Holiday & Seasonal Projects

Why I Didn’t Really Decorate for Fall & A Crafting Fail

How do you feel about decorating for fall?  Do you love pulling out the cold season decorations, and adding pumpkins or leaves or gourds to little nooks around your home?    I used to love it, and I always love tweaking my mom’s fall decor. 

When I first started blogging I went crazy with fall decor posts and projects.  Some of my attempts were ok, but some some of my projects like my  DIY fall wreath didn’t last well over the years, and they also failed to represent my style correctly.  (I would say “our” style, but it would be a lie because fall decor makes Ryan say What the Hell?!)   

Entryway Fall Decor 2012 | The Borrowed Abode

This September I purged most of the fall décor bits that I’d accumulated, sending the usable parts to Goodwill.   I saved my burlap leaf pillow covers, because I do like them and may use them again – I just didn’t feel like putting maroon and orange in our living room this year. 

That’s when I started asking myself:  Do I really need to decorate for fall?  I realized that I was automatically setting out to do it just because “that’s what you do” at this time of year. And this year I wasn’t feeling the urge. I’m working on preparing Janery for the holidays and trying to finish so many house projects that have lagged for months. 

I did give the entryway a fall spruce-up, however. Inspired by Kim’s Gold-Dipped Vase project at Yellow Brick Home, I played around with some Liquid Gold Leaf.  I had dreams of doing the gold-dipped look on a huge thrifted white vase.

Gold-Dipped Vase Craft Fail | The Borrowed Abode

I used a sponge brush to try and squeeze rivulets of gold onto the vase.  The results were awful, so then I tried brushing some of the rivulets.  The result was even worse. So I added more gold drips. 

It looks like an awful 1970’s or 1980’s vase, but that didn’t stop me from using it in our home. 

I set the gold-dipped-ish vase on the entryway console table.  I stuck some fall branches in it to distract from the awfulness of the gold.

Fall Decor Gold Dipped Vase | The Borrowed Abode

I did decide to keep my eye out for fall decor that “spoke” to me.   It’s now November, and I still haven’t found anything that I liked enough to spend money on.  I have loved some mercury glass pumpkins, but not enough to splurge on them. 

Gold Dipped Vase Fall Branches | The Borrowed Abode

Also, this year I’ve come to realize that we don’t have a ton of “display space” in our home.  Do you know we don’t even have a single bookcase anywhere in the house yet? And we’ve lived here 3 years now!   

What’s your take on fall decorating? And have you ever played around with Liquid Gold Leaf? I want to try it again, but need to do some research first.

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10 Comments

  • Reply Jen on the Edge at 12:47 pm

    Other than a small display on our kitchen table and a few pumpkins by the front door, I don’t have any other decorations out. That’s actually fine with me because I actually like a little Zen simplicity before the orgy of decorating that occurs in December.

    • Reply Jane @ The Borrowed Abode at 12:50 pm

      Well put, Jen!

      • Reply Jenn@ahomeinthemaking at 2:57 pm

        HAHAHA! I totally agree with Jen! I might update our mantel if I’m in the mood (which I totally was not this year), but other than that, Christmas is it. I just don’t see the point of decorating for each holiday/time of the year — and if you’re not careful the decor can quickly get a little too cutesy and veer far away from your personal style. I do like the vase though Jane, I think it look great with your existing decor and the touch of gold is nice.

  • Reply kalanicut at 1:38 pm

    I love the way you put things Jane, I can so relate. I loved your capturing Ryan’s “What the hell?” Men are such a crack up and I love their sense of practicality, however much it surprises our constant need to “pretty things up”.. I never decorated for fall until I had a little family. I don’t know why I felt I needed to start doing that. Maybe it was the blogworld that convinced me my mantle needed to be decorated on a theme. I only do my mantle. Your DIY fail cracked me up (only because I can totally relate). In the end it looks pretty great there with the beautiful leaves. I find that lately every DIY project I do at some moment feels like an epic fail, but then most of the time it works out in the end.

  • Reply denyse loar at 3:57 pm

    I’ve had several “FAILS” in decorating and crafting. I know the disappointment. I know you aren’t feeling it, but I think it looks good. I’m sure your like me, you have a vision and when it doesn’t work out you just can’t accept it. Atleast know you are not alone 😉

    Denyse@Crazy Beautiful Life
    http://www.mydailyphotojourney.blogspot.com

  • Reply Julia at 2:06 pm

    Looking glass spray paint by krypton mimics mercury glass… And I do not decorate seasonally.

    • Reply Julia at 2:07 pm

      Krylon. Thanks autocorrect.

  • Reply Robin at 9:20 am

    I kinda like your first attempt with the gold, it’s funky! I am not sure how I feel about “seasonal” decorating, I am still struggling with making our apartment look like a home (and less like a bunch of college-hand-me-downs).

  • Reply Kiri Celebkiriedhel at 7:03 am

    I think it must be a northern hemisphere thing. Decorating for fall in Australia where we have very few deciduous trees (i.e. not a lot of the changing colours) except where we’ve purposefully planted them… Doesn’t really seem to be a thing. Ryan would love Australia – very little fighting with leaves here.

    • Reply Jane at 11:56 am

      I’ll pass that on to Ryan 🙂 I had no idea about the lack of deciduous trees down under!

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