I love home and I love making it cozy. In the Fall, when the air starts turning chilly, I immediately start thinking about how I will add coziness and warmth to every area in our home. One of the comments I get from readers is that my home seems so cozy. So, I was recently inspired by Douglas Elliman Real Estate in Sunshine Florida to showcase how I warmed up for the colder months. I thought this would be the perfect time to share more of this subject with you. If you are not aware of Douglas Elliman, they are the fourth largest real estate firm within the US, with offices extended to forty-three countries across the globe. I’d say that is huge.

This post is so fitting for me. As a tropical girl, I always want to be warm and cozy. I have gotten used to the weather changes here in the Midwest and I do enjoy it. (The Fall is just so beautiful). But I learned some things that seem to work well to keep our home warm and cozy during the colder months. And I am sharing five of my favorite with you today. Last year, I shared a similar post where I talked about 6 Ways to Welcome Fall into your Homes. It was a very popular post. You can find it here if you are interested. 

1. Adding Soft Blankets, Throws, Fleece and Quilts 

Nothing says cozy than a soft blanket thrown over a chair. It is warm and inviting and is truly a necessity in the Fall and Winter. I keep lots of them in various places throughout our home. All the kids have blankets of their own, too. Our five year old thinks it is the best thing to crawl under a blanket and get cozy. I have to agree, since most of the times that is exactly what I want to do. I might have gotten myself one of the softest blankets last year. I found it at Ross dress store and let me tell you, I love that blanket.

Last winter, it was my go-to blanket that I used to crawl up on the couch to type or to watch holiday movies when our kids took naps. I brought it up into our bedroom and love it on my bed. Talk about soft. One cannot go wrong with soft blankets, throws, quilts, etc during these colder season. I even extended my blanket reach beyond inside the home and into our car and van for the kids. It is something I have done since our first kid. They love to cover up with their blankets in their car seats to stay nice and toasty when we are out and about during the colder months. On occasion, you can find me doing the same thing while my husband is driving.

2. Layering with Rugs and Floor Mats

If you have hardwood floors, you know how cold they could be during the colder months. Have you ever gotten out of bed in the early morning and stepped on cold hardwood floors? I have in our previous home. Occasionally, the temps dropped way down during the night and everything got so cold. That’s when the rugs came in handy. I know it may not be ideal to layer all over your home if all it has is hardwood floors. Choose the areas that are heavily trafficked and add a rug or two. Your feet will thank you.

By the way, if you have small kids who are constantly on the floor, I’d say go for it. They definitely will need that extra padding and warmth in their play area. And if you don’t have hardwood floors, rugs and mats are still great to have when it gets colder. They will add that extra cozy feel that just seems to go hand in hand with Fall and winter. The rug shown is one I bought last Fall for our previous home. The living room was laid with hardwood floors and I really needed to warm up the space during the cooler months. We also had a little crawler on hand. Currently, we don’t have hardwood floors but I still love laying with this rug over the carpet in the living room. In fact, I might have kept it out every season. 

3. Adding Throw pillows

Throw pillows are great for changing the look of a room. Instantly! They really are easy decorative accents. If you find the right ones, of course. And they will add that extra coziness and warmth while providing support and comfort while laying down. So they are decorative and quite functional at the same time.

Currently, I think I have too many of them!! I have a ton of navy blues, whites, and gold, and the kids have their own purple, pink, and blue. I brought in some gold during the Fall. But now I am considering investing in a few pillow covers to change them out. The gold is nice but not sure I like it against our already oh so colorful living room. But adding a couple throw pillows is always a great way to transform a room and make it look cozy. Only a few will do. No need for a chair full and no place to sit. My couch looks filled with pillows now but I have moved the pillows to make room for sitting. 

4. Adding Indoor Heat (apart from heating and insulating)

• Lighting the Fireplace Occasionally 

Adjusting the thermometer for indoor heating and insulation during colder months is a given. But other times, the gentle glow of a lighted fireplace brings such a wonderful feeling. I love it so. Basically, if I could have the fireplace on for a few minutes every day during Fall and winter, it would be nice. We have to watch the gas and energy bills so turning it on daily is not the most practical. But it is always nice to bring in some fireplace warmth on a chilly night. The kids love to put on PJs and get all snuggly while watching the glow and getting warmed up. And we may or may not make some s’mores in the process.

• Lighting Candles

I love having lit candles at home during the Fall whether they are scented or not. They add such ambiance to a space and really makes it so warm and inviting. 

