Decorate Your Kitchen with Fall Accents

It’s fall! In many parts of the country, the season that precedes winter brings the harvest, colorful trees, apple cider, and pumpkin pie. It’s a great time for the family to cook, bake, and enjoying the warm atmosphere of the kitchen. To help your kitchen achieve a festive fall feel, add accents that feature autumn colors. Reds, yellows, and oranges will keep your kitchen cozy as the weather cools off.

Consider the following additional decorating suggestions based on tips from Home & Garden:

Don’t wait until Christmas to add a wreath or two. You might not want to hang evergreens and holly during the fall season, but what about preserved autumn leaves? Decorate the kitchen door or a wall with a wreath featuring leaves and dried berries.

Add a throw rug. You should always be careful when adding rugs in the kitchen, because you don’t want to trip while moving between workstations. But a flat rug that features one or more fall colors placed near the entrance to the kitchen or perhaps a back door, can add a nice autumnal accent.

Change your tablecloth. Tablecloths are great decorating tools that set the mood in a kitchen or dining room. On special occasions, an elegant white cloth usually does the trick. During the autumn months, try a tablecloth in a solid fall color, or a print design that combines several seasonal hues.

Add placemats. Whether you’re using that tablecloth or highlighting a natural tabletop, adding placemats is another chance to highlight fall colors.

Use food as a decoration. Simply placing fall foods on your countertops or shelves can add to the seasonal atmosphere. Try a small pumpkin on the windowsill or counter, a pile of dried gourds in a basket, or a loaf of home-baked bread as a table centerpiece. There’s nothing like a fresh-baked fruit pie, of course, to draw family members into the kitchen.

Consider adding candles. As the days get shorter, add ambiance with candles that feature fall colors or scents.

Replace your summer kitchen towels or oven mitts. If you display your kitchen towels on your oven or a rack and store oven mitts in a visible location, buy new ones that will complement the colors of your rug, tablecloth, or seasonal foods. Subtle repetition of similar colors creates a sense of unity in the appearance and atmosphere of your kitchen, and reinforces the reminders of fall.

Get out the fall recipes! Of course nothing says “fall” more appropriately in the kitchen than preparing foods that are perfect for the season. Disney Family Fun has posted numerous recipes for fall foods online, including favorite desserts, appetizers, and snacks as well as dinner recipes and a variety of “recipes from the pumpkin patch.” The side dishes alone include cranberry-pineapple relish, potato gatto, and pumpkin shell soup – yum!

There’s always the risk of getting too “kitschy” of course, but decorating the kitchen can be a fun seasonal task. Just add a few fall colors and accents, hang a colorful wreath, whip up some autumn meals, and before you know it December will be here, and it will be time to bring out the holiday decorations!