Hello friends! It’s a joy to welcome you into our home as we decorate for autumn. C’mon in! This year I’ve adopted a practical & personal guideline: the blue transferware stays ~ year-round. Our blue transferware is a favorite; it’s familiar and there for it stays in place all year. To this lovely background layer, I’ll add warm brown transferware, copper, sage green linen, velvet pumpkins & a few muted fall colors. By repeating those colors and materials through the rooms, our home feels cohesive and ready for autumn without completely redecorating or buying all new things! You can watch the whole decorate-with-me in the video below, then read on for all the details and sources.
Kitchen & Dining Room Cottage Fall Decor
In our new home, the kitchen and dining room share one space, so I want the colors and patterns to flow naturally. The blue transferware is our background layer, while brown transferware and copper bring in that lovely autumn warmth. If you love collecting beautiful dishes to enjoy every day, you may also enjoy my practical tips for collecting & using everyday china.
The first step is always to pull out the autumn decor bin and see what we’ve got. How rich and welcoming all these colors & textures look ~ makes me excited to get started!
Decorating the Pie Safe in Layers
On top of the pie safe, I began with a hand-crocheted doily. It adds lightness, texture & a little sentiment from olden days. Then I built the vignette from back to front. The antique watercolor print creates height and width while setting the tone for the arrangement. It was a birthday gift from a neighbor and friend, which makes it especially meaningful to me. Using gifts and special pieces in our decor is part of telling our story, and we can see and enjoy them throughout the seasons!
For the middle layer, I added a purple transferware teapot found in a New Mexico junk shop while vacationing with Matt’s mom. A copper kettle from a college friend joined it, followed by a thrifted faux grapevine with leaves and pumpkins. Two antique copper molds found on Etsy add warm shine, while dried roses from my sister bring another sweet memory.
Setting the Autumn Table
Our dining table begins with a new light sage green linen runner from Hobby Lobby. It works beautifully with both blue and brown transferware and feels soft, natural & versatile enough to use in spring and summer too. For the centerpiece, I used a thrifted copper coffee pot filled with dried roses from Matt and new orange faux stems with fluffy ends that look like little fox tails.
Around the coffee pot, I placed DIY velvet pumpkins in ivory, orange & green. These pumpkins first appeared on a fall hutch in my post about decorating farmhouse open shelving for fall, and I still enjoy bringing them out each year. The brown plates are from the Spode Woodland collection.
Blue and green Indian block print napkins complete the table. These were a spring splurge designed by Jenny Steffens Hobick of Privet House Papers & Prints.
A Simple Autumn Kitchen Window & Countertop
Over the kitchen window, I hung our DIY pinecone swag. Matt and I collected these tiny pinecones on a mountain vacation several years ago, so it always brings back a lovely memory. You can see how I made the pinecone swag in this autumn cottage DIY post. Under the blue transferware plate wall, I placed a large blue transferware pitcher filled with a new faux arrangement from Hobby Lobby. I’m not sure it turned out quite as I imagined, but at this point I’m laughing and letting it be. After all, I am not a florist!
The Living Room Buffet
Here is how nth buffet has looked all spring & summer. It is simple and useful, with the transferware bowl as a key & wallet catcher. This side-of-the-road buffet gives us plenty of space for outgoing mail and library books to return, etc.
I began with a vintage block print textile discovered underneath a large pile of dishes in an antique booth. I don’t think the owner intended to sell it, but I liked it so much that I asked for a price and was willing to move all those dishes myself. In front of the blue transferware plates, I placed a thrifted brown transferware pitcher filled with cotton boll stems from several years ago. Even though cotton bolls were the rage a few years ago, I like them & they reflect the country surroundings of our new country home.
The English Rolled Arm Sofa
Our English rolled arm sofa only needed one little touch: a soft thrifted plaid throw. The plaid immediately brings warmth and pattern into the room, inviting you to curl up with a book by the fire. This is very simple; sometimes this is all it takes; it is enough.
A Gentle Autumn Shift
This cottage fall decor didn’t require changing the whole house or spending a fortune. Simply adding one warm color family, and then repeating it thoughtfully through the kitchen, dining room & living room created the cozy, warm feeling I was after to usher in the autumn season. To see another version of our seasonal decorating in our previous home, read this post: English country cottage fall home tour.
If you’d like one more lovely touch for the season, my free “Autumn” watercolor print is available for newsletter subscribers. Thank you for stopping by our little cottage today! I hope you found a few simple ideas to welcome autumn into your own home. What color do you bring out for autumn?
Warmly,
Rachel
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