How to Decorate a Kitchen in the Fall

15 Minute Read

Decorating your kitchen for fall isn’t an essential task, but it is one that we love, especially if you’re ready to start decorating your home for Christmas already and your family insist it is too early! It can scratch the itch for seasonal decorations, and make your home feel welcoming when you’re returning during those darker evenings. The kitchen is the centre of most of our homes, and that’s never more the case than during the autumn, when we come in from the cold and head for the kettle or the slow cooker to warm up.

Getting Your Home Prepped For Autumn 2021

Why decorate your home for fall?

The question is, why wouldn’t you want to decorate your home for fall and make your home look as good as possible? That’s a question that can be asked year-round of course, but autumn can be a really tough time for our mental health, as the days are getting shorter and we’re spending more time in the dark. Making sure your home is beautifully decorated won’t prevent you from feeling the effects of seasonal affective disorder (SAD), but it will give you a little boost when you see how great it looks. Since the current economy means that times are tough at the moment, every little thing you can do to make life feel just that little bit better helps.

While decorating your home for fall is really an American tradition, if you’re planning celebrations for Halloween and Bonfire Night, then decorating your home – and especially your kitchen – for fall now will mean you won’t have as much to do ahead of your events. So, although you’re making more work for yourself, if you’re hosting a party or a get-together for these autumnal events, it’ll help you prep for these events much more efficiently.

What colours are best for fall decorations?

Autumnal hues are the ones that you’ll see when you’re out in nature from September onwards – deep reds, golden yellows, and rich, earthy shades of brown, alongside stunning evergreens. This doesn’t mean that you can’t choose colours from different palettes, of course; these are just the traditional shades that look great inside your home at this time of year.

Ideas to decorate your kitchen for fall

We’ve rounded up some of our favourite ideas for making your kitchen feel fall cosy – and there are some great ones, so get ready to be inspired…!

Ready, steady, cook

There are few things that create feelings of hygge and autumn cosiness more than coming home from a chilly walk to a bowl of steaming soup or chilli from your slow cooker. That means you need to get your recipe books out, plan your menus, and clean your oven so you’re ready to go.

Set up your fall drinks station

Autumn isn’t just about the delicious foods, of course – hot drinks are great to help you warm through when you get in from the cold. If you have the space, set up a hot drinks station, with a selection of teas, coffees, and hot chocolates. If space is at a premium, a basket holding those jars and sachets next to the kettle – or perhaps on a shelf above your kettle, with your mugs hanging from a metal hanging rail underneath – is all you need.

If the adults in your home enjoy a beverage of a more adult variety, then get a great wine glass rack for those impromptu glasses of red, and get ready for mulling cider ahead of Bonfire Night.

Accessorise your kitchen table

As the nights get darker earlier, you need a great place to enjoy your meals with your family. Since your kitchen will already be warm from your cooking, if you don’t already, get a great kitchen table and some comfy benches to sit on.

Whichever size table fits in your kitchen, that quality family time together on cold evenings simply can’t be replaced, so it is well worth the investment – and the tables in our range are made to order, so you can get the perfect size.

Once you’ve got an amazing table, add a table centrepiece that looks great and makes you happy. That might be autumnal flowers, a group of candles, or a simple bowl of fruits and nuts – and maybe you add a few spooky pieces from your Halloween decorations to keep things on-season!

Style shelves, window sills, and mantels

Changing how you decorate your shelves, and if you’re lucky enough to have a fire in your kitchen, then styling your mantel is one of the simplest ways to decorate your kitchen for fall. Styling your shelves, or switching them up to include more seasonal accessories means you’ll have gorgeous #shelfies to share on Instagram.

If you’ve been meaning to put more shelves up to give you a bit more space, now is a great time to do so. In addition to our floating shelves and metal bracket shelves, you’ll now find styles with pipe brackets, and accessories like rails and racks, so you can get the perfect look for your kitchen.

Natural pine shelves make a great choice, since it is affordable and sustainable, and if you want to match with furniture that you already own, you simply need the right wood finish. Choose from one of our wood finishes, and if you’re not sure which one is right for your home, you can find out more about the different types here.

Talking about mantels, make sure you have cleaned the fireplaces and chimneys in your home – particularly if you’re going to be using them for fires. Getting your chimney swept reduces the risk of chimney fires, and means your fire can burn more efficiently. Cleaning them sooner than later means when a particularly chilly evening hits, you can get those logs lit right away.