5. Adding Window Curtains 

Curtains are a great way to add privacy and warmth to a room and make it feel cozy. I love the look of curtains. Remember my curtain story I shared here a few weeks ago? I really do feel that they complete a room but that’s my opinion. When we moved here during the summer we ended up with so many more windows than we could imagine. I knew that I wanted to add some curtains once the weather got cooler. I did just that a few weeks ago.

I chose curtains that are lighter as opposed to the heavier block-out type that is probably more “cold weather friendly”. Talk about keeping out that extra cold draft. All the windows have blinds so that’s a plus. But I wanted to keep the rooms bright and airy and still have that bit of sunshine peeking through the windows. It is something I have come to appreciate. In the Caribbean, opened windows are just the thing!! 

So these are five of my favorite ways to add warmth and cozy to our home during the colder months. What are some of your favorites? Would love to hear about them. 

Gold dipped vases are an easy way to add a touch of class to clear glass vases. They only require a few minutes to do and is less pricier.

The good things about these are that the design and the color could be customized to one’s own liking. I love that they could be used for seasonal as well as for everyday decor. My vases are from the Dollar Tree. It is the one item from the Dollar tree that I like to have on hand seasonally. The sizes and style do vary. 

Gold dipped vases are so easy to make. Although, these were not technically dipped in paint. They were sprayed but they carry the same idea as vases that were dipped in paint.

This is how to make them. What you will need:

• clear vases
• spray paint (color of choice)
• painters tape
• scissors
• scrap paper

Make sure the glasses are clean and dry. These are pretty new (I bought them earlier this Fall). But I have used them for another reason before deciding to paint them.

Decide where you want to add the paint. Use painters tape to section out the part that you want painted or to cover up the spot that you do not want painted.  

Cover it all the way around. Smooth the tape out. Painters tape can easily be re-positioned so if it does not look right, then remove it and replace.

I had some gold spray paint lying around. I love this Rust-Oleum brand and always seem to get it whenever I am purchasing spray paint.

Layer the scrap paper in a well ventilated area, I went outside. Hold each vase over the paper then apply paint according to the directions on the spray paint can. If you are spraying the lower end of the vase, it’s OK if some of it gets to the bottom. You can remove it or cover the entire bottom with spray. You can see my tag on this one still on there. I’m bad at leaving tags on things like these. But once you are satisfied with how the paint looks, let the vases dry. Add another coat of paint if desired.

This one looked a little rough in the beginning because I sprayed too much. I removed most of it quickly with a wet rag then sprayed it again. I did three vases and did not have that problem with the other two. Once it was dried though it looked pretty OK.

I love the finished product of the vases. The gold really does add a nice accent to them. And they can be used anywhere in the home.

Add flowers (real or faux), rocks, shells, pinecones, acorns, any kind of decorative element that goes in a vase, and they will look very nice. And now my Dollar Tree vases do not look so Dollar Tree anymore (at least I don’t think so–). They are a bit more fancy, chic (as they say) and more stylish. And I am really linking them.

Not quite sure exactly where I want to use them yet. But you can see how I used them here on our Fall table setting in the photo below. Post here. There are many little areas in this house to be decorated and I am still playing around with ideas. 

Again, this is a very inexpensive way to upscale and customize decor. The design could be changed out to suit one’s tastes too such as adding more lines to create a stripped look horizontally or vertically.  

What do you think? Easy enough? Have you dipped or sprayed part of a vase in paint like these before? Let’s here it!!

I love a pretty table and enjoy having a separate dinning table to dress it up for the seasons or just because. My family enjoys sitting at the formal dining table occasionally for big meals as much as I enjoy setting the table.

Today I am sharing with you our Fall Table Setting and How I Created it Frugally. It took me a while to figure out what I actually want to use on the table. There are so many options. After playing around with a few ideas for weeks, in just a few minutes one afternoon, I thrashed all ideas and created this frugal table.

As you already know, my paint colors are not so friendly to me in pictures. But we work with what we have and try to make the best of it. In addition, there is not much furniture in the dinning room except the table and chairs. Although, I think it would be nice to have a buffet or something related to fill the space. But for now, a pretty table is good enough. We have some tall brown bookshelves sitting unused in our garage that I have though of binning in here on multiple occasions. But because they are very tall, they need to be secured to the wall to keep from tipping over. We really do not want to add brackets to the walls, so for now, our bookshelves are unused.

