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!!

Do you enjoy decorating pumpkins or decorating with pumpkins for Fall? If you do, then this post is for you. I’ve got a round-up of various ways you could decorate pumpkins for Fall and use them for decorating your home. You are in for a treat!! I call it “The Great Pumpkin Decor Parade” because there are so many lovely and unique ideas all in one place.

Recently, I posted a quick tutorial of how I painted pumpkins white and added a bit of jute twine around the stems to complete the look. You can find this post here . They were so easy to make and the look could be customized in any way to suit One’s taste. But as I was considering Fall decor ideas, I thought of pumpkins. As you already know, there are tons and tons of ideas out there. Real or faux the possibilities are endless when it comes to using them in Fall decor. I thought it would be fun to see how others use them for their own decorating and share some of them with you. Check them out – each one is so unique. All photo credits belong to each person linked below. Enjoy!!

Esy DIY Pumpkin – An Alli Event

Fall Burlap Wreath – An Alli Event

Farmhouse Style Fabric Pumpkins – Making it in the Mountains

Shabby Chic Pumpkins – Making it in the Mountains

Kid Made Pumpkin Decor – Me and my Inklings

Fall Sugar Mold Pumpkin Decor – The Hamby Home

Candy Corn Ruffled Felt – Where the Smiles Have Been

Shabby Chic Happy Fall Pumpkin Door Hanger: My Girly Gourd – Where the Smiles Have Been

Hand Painted White & Copper Pumpkin – Phoenix Mom Blog

Five Minute Monogrammed Pumpkin – Salvaged Sister and Mister

House Numbers Pumpkin Topiary – At the Picket Fence

Cookie Jar Pumpkin Vase – Exquisitely Unremarkable

Puzzle Piece Pumpkin – Exquisitely Remarkable

Metal Ribbon Pumpkins – High Style Restyle

Faux Mercury Glass Foam Pumpkins – High Style Restyle

Fence Board Pumpkins – Marty’s Musings

DIY White Pumpkin Fall Wreath – Paint Yourself a Smile

How to Make Easy Sew Fabric Pumpkins – Craftivity Designs

Wooden Pumpkin Fall Sign – The Kolb Corner

French Western Pumpkins – At Home with Jemma

Duct Tape Pumpkin – The Magic Brush Inc

Easy Fabric Pumpkins for Fall – Kreativk

Easy Fabric Pumpkins – Sweet Things

Styrofoam Pumpkin Makeover – Intelligent Domestications

Farmhouse Style Fall Tablescape – Intelligent Domestications

Wow, so much pumpkin inspiration! There are tons more but of course I had to stop somewhere. So thank you to all those lovely pumpkin decorators who allowed me to showcase their pumpkins for Fall. Hope you had fun scrolling through and seeing these different styles of pumpkins all in one place.

What do you think about all these pumpkin ideas? Do you enjoy using pumpkins in your Fall decor? I would love to know your thoughts in the comments!!

I made this colorful playroom sign for our kids play area and I am really loving how it turned out. It was so easy to make, too.

Bright bold letters on white background – I couldn’t be happier. I kind of want to be a kid again just for that sign!

In the past, I have been wanting to get some of the bigger sizes of these wooden letters (following image) to hang somewhere where the kids played. But we did not have the space separated for this. Now that the kids have a separate room to play, I thought it would be perfect to hang the letters. I could not find all the letters to spell P. L. A. Y in the larger size so I opted for the smaller ones (I am doing another post soon with what I used the larger ones for). The one problem though is that the smaller letters only came in red and black.

Have no fear, paint to the rescue! A couple coats in different colors and my letters were as colorful as I wanted them to be!! I used folk-Art Acrylic paint for the letters – not regular kids acrylic paint. One of the first things I did when we moved was restock my paint stash for when inspiration hits.

Once the letters were dried, I glued them with gorilla glue unto a piece of shiplap wood. Like I mentioned earlier, I would have preferred to hang the letters by themselves if I had found all the letters I needed in the larger size. But when that idea failed, I decided to glue them unto the wood so they would stand out a bit more.

