Fall Archives - Graceful Order

Fall Home Tour

November 20, 2016 · by Maria · 2 Comments

Last week, I shared my Thanksgiving Table (Thanksgiving is in 4 days – Ahhh!) and I also slipped a little “fall” into the rest of our home and I promised that I would share those pictures, too.

Starting with our living room, below. This is a no-one-sits-there-room and therefore the couch has managed to be this color for years. It’s not that the boys aren’t allowed to sit here, it’s just that we rarely do, because all the fun is in the family room. The only thing that I added here was the throw and the pillow, which usually resides in our master bedroom. I also changed out the greenery in the tall gold vase for some brown and orange stems. The gold vase was originally an inexpensive IKEA vase that I spray painted. Remember my post about the year that I spray painted everything, except the kids? I still love spray paint, but with a little more restraint.

This is the opposite side of the room. Only an orange lumbar pillow and a little “give thanks” pillow that I picked up last year at Target, from their dollar section. Guess what? I haven’t been to Target in months. Crazy, right?! No spray paint and no Target – who am I??

Isn’t this the sweetest little pillow? I vacuum pack all these holiday pillows and store them in the garage. The solid ones I rotate from room to room.

Here is the biggest couch in the world, our couch. We have a love-hate relationship with it. We love the size but would love for it to offer more support, hence all the pillows.

The pumpkin pillow was gifted to me and the others I already had. Remember that striped throw? I posted about it in my fall porch post, a few years ago. It’s still just as soft and vibrant.

As you can see, a little goes a long way with decorating, if you sprinkle vibrant pops of color here and there. My boys like to decorate early for Christmas (right after Thanksgiving) so I don’t like to take out too many fall decorations, that I will have to store in a few weeks. Especially with ALL the Christmas decorations that are waiting patiently in boxes in the garage. My back hurts thinking about it.

I will still try to squeeze in one more post with Thanksgiving tips. I know, I have to hurry! Either way, enjoy your Thanksgiving week! I am super grateful for all of you!

Fall Buffet Decorating

November 9, 2016 · by Maria · Leave a Comment

Last year I posted pictures of how I decorated my buffet for fall. I called it a mantel and really, it isn’t. It’s a buffet that is in the entrance of my home that I decorate as one would a mantel, except I live in Miami and fireplaces are not popular, because we have enough heat as it is. I do love having this big piece of furniture that I have had for 13 years, because it gives me beaucoup storage and an opportunity to set the stage for the current season.

This will be a short post because there is not much that goes into putting this together. A few days ago, I shared how I decorated my table for Thanksgiving this year. Since this room borders the dining room, I like to sprinkle a little fall throughout, tying together both rooms.

There were two new items that I was excited to use this year. One was this sweet little “Harvest Blessings” sign that I picked up at Ross for 6.99 (crazy, right?!) and the white pumpkins that spell out FAMILY. With very little money, you can pick up something similar at Ross or Homegoods and add a little autumn feel to your home.

I purchased the leaf garland that you see intertwined on the buffet through Amazon. I actually purchased it with the intention of using it on my Thanksgiving food buffet but I figured it can adorn this table for now. Also, chances are I will tuck it away and when the Thanksgiving frenzy begins, I won’t even remember where I put it. It looks really nice at night, when the lights are on.

(I added the affiliate link above for the garland but it is not currently available, maybe it will come back in stock or you can find something similar on Amazon or elsewhere.)

The wreath on the mirror was already there from the last season – lazy decorating, I know. Hey, maybe I can glue some red berries on it and leave it there for Christmas!? Now that’s an idea!

In a few days I will show you what I did with the family room and living room (opposite to this furniture piece) and I think you will like it. Think vibrant pops of orange! See you in a few days! Harvest Blessings, friends!

Elegant Fall Tablescape

November 4, 2016 · by Maria · 4 Comments

Hello friends! Missed me? I’ve missed you, but it’s been so hectic around here that I had to take a small blogging break or start posting for the sake of posting, which is never what I wanted to do. So I took a break and it was great and it was needed. Sometimes we just need a little break from things so that we can later re-connect with renewed energy and ideas. Blogging can be so much fun and so much work but it’s incredibly rewarding and that’s why bloggers pull up to their keyboards time and time again. Thank you to my Graceful Order friends for sticking with me for the last 3 years, for all the likes and all the shares and all the sweet comments – thank you!