Check your kitchen lighting

Being able to see what you are doing clearly is most important in your kitchen – especially when you’re cooking and chopping vegetables! Adding LED strips under cabinets is a low-cost, easy way to add a glow to your kitchen, and helps you to see what you’re doing better. You can buy strips on a roll at low cost, and some styles allow you to change the colour, or add a flashing effect – great for kitchen discos as you’re prepping dinner! And because LEDs require very little power for a lot of brightness, they’re not going to add huge amounts to your electricity bill.

Add flowers to your kitchen

Just because we’re heading into the colder months of the year doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have flowers in your home! You’ll find autumnal bunches in your local supermarket, but if you’re looking to save a bit of cash, then look at different ways to bring flowers in.

You can make your shop-bought flowers look much more impressive with cuttings from your garden and the local hedgerows. Greenery, late flowering perennials, or bits and pieces you’ve picked up during your autumn walks all work amazingly well alongside those supermarket blooms.

There’s also a trend that we love for long-lasting dried flowers – and these are great, because you can enjoy your bouquet all season long. We’ve spotted them in various supermarkets and home décor retailers, but some florists are also working with them, so ask at your local one.

If you like to create your own arrangements, silk and fabric flowers can be reused for years and in different ways, saving you money in the long term. They also offer the advantage of not needing water (so there’s less cleaning up if children accidentally knock them over!) and you won’t need to smell the stink that vases get after they’ve had cut flowers in them! Silk and fabric flowers are easy to find in stores like Hobbycraft and The Range, although quality can vary, so if you’re planning to use them over and over, hunt around for the best quality.

Don’t forget about scents

Decorating your home for fall doesn’t just means things to look at, of course. Using fall scents around your home, and most especially in your kitchen helps keep your home from smelling odd – and if you’re drying laundry and wet boots in your kitchen, or cooking chilli, casseroles, or curry, you’ll want to neutralise those smells!

Burning candles, using essential oil diffusers, and potpourri can help your kitchen to smell welcoming and much more pleasant, before you switch to Christmas scents. If you’re wondering which are the best scents for fall, pumpkin spice, is a given, but also bergamot, cinnamon, amber, and ginger are all popular at this time of year. Make the most of these before the switch to peppermint candy cane and Christmas spice blends in December.

Keeping fall decorations sustainable

It is very easy to get carried away with buying decorations for fall – there is so much cool Halloween stuff around! If you really, really love a decoration that is made from bright orange plastic and you can see yourself bringing it out year after year, then go ahead and add it to your collection of fall decorations, but otherwise, keep your autumn décor sustainable.

We head out into nature to get our fix of the autumn hues – and there are always gorgeous colours to be found that you can add to your fall kitchen decorations. While you’re heading out for sunny autumn strolls, take a reusable tote bag with you and collect fallen leaves in a range of hues, conkers, acorns, and pine cones to add to your autumn kitchen. There’s a widely-known myth that conkers will help keep spiders away – and whether that’s true or not, their deep brown, shiny hue looks incredibly pretty as part of fall decorations.

Pumpkins, squashes, and gourds are all traditionally used for decorating the home during the fall, and there are more colours than you might think. At your local farmer’s market, you’ll find these kinds of fruits in shades of orange, green, and even creamy yellow, and they make the perfect decorations, whether you’re carving them for Halloween or not. If you’re carving your pumpkins, be sure to make pumpkin soup from the flesh – super delicious!

While decorating your kitchen for fall with natural items means that they won’t last forever, the good thing about it is that you’re not placing any additional demands on the planet for it. They’ve been grown by Mother Nature, and when you’re ready to decorate for Christmas, there’s nothing going in the bin – you can simply add your fall decorations to your compost bin for nature to reclaim.

If you’re going all out for Halloween and you’ve got children to entertain, then get them involved in making seasonal decorations! It doesn’t just mean that you can ensure decorations are sustainable – and can help you to keep them entertained during the rainy weekends leading up to October 31st. There are many, many ideas for Halloween decorations you can make using scraps and household recycling, as well as items you can find on autumn walks, so head for Pinterest to get those ideas then get your wellies on and head out.

Our final thoughts

Whether you call it autumn or fall, and whether you love the season or you’re simply counting down the days to the spring, there’s a lot to enjoy at home at this time of the year. Brightening up your kitchen for fall isn’t a must-do, but it is a great way to lift your spirits on those darker days, and to really enjoy the transition of the seasons as the weather gets colder.

If you’re looking for the perfect kitchen table, a new shelf for a bit extra space, or simply a few accessories, check out our range – we’ve added some gorgeous pieces recently that look fabulous in kitchens year-round. When you’ve decorated your kitchen for fall – whether you’ve chosen tasteful hints of colour, or you’ve gone full-on Halloween – tag us in your gorgeous Instagram posts @bensimpsonfurniture, so we can share them with our followers!