I got rid of a lot of them. So, I didn’t have anything that said “fall” to me, at all.

I took an afternoon and went shopping.

I brought the pictures with me –and my notes– and checked everything I liked against them. Did they have the same look and feel? Did they have the same lushness? The same sense of abundance? The last thing I wanted to do was buy a bunch of stuff that might work.

Other than the pumpkin and some gourds (which I bought at the farmer’s market): I only bought one plate. It wound up on my shelves in the living room.

That’s all I needed. When you know what you’re looking for, décor shopping can be easy.

I worked all my colours into my little vignette!

I had that beautiful platter already. I was thrilled to be able to put that gorgeous pumpkin up against it—looks just like the pumpkins in the back of that aqua truck doesn’t it? The low-lying flute case (a deeply personal object with its own backstory) on the second shelf is calming and soothing like the tranquil churchyard. It also fills that little space without being distracting. That leaf?  I found it on my recent trip to Vancouver. It adds that touch of red I crave in fall.

What to do next:

• Identify what the season means to you.
•                 Use words, or images or both
• Find the colour story
• Shop the house and the great outdoors. (just think, I don’t have to store that pumpkin!)
• Go shop for décor with your pictures, your words, or, preferably both.
• Bring it home and have some fun stylin’!

And, if you need help translating what you love into meaningful and personal décor for your home, get in touch with me. If you’re in the Edmonton area, I’d be happy to go shopping with you!  Contact me for a day of shopping and we can transform your home together in just one day!

So tell me, what do you think of when you think of fall?