Front Doors Dressed for Fall

By Karin Lidbeck Brent

Now that’s it time to put away the patio furniture my attention has turned to creating welcoming front doors that invite us into our warm and cozy homes.

Over the years I had many autumnal front entries to dress up, and many DIY projects to create. You don’t have to look further than your backyard or local farm stand to find materials for creating chic fall decor.

Chinese lantern pods come in bundles of gorgeous rich orange color, and when massed together they are very impressive. Start with a grapevine wreath garland hot glue braches of orange pods on the vines and you’ll have an inspiring doorway.

Photography by Michael Partenio

Images originally were featured in  Good Housekeeping

This time of year there is an abundance of materials for wreath making which always inspires me to try new things. I came up with this project when trying to make an apple wreath. By pulling apart a grapevine wreath and loosening it, I made a cradle to hold apples across the bottom. I just used a black Sharpie pen to write welcome on the apples. The final touch was weaving vines of bittersweet, small crab apples, and branches of leaves through the grapevine.

What better symbol of the fall harvest and New England than Indian corn? When challenged to find a way to dress a door with Indian corn, I came up with this simple circle. I glued small dried corn to a flat wreath form. The corn makes an impressive display with the husks splayed out and is a welcome change from the traditional cobs hung on a string.

If you love the look of fresh corn stalks with the cornhusks attached  go to your local farmer. When you cut them straight out of a field they look fresher. Just put them in a garden container and you have created a dramatic look.

When I discovered a huge crop of acorns in my backyard I instantly decided to try using them for a wreath. I attached them to a grapevine base, combined the scavenged acorns with a bag of mixed nuts from the grocery store, and stuck in a few oak brown leaves for interest.

New England’s many antique doors lend themselves to fall embellishment. I fell in love with this door and had fun dressing it up for autumn. An artificial garland around the door makes an elaborate doorway quick and easy to pull-off. I tucked in a few branches of real leaves to make it feel authentic. Adding layers of farm stand produce along the front steps ramps of the fall charm.

Plaids and fall go hand and hand, so why not dress up some pumpkins with belts of fall color?  Simply wrap the pumpkin iwith plaid material and pin to the pumpkin. An oversized button fastened in front looks cute and is unexpected. When it comes to doing it yourself—it doesn’t get much easier than that.

Creating a fall can be as simple as laying one large impressive pumpkin on the stoop or going all out with wreaths and garlands. A trip to the fall farm stand could inspire all kinds of ideas. Get creative and have some fun!

Take a look at more floral and plant styling ideas on New England Home‘s Pinterest page.