Fall-Decor

Window painting is the best kind of seasonal decorating for a rental. It costs very little, takes an hour, leaves no marks when you do it right, and it can switch to snowflakes the weekend after Thanksgiving. Here’s what to draw, and what to draw with. What to use Liquid chalk markers for grown-up designs. The Bandle B. liquid chalk markers (on Amazon) come in 24 colors and are water-based. The maker says they wipe off non-porous surfaces like glass with a damp cloth. They also say never to use them on a chalkboard, so keep them on the window. ...

Most fall decorating happens in the living room and on the front door, and the bedroom gets skipped. That’s a shame, because it’s the room where a change of season is easiest to feel. You’re in it every night, as the evenings get darker and colder. The trick is to change the fabrics and the light rather than add decorations. No pumpkins on the dresser needed. Start with the bed The bed is most of what you see in a bedroom, so changing what’s on it changes the whole room. ...

Fall is when people start cooking more again, so the kitchen needs its counters. The trick is to put fall everywhere except where you chop: towels, the table, the tops of shelves and the windowsill. Towels The quickest change in any kitchen. Swap the dish towels and the hand towel by the sink for fall ones (on Amazon), or just plain rust, mustard or olive. You see them every time you wash a dish. Get a couple of extras; you’ll be using more. ...

Fall in a living room is mostly about texture and light, not orange. A room with heavier fabrics, lower lighting and a few natural things on the surfaces feels like autumn even without a pumpkin in sight. Then a couple of pumpkins on top of that look like a choice rather than a theme. Change the fabrics first Pillow covers. Swap two or three covers for something with texture: corduroy (on Amazon), wool, velvet, chunky knit. Rust, olive, camel and cream all work, and none of them shout “fall” so they can stay out until spring. Covers are cheaper than new pillows and store flat. ...

If you decorate for Halloween, most of it comes down on November 1 and the entry sits bare until Christmas. A harvest look instead, with pumpkins, dried leaves, wheat and warm wood, looks right all through October and November. Then for Thanksgiving week you just add a few things rather than starting over. The porch and door Pumpkins in a group. Three or five, in a loose triangle: one big, two medium, two small. Mix colors, a white one next to orange next to a blue-green heirloom. Odd numbers and different heights look like a harvest; even numbers look like a store display. ...

Fall is the easiest season to decorate a porch. Pumpkins and mums are meant to be outside, so most of the work is arranging them with a bit of thought. And since Christmas lights go up only days after Thanksgiving, several of these ideas are about making the switch easy. Pumpkins Grouped at different heights. Three, five or seven pumpkins on the steps, beside the door, or on an upturned crate. Mix sizes from 6-inch minis to one big 16-inch pumpkin, and mix orange, white and green. Varying the heights is what makes it look arranged rather than dropped off. ...

A Thanksgiving mantel is about plenty rather than sparkle: wheat, pumpkins, dried leaves, candlelight. It’s hard to get wrong. And since Christmas decorating starts more or less the day after Thanksgiving, it’s worth setting the mantel up so it can change over without starting from scratch. Harvest Wheat and pumpkins. Dried wheat (on Amazon) laid along the mantel with small white, orange and green pumpkins (on Amazon) between and three pillar candles at different heights. Dried wheat costs very little and keeps for years. ...