Originally, I purchased the wood as a memo board on clearance for like less than $5. It had no words and I did not really know what I would use it for. At one point, I attached clothes pins and hang the kids photos on it. And then I made a sign out of it for our bedroom. Remember this DIY coastal sign? Since we moved, I have not hang it back up so I thought it would be great to use for another project.

I’m telling you , paint transforms anything! Don’t you love the power of paint?! I sure do!!I used chalk paint (Rust Oleum Linen White) for the wood. Generally, there is no sanding required to use the chalk paint but I had to sand a little to remove the previous painted wording.

Just as a recap and to make the instructions easier here is what to do.

Materials needed:

• Wooden letters in preferred size (s)
• A piece of wood (board) large enough to create the sign
• Wood glue or Gorilla glue
• Paint if necessary
• Picture hooks to attach to the back of the sign if you are going to hang it (or if the wood does not already have hanging hooks).

What to do:

• Paint letters and wood and let them dry if they are not in the color you want (be sure to use a contrasting background color on the wood).
• Glue the letters unto the wood – line them up nicely.
• Attach hanging picture hooks at the back, if needed
• Display sign where-ever you wish.

I have an upcoming post about how I organized the entire room and this sign is definitely one of my favorite pieces in the room. Stay tuned!!

So what do you think? Do you have kids area that could use a little sprucing up with something like this sign? I would love to know your thoughts in the comments.

When I created our dinning room space a few weeks ago, one of the things I wanted to include was a hanging plate wall. I always love seeing plate walls and I am pretty satisfied with how this one turned out.

My overall dinning room decor is simple, with just a few touches of summer. But I love walking into it and savoring the simplicity. My family loves it just as much as I do. Adding the plate wall is definitely one my favorite DIY wall projects of this space (aka the only DIY of the space).

I know there are so many fabulous plate walls out there with all kinds of fancy plates and antiques. While I love seeing those, I decided to stick with the simple to see how it would turn out before trying anything else. I think this was the best decision for this project. And did I tell you how easy this was to create? You would not believe it! Seriously, this took me about 20 minutes or less.

How to Create a Simple No Nail Hanging Plate Wall

First, I picked up some simple Porcelain plates of two different shapes and in various sizes. I went with plain white to contrast the colors of the orange wall.

I did not want to put too many holes in the walls so I searched around on Pinterest to see what others were using to hang their plates. I found some options but then my husband came across these damage-free hanging command strips for hanging pictures. When I saw that these could hold up to 4 lbs (and they come in various sizes depending on the weight of your items), I figured they probably would work well for some light weight plates. And they sure did! It has been almost a month since I made the wall and not one plate has fallen down.     

The command strips are two sided with tape on one side and Velcro on the other. The Velcro is pretty sturdy which really works well to keep the plates. 

Note: According to the package, it says “damage-free hanging” so I am hoping for the best. I did try removing one strip after a few weeks to see if the paint would peel off. A tiny bit did chip off indeed. Could it be that I removed it too fast? Not sure.

I did not get very clear images, but here is a shot of the back of the strips (if you have  not worked with command before). The backs are sticky once the tapes are removed.

To use this for hanging pictures (or plates), I placed two strips together on the Velcro side and pressed them until they clicked (per the instructions on the package). The clicking sound means it is now safe for hanging.

Then I removed the tape on the back of one piece of strip to reveal the sticky part. I then pressed the sticky back firmly on the back of a plate. Once it is firm, remove the opposite sticky back that is facing upward (as shown in the picture) and press it firmly on the wall.

Note: Once the strips were attached to the plates, I started to let them wait a while before hanging for fear that they might come off. But there was no need for to wait as these command strips are pretty firm. 

The wall was so easy to create and I actually did not plan out where I would put the plates. If I get motivated, I may rearrange them for an even more un-even look and maybe add in a few fancy plates. We’ll see.

Overall, I love the addition of the plates to the room and the pop they add to the orange wall. Even more so, I am happy to have something separate for dinning away from the breakfast nook every now and again. 

What do you think of this simple plate wall? Do you have one somewhere in your home? How long did it take you to create? I would love to hear about it in the comments!