Decor Updates to take your Home from Summer to Autumn

As you probably well know by now, I am utterly addicted to decorating. I like to move things around in my home every week, just to see what they look like in a different spot. An eye-roll from my partner is thrown in for free, of course!

So when the seasons change, especially from warm to cold (or vice versa), I love nothing more than changing the place up a little to make it feel new. I blame this desire on moving house several times as a kid. I love change, especially at home. The best I can do with a property I currently own (and am going to be in a while) is to change it up every three months.

Today I wanted to share some of the ways I change up my own space when the season goes from summer to autumn. I base these changes on the five senses, really. And I find that if you keep them in mind when changing up your own place, it’s so much easier to tackle.

If you’re loving the bedding above (I am obsessed) it’s a new waffle release from Adairs and you can shop it here.

Change for Sight

OK, so outta the five senses I want to tackle as I’m decorating from summer to autumn, sight is probably the most important. So let’s start there.

Colour is the main thing you’ll want to look at when you’re transitioning between seasons. The reason for this, is that colours are considered either warm or cold. And so when the weather outside changes, and the light coming into your home changes, the colour should change too.

Nobody wants a cold day outside, with small amounts of light coming into the house, and cold colours all over the room. This is why it’s best you keep all of your base pieces in a room fairly neutral. More on my three-layer approach to decorating a room here if you need more guidance.

Good Colours for Cold Weather

If you’ve kept the base pieces of furniture in your home in neutral tones like black, grey, white and cream, changing smaller items will be easy.

Consider bringing in the following tones through soft furnishings and artworks:

• Soothing blush and deep, moody pink. Feminine but fabulous!
• Warmer purple tones like prune. Pair it with charcoal for a moody vibe
• Rich reds like burgundy and maroon are perfect. Pair with white and dusty pink
• Deep yellow tones like mustard are gorgeous with greys too. Masculine and moody!
• Burnt oranges and terracotta tones will warm up your room as well
  If you currently have things like cushions and throws in zesty green and turquoise blue tones, now is the time to retire them until spring hits. They’re very summery in their aesthetic, so it’s best you save them for later in the year.

Change for Touch

Now that you know the colours you want to embrace when decorating from summer to autumn, it’s time to move your focus toward the touch element. And that comes through the textures in your home.

How things feel – and what they’re made from – will have a dramatic impact on whether your space feels welcoming or uninviting. The above scene from Globewest is light and bright but still has loads of varying textures in it. Doesn’t it feel inviting?

As a general rule, the more varying textures you have in a space, the cosier and warmer it will feel. This is why it’s a good idea to have more textures (especially sumptuous ones) in your home when it’s colder. The more layers in the space, the less stark and clinical it’ll feel.

Click here to see my easy texture cheats for your home.

Textures to Embrace this Autumn

It’s time to open your homewares cupboard (you do have one right? That you keep seasonal homewares in?) and bring out your cold-weather materials.

If you don’t have one of these secret decor-hoarding cupboards at home, you might need to pop to the shops and pick up some homewares in the following materials:

• Velvet: it brings a sense of richness to a room (shop top velvet buys here)
• Faux Fur: Fluffy and soft, it screams ‘snuggles in the cold’
• Chunky Knits: Great on a bed or sofa – the heavier the better!
• Warm Timbers: In bowls and ornaments to bring warmth to table tops
• Brass: A gorgeous warm metallic. Better when it’s a little aged (shop here)

Texture is a little easier to bring into a space without having to take too much out. While materials like rattan and wicker conjure up summery vibes, you don’t have to take away entire armchairs or sofas if they’re in this material. Simply layer on some faux fur throws and you’ll be good to go.

If you do have something like a jute rug, though, and you didn’t spend too much on it, I would replace this in the colder months for something that feels warmer underfoot.

Change for Smell

Long-time readers of the blog will know that my candle addiction is in full force. I have over 39 scented candles at home. Of course, I don’t have all of them out at once. Imagine the migraines from all those perfumes! Most are stored in a box and I bring them out as I need to.

The reason I mention candles is because these are the pieces I change up when transitioning from season to season. There are definite warm weather fragrances and definite cold weather scents. Rotating candles and diffusers is a really low-budget way to evoke mood in a home through smell.

Scents to Introduce in Autumn

Here are some of the candle fragrances I like to embrace in Autumn. Some are good all-year-round fragrances, others have ‘cold weather’ written all over them:

• Vanilla: A good all-rounder but so cosy when it’s colder
• Caramel, Cinnamon; anything you can eat is nice when it’s chilly!
• Oak, Pine, Sandalwood: Anything earthy and forest-inspired is divine
• Essential Oils; great scent to burn when you’re having a long bath

See my list of the top 20 Aussie candle brands here.

In summer, I love to turn scents like lime, coconut, berries. All of those fruity, floral scents are amazing when they’re wafting through the home. But when decorating from summer to autumn, it’s time to retire those and embrace some fragrances that feel more enveloping.

Change for Taste and Sound

OK, so these ones are the least important of the five senses when it comes to the home and how it feels, so I don’t wanna spend much time on them.

In short, if you’ve changed the colours, textures and scents in your home as you’re decorating from summer to autumn, you’ll have a space that feels brand new without a huge spend.

The only thing I do in the way of taste as I go into autumn is drink more red wine! And eat more chocolate, and soup, and comfort food. This is the time of the year I put on weight and I love every minute of it.

In the way of sound, I don’t have much advice for you, except to enjoy the crackle of a burning candle, listen to some soothing tunes over a glass of Shiraz, and embrace the sweet pitter patter of rain on your roof as you go to sleep.

How do you do it when decorating from summer to autumn?

I’d love to know what you do at your place to change up the look and feel of your home as the cold weather approaches.

Do you have a homewares cupboard you raid for last year’s soft furnishings, or do you love to go out and buy some new stuff?

Drop me a comment below and share. I’d love to hear from you!

PS: The bedding above is a new-season fave of mine from my friends at Lorraine Lea.