I actually only meant to be away for the summer as my boys were home but then August came around and then September and as I was bringing down the autumn stuff from my garage, I thought “I need to share this with my friends!” Then I started photographing and it was so much fun again! Throughout this week I will be sharing posts about Autumn. Expect lots of orange and brown and pumpkins and pie!

I will start with one of my favorite things to do which is decorating the table!

I am hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year and I intend to leave the table set like this for the remainder of the month. No fear, I will wash the dishes so that no one is eating dusty turkey! I am using these gorgeous dishes that I picked up last year at Williams-Sonoma in their after Thanksgiving sale. I ordered some online and when they ran out, I drove to the store to pick up the rest. I did pick up a few extras just in case one breaks, the set doesn’t fall apart. By the way, should that happen, you can always set the two end place settings in a solid coordinating color.

I love having a large table. Well, usually I love it. One challenge that I have is finding a tablecloth that will fit. I have priced out getting one custom-made and they are so expensive! A quick search on Amazon led me to this tablecloth, which has the right length and width for my table – 70 x 144. In the past, even when I can find a tablecloth that is 144 in long. it was usually 60 in wide, which leaves the side of my table short on fabric. This one was perfect.

The centerpiece is a swag that is meant to hang on a wall. I just placed some gourds around it to make it feel full and bountiful – just as Thanksgiving should be.

I also placed some faux candles on the table. That way I don’t have to worry about any scents competing with the food or any candles dripping on the table. These candles are the most realistic I have found to date. I have quite a few of them throughout my home. They are perfect for mantles and hard to reach areas where it’s a pain to light a candle; they are safer, too.

As a finishing touch are the mini pumpkin bowls which I will use to serve butternut squash soup for Thanksgiving dinner. I have seen a few version of these bowls and they are all adorable. Just make sure that they are oven-safe so that you can keep soup warm in the oven, while you do last-minute things, before dinner is served.

I hope you love how the table turned out. I love that I get to enjoy it all month and not just for Thanksgiving. I would love to know how you decorate your table. What colors do you decorate your home with during the fall season? Browns, oranges or more shabby chic with white and ivory shades?

See you all in a few days when I share fall decorated living room! It’s nice to be back!

Autumn Around the Home

October 3, 2015 · by Maria · 32 Comments

It’s been raining here in sunny Florida quite a bit lately and I think it’s a sign of the changing season. My trees love it and my hair hates it! But inside the house it’s a different story and since we have been going out less, it’s nice to be in a cozy space to snuggle and watch movies.

A few days ago I shared my Fall Buffet.

My dining room.

And today I am sharing the adjacent room, our living room. I have to be honest and say that we rarely hang out here. It’s a nice space to have coffee or tea but not exactly where the boys prefer to relax, since they are always in our family room. However, this is the first impression room because there is no foyer in our home.

When you walk through the front door, this is what you see. I love this neutral couch because it seems to work with so many colors. I often change the pillows and throws to achieve a completely different look.

And that’s my collage wall in the background. I love it! I either like walls to be super simple or purposely busy.

The “thankful” pillow is from Target and so is the throw. I love this little pillow and the moment I saw it, I knew it was coming home with me! It is perfect for fall but I can use it year-round if I choose to.

This oval table has books on it’s second shelf, so I keep the top glass simple with this gold leaf tray and the gold-accented fruit/pumpkin.

These chairs I have considered changing ever since we bought the couch but I still can’t make up my mind whether I should change them or re-upholster them in a lighter color fabric. In the meantime, I like to add white throws and pillows to tie it in with the rest of the furniture. It’s amazing what a nice pillow or throw can do to transform a chair!

Another gold pear and little alstroemeria flowers brighten up this table. Totally unrelated, but I buy those flowers often because they are so inexpensive and last quite a while.

In between the couch and the chairs is this wall that only has this frame and key on it. Since this wall is adjacent to the busy collage wall, I wanted to keep it simple. I added the gold vase and branch as a little fall touch.

I hope you enjoyed all these fall tours of my home and I will continue to share all my holiday ideas throughout the season. For now, enjoy this beautiful time of the year and be grateful for sunshine, rain and even frizzy hair!

Guess what? It’s not over! Here are some really talented bloggers that want to share their homes with you today. I hope you are inspired this season and always!

An InLinkz Link-up

Fall 2015 Home Tour Blog Hop

October 2, 2015 · by Maria · 1 Comment

Hi friends! Have you already started decorating for fall?

I have joined some of my blogging friends to share with you a ton of ideas and inspiration for the fall season. It is a Fall Blog Hop – My post will go live tomorrow and I will be sharing my living room space. In the meantime, below are the links to the tours that are already live. Everyday you can check back here and new links will be added.