Anyway, back to the table. I decided to do a soup and salad inspired table setting and used dried elements for decorating. Why dry? We don’t eat in the dinning room everyday – we use our breakfast nook. We used the dinning room more on Sundays and on holidays. So while it would be pretty to have real fruit or so on the table, I imagined having to change them out frequently. I feel like the dried elements will keep for a little while longer. If we were going to use the table right away, then the real fruit or bushes would definitely be a great addition.

So here is how I set our table frugally and I know you can do one too. I understand it is very difficult in today’s world of visuals not to want to follow what everyone else is doing. But that is not always the way to happiness. I am learning that seasonal table setting does not always mean purchasing new items.

1.  I began by laying a table running in the middle of the table. It was one I purchased from At Home stores to include in my Fall home tour but I never got around to showing the table. I know I just said a table setting does not necessarily require all new items. The only thing really new specific for the table is the runner. I did not have a table cloth or runner and had no extra linen lying around to make one. So I ended up purchasing this one around $10 which was a super awesome steal.  If you have extra linen and want to make an easy runner, my friend Alli has an easy tutorial. And while you are there, check out her Fall home tour – it is fabulous!!

2. I used a simple centerpiece. I had some left over faux hydrangeas, pine cones, acorns, and clear vases and I decided to put them altogether for a simple centerpiece. My clear vases are Dollar Tree inspired and I spray painted the bottom of two with gold spray paint for an up-cycled look. You may have heard me mention that I am selective about Dollar Tree decor because they tend not to last as long. But there are some things that hold their weight. Their line of clear vases always gets me. Each season, I pick up around 3 to 5 of them in different shapes to display seasonal decor. When the season is over, I get rid of them and need them back! So, Dollar Vases, I’m keeping you.

3. I used our regular dinnerware. We invested in them from IKEA about 3 years ago and they are still going strong. Would I have loved to have something different? Yes, but I don’t have a fancy storage cabinet to display dishes. It would be fun to have one. I only keep our everyday and one other set which is also white with gold rim. And because the ideas behind this Fall table setting is soup and salad inspired, I chose to use bowls rather than regular pates.  The idea of a cozy Fall soup sounds good to me.

4. I used our everyday silverware. We have enough to keep some extras on the dinning table until we need them there. They are also from IKEA. Our champagne glasses are from my wedding stash.

5. I added napkins that I have owned for a few years now. I have a set of blue, brown, and white. I chose to go with the blue to compliment our overall Fall home decor colors.

6. Pine cones are used as place cards. They are not really “place cards” in their true sense but I love adding one to each bowl. The placemats were also part of what I already had.

7. And because a pretty table deserve some pretty wall decor to compliment, I added a bit of decor to the surrounding walls. I pretty much used what I had on hand. I picked up this chalkboard from Kohl’s a while ago during their clearance for around $10.

And my clock came from Kohl’s too for around $7. It was green but since I don’t really own green decor, I painted it white.

8. I used printables. For this side of the walls, I could not figure out what to use and thought of leaving it blank. But I had these printables I made sometime in August and some extra picture frames hanging around. That was my instant decor for these spaces.

You can find the link to download the Harvest Blessings printable here. I love how simple it is and how well it depicts all the bountifulness of Fall.

And the All About Fall printable states a few Fall related happenings. Find the link to download it here. I love creating these printables and sharing them with my readers.

9. I re-used window curtains. These were brought down from another room that does not really need them. They are still not at the length I would like them to be but for now, they are in here.

10. A soft blanket is thrown over one seat for good looks and to add a bit of cozy to the room. I love one simple blanket could add that ‘touch’ to any room.

The plate wall was an addition I made earlier this summer. This post can be found here.

All in all, I really love how this setting turned out. It is so fun to walk past the door and look in there. My husband gave me the thumbs up in the few minutes I took to create this. Of course, I had to ask his opinion on how it looked. Also, the kids always think it is time to eat in the dinning room once the table is set. We do eat in there and reset the table when we are done but like I mentioned earlier, it is not an everyday event. But for around $10 bucks and 10 frugal steps later, our Fall table and dinning room is set and we are loving it.

What do you think of it? Do you have a separate dinning table that you love to dress up during the seasons or just because? I would love to hear about it in the comments.

Thank you to At Home stores for partnering with us for this year’s Fall tour of homes. #MyReason 

Hi friends, hope you are enjoying the beginning of Fall. It certainly has been much cooler around here these past few days. I have been busy adding touches of Fall and coziness to our home. And today, I am opening up my home to you to show you what I have done. I have also teamed up with a group of fabulous ladies who are ready to show you their homes. Be sure to stop by to tour their lovely homes and find tons of inspirations for your own homes.

