Fall Decorations–Use What You’ve Got

I almost said Forget It this year. I mean, I’m staying with my mother and all my decorations are packed in storage and neither Mom nor I are going to buy anything new.

It would’ve been really easy to just forget it. There’s only two more weeks and then it’ll be time to put Christmas up.

But I didn’t. And it was fun.

This is the kind of decorating we’d do for displays when I worked retail. Except we wouldn’t cut the florals apart since the goal was to sell product – at least for the store owners.

It’s super simple, and you just use what you’ve got – even if it isn’t for Fall. No painting, no glue, no sewing, nothing that requires any floral design . . . or skill, really.

I’ll show you the table today.

Mom has this cute fall tablecloth. But she didn’t want the whole table covered.

I just folded it into thirds and made a runner. No, I didn’t even bother to iron it.

Maybe I should call this the “Lazy Gal’s Guide to Decorating”.

I like using fabric to lay down a base of color. It just instantly transforms any space with color.

The candles (battery operated) and bamboo plant are always on the table, so I just left them there and decided to work with them.

Then I laid out all the decorations I had to pick from.

It looks like a lot, but it’s not. Not when you’re used to have an entire store to pick from!

Some fruit, a fall bush I clipped apart, different types of ribbon, and some beaded berries. Oh, and one little twig pumpkin.

I started with the biggest ribbon. If you have other, larger, decorative items, I’d put those down first. But I didn’t. So I just sort of twirled the ribbon around the candles.

This is Use What You’ve Got, so I to get some height with the ribbon I tucked it under the highest candle.

I am a ribbon junkie. I like all kinds of colors, textures, widths, etc. That comes from working as a display designer too. Wired is great because you can shape it, but I’ll use anything.

I wrap it around my hand to get some curves into it.

Then, just pull one end and it turns into a spiral. Sort of. You have to be willing to let the ribbon do it’s own thing. This is not a symmetrical, balanced, fussy arrangement.

Kind of like me. I’m not balanced or fussy either.

Well, certainly not balanced. I guess BBH might disagree with the ‘fussy’ part.

Drape ribbon #2. If you have 2 or 3 short pieces, Great. Use what you’ve got.

Ribbon #3 – a copper colored ribbon. It may seem like a lot, but I like all the textures the ribbon gives.

Add some fruit. They’re just little Dollar Store pieces. I could’ve got some fresh fruit and used it, but this . . . I’ll say it one last time (I promise) Use What You’ve Got decorating.

Because of all the ribbon twirls, some of the fruit is at different levels/heights, which is what I wanted.

Finally I stuck some fall leaves here & there, using the ribbon again as the anchor. And some beaded berries. I added those last as they’re the most fragile.

Lots of layers. Lots of textures.

I didn’t get all of the wrinkles in the ‘runner’ covered.

But we’re not having any guests.

It’s just for us to enjoy for a couple weeks.

What do you do on your table? Do you decorate? Use a centerpiece? Just candles? Or just let the food be the decoration?