Reading is my favorite pastime. But I love to read in cozy areas and decorating my home for the seasons helps make my home more cozy. Now I’m no home decorating expert, but this year I tried something new that I thought really created the comfortable and pleasing look I was going for so I thought I would share that with you!
Most years, I just replicate the same decorations for all four seasons. I put summer away and take out fall, etc. This year, however was different because we repainted most rooms in the downstairs of my home. The previous colors were all warm, autumnal colors, yellow, green, red, tan. I’ve now moved to cooler colors, grays and blues. We’ve also painted all of our warm oak trim white. I love the new look. It’s much more updated, but I’ve found that what I was using to decorate no longer worked with the new look.
My mantel decorations were one thing I had to rethink. We painted our family room Agreeable Gray by Sherwin Williams and painted the fireplace surround Pure White. In the past, when the walls were a warm tan, I used vibrantly-colored fall leaves and pumpkins to decorate our fall mantel. This year, however, I felt we should use more muted colors. But, as always, I am also on a budget so I had to be creative and try to use some of the things I already had.
This is where I used a formula that I heard about for the first time on the Garden Answer YouTube Channel. If you like gardening at all, you should definitely check that out. Laura, the host of that show, always suggests that when putting a planter together, you should think in terms of thriller, filler, and spiller.
So what does that mean? In a planter, a thriller is a plant that stands out, it is usually larger and can be found in the middle or towards the back in a pot. It’s the eye catcher. A spiller is a plant that falls gracefully over the sides, such as ivy or bacopa. A filler is a plant that will fill the space in a pot such as coleus or begonias. I thought that if it works in the garden, it should work for a fall mantel, too!
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Thriller
When decorating the fall mantel, I started by looking for some “thrillers.” It is pretty long so I always feel there needs to be something taller on each side. I also don’t really like when things are too matchy, matchy so I went for two taller pieces that were different. First, I got a green glass vase from HomeGoods for only $15! It’s pretty large, but I still needed some height because my ceiling is also very high. In looking through all the fall picks I had in storage, I found these fall leaves that are somewhat muted. The vase is large, however, so I had to tape up the neck so that the leaves would stand tall enough.
On the other side, I also found 2 candlesticks at HomeGoods. These were only around $25 for the set. Instead of buying candles, I put two pumpkins on top for a cute fall look.
Because the mantel is long, I still need a bit of a thriller in the middle. Our clock hangs lower there, so I didn’t feel like I wanted something tall like on the ends. Last year, my friend made me this cute Gather box which had mason jars in them. I took the mason jars out and put in battery-powered candles on timers for a nice little autumn glow. I then filled the box with spanish moss and some other fall accessories I had on hand.
Spiller
Next, I needed my spillers. Again, looked in storage for what I had and there really wasn’t much down there in muted colors. I did find some spiky wheat, which I laid down first. Then I made my way to hobby lobby to look for more muted fall leaves. I found these picks that were 40% off, so it wasn’t so bad.
Filler
Thinking at this point that I was finished, I stepped back and was a little underwhelmed. It was missing something. That’s when I realized I needed a filler. I went outside and picked some hydrangeas off of our Limelight Hydrangea bush. These were just starting to turn a beautiful rosy color. I placed these blooms on either side of the Gather box until the mantel looked finished. These blooms dried in place and still look the same as the day I placed them there!
If you can’t find these at your Walmart,
here are similar ones from Amazon!