I hope you enjoy it!

xo,

Maria

An InLinkz Link-up

Decorating the Porch for Fall

September 19, 2015 · by Maria · 9 Comments

If you follow me on Instagram then you probably know that we are building a pool and we have been for months. Basically, our front yard and back yard look pretty scary which means that I can skip decorating for Halloween…it’s scary enough.

I actually considered not decorating for fall either. I mean with everything else looking so bad, (my apologies if you are my neighbor) why bother? But sometimes you have to create beauty where the eye can’t find it, right? And the “why bother” attitude doesn’t suit me. So last weekend while my husband was bringing down a large canning pot from one of the top garage cabinets, a pumpkin literally fell from one of the boxes onto the garage floor. Of course I took this as a sign, and so did he – I thought it was confirmation that I should decorate this fall and guess what the hubs thought? That it was a sign that the fall decorations needed to be pushed back even further in the cabinet and that I should’ve closed the bin’s lid last year when I put it away. What a silly interpreration. Of course, it meant that I had to break out the pumpkins! My sweet husband obliged and brought down all the fall boxes.

I am still in the process of decorating the house and I shared my fall table with you last week, and this week I concentrated on the porch. Here is the view of the porch as you exit my front door. I won’t show you a view of my front yard because I love ya and want you to enjoy your day.

If you remember last year I shared images from my front porch during fall and you will notice that I changed the positioning of the bench. I think I like it better this way since I can place a wreath right above it. What do you think?

All those big wreaths can be expensive and I buy them when they go on sale right after the season is over. You just have to get to the stores right away because the pretty items run out the fastest. I also check online for clearance wreaths. One of my favorite stores to buy wreaths online is Kirkland’s and of course Target has beautiful ones as well.

Since I live in Florida we pretty much have to “inject” fall colors into the outdoor spaces because it is green and sunny here year-round. I found this orange-stripe throw online and on clearance at Crate and Barrel. It’s not meant for outdoors so I won’t be leaving it there during the day, but it’s nice if we sit on the porch at night. Of course, in Florida we aren’t keeping the chill at bay, it’s the mosquitos that we shield ourselves from.

The green pillow is meant for outdoors and I have had this one outside for over 8 months and it still looks new. I splurged on this one pillow because I was tired of throwing away others that kept getting yucky from being outdoors. I love green because it works for summer, spring, fall and even winter decorating.

I am using all these faux pumpkins to decorate because there is no pumpkin patch open this time of year by my home. Also, I love how feather-lite they are and how long they last. This white one is sitting on a beverage dispenser stand. Of course it adds height but it also makes it easier for me when it comes to cleaning the porch, since I avoid getting the pumpkins wet.

This urn stays here year round because I love it and because it weighs more than I do. I added this monogrammed pumpkin that I purchased a few years ago in Kirklands.

And that’s the porch! Next I will share my fall mantel, but first I have to decorate it and empty it of miniature race cars.

Are you decorating this year for fall? What are your favorite colors to decorate with – white pumpkins and neutrals or warm orange tones?

Decorating a Fall Mantel

September 26, 2014 · by Maria · 5 Comments

Decorating a fall mantel? I almost didn’t decorate for fall at all. It just feels like so much trouble to get out fall decorations, when I know all the decorating I will do in the Christmas season. But then, I started by decorating the front porch, and sure enough the next thing I knew, I was making pumpkins out of tulle for the whole house. Well, maybe not “making them” and not out of tulle, and certainly not for the whole house. But I did buy two ceramic pumpkins at Target, so kinda the same thing.

I was only going to decorate the mantel, so I stayed within the lighter fall colors to tie into the rest of the room. Keeping the existing color scheme, I purchased some stems and pulled others from my stash in the garage and I already had this wooden bread bowl.

I cleared out the mantel, which honestly is the key in decorating a mantel. It’s easier to re-envision an area when you are not looking at the way it is already decorated. Even professional designers lose perspective in their own homes. You look at furniture arranged in the same manner for so long, that you can no longer think of new placement. So definitely clear out the mantel and begin from scratch.

I left the lamp because I need a lamp in this spot.

Start with the focal point or centerpiece (which is not always in the center). In my case, I decided that the bread bowl would be in the center.

Then I added one of the hydrangea stems to the bowl. I didn’t cut them since I want to re-use them for other decorating projects. I did the same with the other stems, just folded them over.