Settling Into Fall | Familiar Favorites and a Few New Touches

Bringing fall into my home with a light hand, using what I already have, inspiration from nature, and just a few (slightly unexpected) new additions.

Hello, friends.

I want to start today by thanking you for the outpouring of support you’ve given me since I shared the news of Cisco’s passing. Your positive thoughts and kind messages have lifted me up. And your concern for Maddie has touched my heart.

Though we know this time will come (always, always too soon) when we first bring that bundle of fur home, it’s still never easy. And saying farewell to certain of these sweet souls is particularly hard. Cisco was one of those. Grief can feel isolating — your stories of loss have reminded me that I am not alone.

And while I have been sitting here immersed in my own memories, the world, as it does, has been moving reassuringly forward. The tide rises and falls. Mornings dawn bright or gray. Some days the sun slips quietly below the horizon at dusk, and others it goes out in a flash of color. The leaves have turned and are starting to drop. And the other day at the lighthouse, we witnessed a mass exodus of birds, heading due south in formation over the water.

Accordingly, over the past few weeks I have gradually been making changes to my home to catch it up to the season. I had been holding tight to the past, when it turned out moving forward was the soothing balm my spirit needed.

Today I’m sharing how, with a light hand, I went about creating that fall mood in my home this year. Keeping much of what I already had in place, bringing out old familiar friends, adding a few new things, and relying on Mother Nature for both inspiration and decor.

Yes, I’m finally settling into fall… just as others are starting to decorate for Christmas.

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Build on What’s Already There

First of all, let me put it out there that there’s no need to entirely redo each room every few months. Some things in my home remain constant, while others carry over from one season to the next, creating a gradual transition.

Of course the major furniture and decor are year-round pieces, but so are some of the smaller items. In the dining area, the blue-and-white transferware is a permanent display on the mantel — I just add different fillers to the jugs throughout the year.

Other things make an appearance for a couple of seasons, and then retire to storage for a while.

Transitioning from summer to fall, I swapped a natural linen for the white slipcover on the big sofa, but the blue and white striped slipcover is staying on the loveseat for now. I kept the navy and white pillow covers from summer and simply flipped the throws on the fireside swivel chairs from the primarily white side to the blue. And while I often like to make dramatic changes to the living room mantel, this year I left it almost exactly the same, making just one change.

This way of decorating might not give you the big social-media reveal, but it creates a home that is authentic, one filled with things you love that tell your unique story.

Shop Your Own Home and Layer in Seasonal Touches

Once I’ve settled on what stays, I start to bring out familiar pieces that add the colors, patterns, and textures of the season.

This fall that meant a mix of floral block-print pillow covers in warm browns and caramel. A cozy wool plaid throw folded across the back of the sofa, and a small well-worn hand-knotted rug layered over the sisal. I turned the book I always keep on the coffee table to a new page and traded the summer decor for a few darker-toned shell trinkets and a mochaware pitcher.

And in the dining area I pulled a rarely used quilted table runner out of my stash and replaced the cordless table lamps I use in summer with my much-used glass hurricanes.

All these old friends were joined by a few newcomers — a small vintage pitcher purchased at a local tag sale, pillar candles in the perfect shade of pinky brown, and the ChappyWrap blanket I told you in last week’s dispatch that I was eyeing. ChappyWrap generously sent it to me, and it is every bit as fabulous as I expected. Soft and snuggly, of course, but the oversized deerskin pattern is also just plain fun. It’s a great “neutral” to add to my mix.

Speaking of this wonderful family-owned business, they just dropped their holiday line and it’s so good. I’ll add some of my favorites to my ShopMy page, linked below.

ShopMy Links

Let Mother Nature Do Some of the Decorating

The landscape outside my windows is always the primary source of inspiration for my home. It can also be the source of (often free!) seasonal decor.

This year I kept it close to home, drawing heavily from the faded rose blooms of my limelights and the beautiful wildness of the late-season meadow.

A simple bouquet of dried limelights graces the center of the table, joined by a single bloom in my new little floral pitcher. The soft rose color carries through to the pillar candles in the hurricanes and the floral design of the table runner. Limelights also fill the pitchers on the mantel, and the rose is picked up once again by a small shell wreath that hangs in front of the blue and white platters.

On the other side of the fireplace in the living room, the only change I made was to remove the blue coral piece and replace it with dried wildflowers gathered from the field and placed in a rusty metal vase.

Two caramel-colored pumpkins sit in urns on either side of the hearth.

These are all understated additions that perfectly capture my subdued mood this season.

Try Something Unexpected

You might be thinking, though, what is Molly doing with rose accents in her blue and tan dining room?

And is that an animal print I see on her nautical blue-and-white-striped sofa?

But that is part of the point. It’s easy to settle comfortably into my usual choices: I only do blue and white coastal cottage style! But sometimes it’s good to try something different. It can give a familiar room a fresh perspective.

And, really, neither of these new elements stray too far from home base — the rose color is inspired by the limelights that surround my home. And deer are definitely a part of the local fauna (including, unfortunately, the ticks that come with them…)

So give it a try. It might just be that something you didn’t know you needed.

Meanwhile, Outside…

And speaking of outside, boy has it been putting on a show recently.

I thought maybe the leaves would just turn brown and drop this year due to the dry summer, but the trees have rallied — oranges, yellows, and deep crimson popping against a gray rainy backdrop. The wildflower field, in contrast, has faded to browns but teaches a master class in texture, with blooms gone to fluffy seed, wiry dried grasses, spiky stems, and prickly burrs. The occasional purple aster still draws the eye, and cheery pumpkins line the stone wall. The limelight hydrangeas are a perfect match for pink sunsets over the harbor, and weathered lobster buoys at the front door reflect all the colors of the season.

My words don’t do it all justice, but maybe my photos do.

Mother Nature truly is the best decorator.

This Week Into Next

It was week three of life without Cisco, and I still feel a twist of my stomach and a prickle in my eyes when I “remember” that he is truly gone (how can it possibly be?), but Maddie and I are doing our best to settle into our new life of two.

Last Saturday we went to the monthly antique show in Bath (she, waiting in the car, of course). My heart wasn’t really in it, but I did pick up a small glass jar with an ornate silver lid to hold a tuft of Cisco’s fur.

On the way home I stopped at Widener Company in Wiscasset. Chances are you know Alexander Widener from Instagram. He and his husband, Bradly, have a beautifully curated interiors shop and guest cottage. I came away with a Time Life book, Country Collections, from the late 1980s. It is one in a series, with others focusing on country decorating, entertaining, crafts, quilts, cooking, and more. I almost would have bought it for the cover alone, but inside is useful information and lovely photos of all my favorite antique collectibles. If you are in the Midcoast area, Widener Company is definitely worth a visit. Or you can shop online here.

This weekend I have sewing projects waiting to be done (pillow covers for my daughter Leah). Maybe putting that out here will give me accountability to finally get them done.

I know many of you are still in the thick of summer-like weather, but it has been decidedly fall-like here. Saturday night we have our first likelihood of frost. We will see if the temperatures actually drop that low here on the coast, but no matter what, I am glad I added a blanket to the bed today.

Next week I am off to Michigan to meet little Juliette. If I get my act together I will see you here on Saturday. If not, I will be back the following week.

Be well,