Before you keep touring, let me be honest with you. While I absolutely love sharing my seasonal home with you, this year it is a bit different.  I am excited yet I am feeling a bit vulnerable. You see, a few things happened along the makings of  this Fall home that almost made me did not want to share it. Read on to find out what they were.

We sold our home a few months ago and moved into a rental. I shared some of the reasons why we chose this direction in this post. Apart from the horrible multi-colored paint colors, it is taking me longer to get the house put together than expected. Moving is hard in itself, along with keeping up with everything else. Plus finding things that you actually love (furniture and decor) tends to take a while. But I was beginning to get bored with a “boring” space. I think my kids were kind of getting that feeling a bit, too. Yes, I enjoyed the simplicity of lots of free space and not too much decor for a few months, but I had to do something. Especially since it is Fall, I wanted to get going to add some cozy. But this home still has a long way to go.  

Within the makings of this post, my computer dropped and suffered some internal damage. Needless to say, I have been out of my laptop for over five days now – it is in the shop. Thanks to my husband who let me borrow his work laptop so I could type this post. But all my files are on my computer (hopefully still) so it is not the same as using someone else’s computer. Not to mention, both my husband and I were scrambling to share his laptop this weekend because he also needed to get work done for his job.

In addition to being out of my laptop, I was out of my normal photo editing app. A few months ago, I decided to upgrade to something better than I was using before for general photo editing. My photos are not as crisp as I hoped for you today. I wanted to share my dinning room but the lighting is not very good and because it has been raining almost all week, my photos did not turn out so well either. There are lost more that I could share because it is like the odds were against me for this post and almost made me loose all the excitement. I will spare you the rest so you would not lose your excitement, too. I have pressed on and added a bit of decor to our family room and a couple areas around it. There are still lots of rooms waiting to get their makeovers but those will have to wait. I am planning to share the rest of our porch and dinning room once I have my computer back. (Find my tutorial for the lovely blue and gold monogrammed pumpkin wreath here). I am hoping you will be able to look past my mishaps and enjoy today’s tour. Shall we?

I added some Fall decor in various places of the entryway.

My colors for this year revolves around soft blues and gold. I got my inspiration to use gold when I went to At Home stores and saw their fabulous line of gold and white Fall selection. And then I got back home and realized that I had tons of little blue items stored away that I could bring in the mix. There are also a few orange pumpkins and subtle hints of pinks. My girls love anything pink and has been inspiring me to use it more and more in our decor. But we kept orange and yellow at minimum because as you can see, the WHOLE house is ORANGE and YELLOW. Well not all, but most of downstairs. Seriously, if this was not a rental, I would have repainted this long time!!

Gold throw pillows, a blanket or two, blue gold pumpkins, gold white and grey pumpkins, pedestal candle stands, hydrangeas, vases, floor mats, grapevine wreath and a couple other nick-nacks from At Home stores helped pull the space together. And because I have always been a lover of shopping at that store, you may also see a bunch of other items that I previously owned from there. It is one of my favorite stores to shop for home decor items because I find the products well made and so very affordable. I am not just saying this – I have been shopping with At Home stores since before I started partnering with them. I have never given or thrown away a piece of item that I bought from them yet.

The mantel got a makeover to match the overall feel and color scheme of the family room. You can see my early mantel post here.

This is the other side of the room leading into the kitchen. It is one big opened space.

My kids fish made it to the tour. They do a better job at taking care of it.

A few weeks ago, I made this easy pantry sign to fill this space. You can find the post here.

You might be able to tell that I like tall decorative things – bottles, candle stands and pedestal decorative things. All things elegantly tall!!

Here is a small office area in the kitchen. Although I have another office desk in the kids playroom, this area here is where I will sit and catch up on an email or two during the day or get something done quickly if I need to.

Despite all the obstacles, I am glad to have a couple spaces that feel somewhat put together. On those cold and chilly Autumn days, our family can have a place of cozy and warmth and spaces that we can actually look forward to enjoying. The kids love to cuddle up and have us read seasonal books to them. We love to chill out and play games or drink hot drinks. Having a cozy decorated home makes all these so much better during the Fall. I feel I can relax and do more with them now that the space is put together.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed today’s tour and you will take a minute to stop by and check out the homes of my lovely creatives.                                                                                                               

                                                                                         At Home with Zan                                                    

                                       Making Joy And Pretty Things                                               

An Alli Event

                                              Restyle It Wright                                                      

                                             Intelligent Domestications                                            

 The Road To Domestication

                                                Thrifty To Nifty                                                           

                                                    Craftivity Designs                                                        

   Sunshine And Munchkins

When we moved into this house, one of the things I was concerned about is adding nails in the walls. I know it may seem like a small thing to some but a girl’s got to be able to have some freedom to decorate right? So far, I have not added much as I am still figuring out where and what I actually want to add. But that blank space over the pantry was calling for something. I wanted to add some kind of sign but was not sure what I wanted it to say – market, grocery, pantry, etc. Eventually, I decided to stick to the real word and create an easy ‘pantry’ sign to hang above it.

