Neutral Fall Farmhouse Living Room

Here we are in the final days of summer, and while we still have lots of sunshine, the crisp air every morning is a reminder that fall is definitely on the way. This time of transition inspired me to redecorate our living room with a neutral palette and subtle fall aesthetic.

I think September is always an exciting time of year. We’re still getting to enjoy a few weeks of summer weather, but the nights give us a chance to cool off, too.

Then there’s the beautiful transformation that all the trees go through to put on a dazzling display of colors, and the crispy, crunchy leaves underfoot that make me want to fill the house with the smell of goodies baking and hot tea brewing.

To me, every season is special, and there’s so much to enjoy in each that it’s hard to pick a “favorite”. But I do think that this time of late-summer to early fall is particularly special, and it really got me inspired!

I’m thrilled today to be hosting a group of 29 other blogging friends as we all share a glimpse of our Harvest Homes this season. At the end of this post, you can find links to see what each of these ladies has created–everything from crafts, to decorating, to harvest-inspired recipes! It’s a very inspiring group!

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Truth be told, our family room decor doesn’t change significantly from season to season. Instead, I make subtle changes in this room that help us to celebrate the time of year, but don’t overwhelm me with the chore of major redecorating every month or so.

Christmas, of course, is the big exception…we love to fill our home with holiday cheer!

For this season, however, I wanted to keep our family room feeling very neutral and calm. If you’ve been a friend for very long, you know that our family has been through a tumultuous past 18 months (read more about that here), so making our home feel like a sanctuary has really been my priority lately.

Earlier this year, I was bitten by the creativity bug and wanted to learn something new. I felt really drawn to creating floral arrangements, even though this was something I had never really done before.

Well, of course I had put flowers into a vase many times…but I wanted to create really large arrangements that were quite outside of my comfort zone as a decorator.

I really have to wonder if my desire to bring large displays of flowers into our home grew out of the hardship we had experienced. I think that flowers are such amazing symbols of regeneration, fresh starts, a celebration of life, and just so much natural beauty that maybe my soul needed more of that around.

So a few months ago, I took a leap and created my first arrangement with a vintage French theme.

Good gracious, I’ll tell you what–it took a loooong time! Haha! I found myself playing with it and tweaking the flowers this way and that for several days before I felt like it was “just right”. It was definitely a learning process for me.

And then, because I loved it so much, I did another one in a wall basket!

Then, over the summer, I was asked to join a group of bloggers to write about creative ways to use thrifted items in our decor. I had found an amazing vintage picnic basket, and I decided to try my hand at creating another very large arrangement.

Once again, I fell in love with the result!

So when I invited my blogging buddies to join me for this Harvest Home tour today, I knew that I wanted to incorporate another big floral display into our family room.

I had thrifted this neat metal pedestal bowl planter literally years ago, and I had never once used it. But it felt like the perfect piece to use for this arrangement, so I dug it out, cleaned off the spiderwebs (yes, seriously!), and started planning.

Since this is the harvest season, I wanted my arrangement to also represent this period of transition between summer and fall. I started by using my favorite artificial hydrangeas, along with silver dollar eucalyptus, and some artificial allium stems I had picked up at the craft store a few years back.

I really wanted my design to have a sort of organic feeling to it, so I added a trailing green garland all around the base for a nice flowy, romantic vibe. (This is similar to the one I used.)

Then, the last step was to tuck in a variety of fruits…pears, apples, pomegranates, and some mini pumpkins. They were the perfect touch to make my arrangement truly represent the harvest season!

Clearly, the huge floral display is the pièce de résistance of the family room this season, but a close second to that would be….pillows!

I have said it before, and I’ll say it again, I truly believe that throw pillows are the stuffed animals of grown women. 😂 Are you the same way? I can’t even count how many we have all over our house, and I just seem to keep right on collecting more of them each year.

Part of my addiction to pillows, I think, can be blamed on my sister, Kim, who makes the flat out best pillows…all of my favorites come from her! She handcrafts her pillows from vintage fabrics, and every time she sends me a photo of some old quilt, or hobnail chenille throw, or some other amazing length of fabric she’s found, I can’t help but ask her to make me another pillow!

You can find Kim’s latest designs in her Etsy shop, and be sure to keep checking back because she adds new ones all the time, and they always go incredibly quickly!

Throughout the rest of our family room, my focus was primarily on pumpkins, as well as vintage pieces that evoke the feelings that this time of year brings.

I had a thrifted football statue in my stash that I have been excited to finally use! He looks perfect on my bookshelf next to a stoneware crock filled with natural cotton stems.

I also tucked a couple of vintage copper tea kettles from my collection into my shelves, as well. Copper is so lovely for fall decorating!

Now…when I say I have a copper kettle collection, I should note that there is a fine line between “collecting” and “hoarding” for me in this department! Haha! Whenever I find an old kettle with a unique shape, or beautiful patina, it’s so hard to pass up.

Over the summer, I started listing some of my kettles in our shop because I know it’s time to downsize just a bit. It was so hard to choose which ones I could stand to let go, but I do hope they all find good homes where they’ll be loved as much as they were here.

If you’re looking for some unique vintage items, you can see more of the items I have available in our shop {HERE}.

I got really crafty over the past couple of months, and I made the ticking stripe fabric pumpkin garland–which I
adore–that’s draped over my apothecary cabinet, and you can find the tutorial and printable pumpkin pattern in
yesterday’s post {HERE}.

I also started making fabric pumpkins out of vintage and farmhouse fabrics. Once I started making them, I kinda got hooked, and now we have loads of them!

But really, if you ask me, you can never have too many pumpkins, so they are sprinkled all over our home quite liberally right now!

I didn’t want to have too much decor around my desk, though, because I need the room for my laptop (to write posts like this!), but I also couldn’t leave out that corner of the room. My little fabric pumpkins were perfect for this spot.

They give me something festive to look at while I’m writing, but they don’t get in the way.

You can find the tutorial to make these pumpkins here, or if you’d like, I’ll make one for you! They are available to order in several sizes and styles in our shop, and I’ve been working on some new ones that I’ll be sharing on Instagram and Facebook soon.

Decorating our family room for this season really felt good to the soul, and while I’m going to miss the sunshine once our Pacific Northwest weather and shorter days return, this redesign of our coziest living space definitely has me excited for the coming months.

I’ll be sharing lots more of our home, crafts, and recipes throughout the season–be sure to sign up for my newsletter so you don’t miss a thing!

And don’t forget to visit all of the ladies via the links below for even more incredible ideas for your home this harvest season–truly gorgeous inspiration in every one of their posts!