When fall starts to roll around, the weather gets cooler and people tend to spend more time indoors.
Whether you're hosting Thanksgiving dinner or simply want to enhance your home for your family and friends, consider spending a little extra time and effort decorating your dining room for fall this year.
Here are some inspirational ideas and tips you can use to make your dining room extra special.
Choose a Fall Color Scheme
When decorating your dining room for fall, one of the most important things to consider is what colors you want to use.
Fall is known for its warm-toned colors, so consider using decor in colors like deep reds, burnt oranges, golden yellows, rich browns, and rustic greens for your dining room.
If you prefer a bit more sparkle, consider adding warm metallic hues of gold, brass, copper, or rose gold.
For a more unique designer look, add in some less traditional fall colors, such as pink, navy blue, eggplant, and white.
If a neutral aesthetic is more appealing to you, select several neutral colors for your dining room decor. You can use white, off white, cream, gray, greige, brown, tan, black, and/or beige. Make sure to use at least 3 different neutral colors for variety so your dining room does not look basic and boring.
Don't ignore the current color of your dining room and other adjacent rooms in your home when selecting a color scheme. All colors need to work together to create a cohesive fall interior design.
Linens
Table linens are a key element of decorating your dining room for fall.
You can select a table runner, tablecloth, placemats, and/or cloth napkins.
Your table linens must work together to complement your color scheme.
Linens can be basic so that they do not draw attention from your table decor, or your linens can be a focal point.
If you want your linens to be a background element, consider selecting plain white for an elegant look or burlap for a more rustic look.
If you want your linens to be a focal point, consider using linens with a pattern, such as plaid/tartan, or a bold color, such as cranberry or even a metallic bronze or gold.
Dishes
Your dishes and silverware also play a part in your overall fall decor.
Basic white dishes or plain clear glass dishes will allow your food to be the focal point.
If you want your dishes to be a focal point, you can select dishes with a fall inspired pattern or fun color.
Be careful not to go too juvenile with your patterns. A plate with a very detailed realistic-looking pumpkin is great, but a plate with a cartoon-looking pumpkin tends to look cheap.
Centerpiece
The focal point of a dining room is usually the dining table centerpiece.
Common centerpiece elements for fall include pumpkins, gourds, candles, flowers, and green foliage.
Also consider some less common, but appropriate for fall, centerpiece elements, such as dried grapevine wreath, dried flowers, twigs, fruit, and fabric ribbons.
The designer trick for making your centerpiece look extra special is to vary the height to add interest.
Make sure you do not make the centerpiece too tall to block the view of people on opposite sides of the table.
Extra Flair
If you want to add some extra flair to your dining room to take it over-the top, consider adding fall decor to other places in the room.
You can decorate your sideboard or buffet with more fall items to complement your dining table.
Also consider swapping out your wall art for different art with a autumn feel or color scheme. You can even add autumn decor to the top of your picture frames.
You can swap out your dining room rug for one that has the colors in your fall color scheme.
Also consider adding some decorations to your chandelier to make it feel more like fall.