Here was my blank wall. Doesn’t it look like it needed something there? 

I used a re-purposed sign and painted over it. Then printed out the word ‘pantry’ in Microsoft to write on the panted wood. You can find a similar full tutorial here. Total cost for this project was zero as I already had everything on hand . Well of course, I had to buy them at some point but you get the idea.

I could not wait to fill that blank space once I was satisfied with the look. It is the perfect size – not too large and not too tiny. It is an easy update to the space and that blank wall is not staring at me every time I’m the kitchen. 

I am realizing that small home updates do not have to cost a fortune. Would it have been easy to go find a sign at a store? Maybe so and maybe not. Sometimes trying to find the right item at the right sore takes a while. I saved money and time by creating this simple one.

What do you think? Was this an easy enough addition that even you could do? I would love to know your thoughts in the comments! 

One of the ways I like to introduce a new season in our home is by changing up the mantel decor. Because it is usually the focal point of a room, it makes sense that it gets done first. Of course, everyone’s style is different and some may choose to leave things as they are. But I do find the possibilities of decorating a mantel endless and find a bit of joy in changing it up seasonally.

My kids are always asking “When is Fall” or “Is Fall here yet” because they are too little to understand the times of the seasons. To help them gain some kind of understanding as to when Fall begins I decided to bring Fall to our fireplace mantel. I call it an Early Fall Mantel because I most likely will tweak it as the season continues. 

This post is part of my monthly inspiration collaboration with At Home stores. You can find so many lovely affordable seasonal and anytime decor by checking out their products here. There is also a giveaway at the end of this post so be sure to leave a meaningful comment to be entered. 

My base decorations for this early Fall fireplace mantel are Fall foliage and pumpkins. After all, these are the staples used for Fall decorating right? I used faux Fall foliage because I have not seen much of the pretty changing real foliage yet. The pumpkins are a mix of real and faux. I was able to find a few real pumpkins to mix in with the faux.

While the colors of the mantel is already painted in typical Fall colors (not by choice), I wanted to still keep the orange color scheme with the decor. Because let’s face it, the kids associate a pumpkin with orange more than any other color. Remember one of the key reasons for the way the mantle is decorated at this point is to help little minds understand when the season begins. But don’t worry, I have a few other uncommon shades of pumpkins that I may use as I eventually switch things up.

It took some playing around to get it to look right. Because like I mentioned earlier, the possibilities of mantel decorating are endless. And the paint colors were not helping the situation either. But I am glad it all came together.

At the bottom of the fireplace I used a big faux pumpkin and a simple large jar with more Fall foliage. And of course, a big basket of blankets because Fall calls for it. Can’t have too many blankets out during the Fall. 

Can we talk about this beauty of an accent chair for a minute? It looks like the perfect spot to curl up in front of the fireplace with a cozy throw and a good book. My kids love climbing on it and getting cozy.

Check out some of the deets; I am really in love and want to have a few of them!! 

A cozy throw blanket and a beautiful throw pillow completes the look. Notice the basket of blankets is strategically placed right next to the chair. Talk about getting cozy you all!!

Unfortunately, the paint colors in the room coupled with some of the lighting do not seem to cooperate well from this angle. But you can see a full shot of what it looks like in this image. So that is how it is decorated for this beginning of Fall – clean and simple with just the right touches to bring early Fall indoors.

Want to see how I am decorating some other rooms in our home for Fall and how I may switch things up on the mantel? Join me and some other wonderful ladies as we open our homes to you for the season and talk about our reason for decorating for the holidays.

How do you introduce early Fall into your homes? What is your reason to decorate for the season? Leave a comment letting me know your reason and you could be one of two winners of $25 to get your own Fall decor from At Home stores. Or pop on over to my Instagram page and follow the instructions there to enter. Note that winners must be able to use the gift cards in an actual brick and mortar At Home store since online purchases are unavailable. Be sure to share your awesome Fall decor with us and use #MyReason to decorate so we could find your photos!!