A Simple Harvest

It might be best to begin this post with a photo of how I decorated in the past. I've always been a fall junkie and the sight of pumpkins (real or fake) still gives me heart palpitations, but my style has changed and evolved into one of a more subtle fall look. I liked how Virgina put it in the comments yesterday, "show, don't tell" - she nailed how I've changed in my decorating style over the last year. So here's the BEFORE:

This photo was taken a couple of years ago and is actually toned down quite a bit from what I used to put out for fall. For being a rather plain person, it was always a bit of a surprise (even to me) that I went with floral curtains and rug (I had matching pillows for a while too) and a plaid couch. The blue pillows on the aforementioned couch were made by my mom shortly after Peter and I were married, and I loved them...11 years ago. I did keep the one in the middle because my mom cross-stitched three pumpkins on it and I had a hard time parting with something she put that kind of work into (it's now on our bed - as you'll see).

But enough of the before, let's start looking at some AFTER. It's still a work in progress and I'm continually tweaking and rearranging and trying to make it more comfortable, but I like the way it's headed. Here's the new look (and new Ikea Ektorp couch) in our living room...

The bedroom is another area where I want a splash of fall, but I don't need it to scream at me. I have a beautiful fall quilt, but the thing is so heavy and warm that we can't even use it until October at the earliest. However, wanting to spread some autumn cheer to our boudoir, I flipped the quilt that I had been using and added some orange sheets and shams that I picked up at Ikea over the week-end.

And while we're discussing Ikea, yes, the bed is new too. After 11 years of using the bed frame that belonged to my parents and my grandparents, we decided it was time for an upgrade (but loving that Ikea price!). A little rearranging (thanks to the new bed and the couch purchase) and we now have someplace to sit in our bedroom as well! With the new bed, we're discussing the idea of painting the dressers (same era as our old bed frame) black and changing out the hardware. We'll have to see if/when that happens.

The rest of the house is still in the process of being cleaned up and cleaned out. I'm fairly sure that when I'm done, there's going to be a large pile to be donated and not a lot of fall decorations other than the real pumpkins and gourds that I have sitting around. And I'm okay with that. I have a couple of pillows I need to sew up and toss into chairs (probably in the other two living room chairs that you can't see in the photo), but otherwise, I think I'm done.

Simple is good my friends.