Planning my fall foyer decor.
Living in Wisconsin, fall outdoors is a beautiful landscape of colors. It’s full of reds, yellows, and oranges. Beautiful and I appreciate it all! However, the fall is also a crazy busy time with new school schedules and fall sports. With that in mind, I like my fall decor to be calm and reflect more of an oasis in this hectic (but fun) time of year. I love some chippy white items, linen-look fabrics, and silver – mainly mercury glass. You might say I obsess about mercury glass. And of course, natural, real items from nature. I truly appreciate all the different colored pumpkins we can now get.
*This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my full disclosure policy for details.*
Using mercury glass, white candles and some natural elements.
I have had most of the items I used in my front foyer for years. I collected mercury glass before mercury glass was ‘in’. I have many silver mercury candle holders. If you love them too, here are some cute ones that are very similar to mine and are a deal for mercury glass candle holders. I don’t care if the candle holders match or not, I just like displaying them together.
I love the texture fabrics brings – so my fabric pumpkin is a favorite. Plus I was happy to find a very plain lampshade with a very neutral fabric cover. As I was looking for another one, I was pleasantly surprised that you can find fabric pumpkins with lights in them!
The big chippy white mirror is one of my favorite decor pieces. I’ve had it in numerous homes in numerous places. It usually ends up with a wreath on it because it’s so big and I think the wreath pulls it together. I love natural preserved boxwood wreaths! I put up real preserved ones in my home but I’ll confess that if they are on the outside of my door, I may use plastic boxwood wreaths. The real ones don’t hold up well on the outside where I live!
Using timers in the fall and winter.
I totally love fall but I don’t like how it starts getting darker earlier in the fall. I’ve figured out how to make that work for me! I have my white battery operated candles with timers. They come on at 5pm, so as it starts getting darker, there is the warm glow of the candles. In the winter I display the candles differently and they come on a little earlier. I love times on candles because I don’t need to turn them off when I go to bed. I’d like to personally thank the person who invented battery operated candles with timers : ).
Do you see the lamp on the left? I have that on a timer too (indoor electrical timers are so inexpensive now – I use them so I never walk into a dark house in the fall and winter). It goes on at 5pm and turns off at 10:30pm. That timer on that lamp saved us a ton of electricity. The kids didn’t turn on and leave on the big foyer chandelier every time they go upstairs. The lamp is more than enough light to go up and down the stairs comfortably when it’s dark. Perfect for for some functionality with my fall decor.
Some simple decor guidelines.
Now, I’m by no means a decorating expert. But, there are a few well-known rules that help pull your decor together. One of them is to decorate in odd numbers. And, yes, that always makes a huge difference. Three candles rather than 2 or 4. And, you should always have the tallest items to the left. To me, the above candle display looked funny with the tallest one on the left. I just looked at the whole display and decided the lamp on the left is the anchor for that rule. See my fall decor pumpkins? Biggest one on the left.
I’ve shared my favorite decor pieces with you. What are yours and why do you love it?
Love fall?
Here is my favorite fall planter! I’ve reused my summer grasses in this one.
My most popular fall post. It’s old but every fall, everyone wants these easy two ingredient pumpkin muffins!
The mirror is from Kirklands. I’ve had it for years and so have they. I saw it in the store last week!
Where did you get the mirror..I love the whole thing.
Gosh, I was going to say it would look great painted. If you aren’t sure, I wonder if you could start by just changing the hardware?
Great idea about the runner! I have a couple. I’ll have to see which one works the best.
Thanks for letting me know you like it! Decorating can be so subjective!
Thanks for your comments! And, especially explaining why that tall candle looked odd when I had it on the left. I guess it’s good that I noticed it didn’t look great and didn’t follow rules for the sake of following them. Appreciate the logic of your explanation.
I love grey but painting it that color didn’t even occur to me. I’ll have to think about that idea. Thank you!
I would leave it the way it is. Love it! Such a cute pumpkin’ too.
Do not paint it white. Too much of a good thing is still too much. It looks terrific as is. And the reason that the tallest candle on the left rule doesn’t work is because the light on the far left takes it place. Putting the left right rules onto the candle sticks results in making the entire table top look like it is overbalanced to the left. I am no decorator but I have a few artists friends who are happy to straighten me out now and then, lol. And in regards the buffet, I concur with Anonymous above; “the wood tone adds another element of interest.”
I’d definitely paint the buffet. It doesn’t have to be white though that would look good, some shade of grey or dark tone might be nice. You’d probably want to introduce a little more texture or color to the display. Possibly some greenery or other wood pieces.
With the décor you have on the buffet right now, I would say painting it white would be too monochromatic. For me, the wood tone adds another element of interest. I would like to see how a runner would look on the buffet, laid flat or strategically scrunched up.