As I shift our home into a new season, I’m not only thinking about the overall picture, but also the little nuggets of decorative spirit that evoke fall. In this instance it’s a focus on styling rather than decorating. My husband looks at me as if to question why I am revising and updating the dining table display, entry console arrangement, and kitchen island centerpiece yet again. Still, you don’t have to have a designer or stylist on hand when crafting your creativity into the perfect vignette for Instagram or Pinterest.

This season, I didn’t focus my design trajectory on fabrics and wallpapers—the two categories of product that I happily peruse for hours, letting swatches entertain me with vibrant colors and inspiring patterns. The fashion enthusiast in me gravitated to one of the intricately printed oversize square scarves in my shop. These silk beauties come in intense colors that add a confident cap to a wardrobe ensemble in need of a pop of pattern and color. Lauding some of fashion’s creations as artwork, I found the scarf to be the inspiration and launchpad for this vignette arranged like a still life.

The scarf, with a background saturated in luxurious orange, nods to turning leaves and Halloween, even though its motif never references a season or holiday. What it did provide, however, was permission to pull forward a painted basil green leather-top table. It accents the vignette with colors from nature and provides a surface for a champagne bucket and crystal flutes ready for a toast at a grown-up Halloween gathering.

Marbleized finishes add texture and movement, especially in ceramics. So, I anchored the table with a brown-and-cream ginger jar vase. It gently ushers away what’s left of Indian summer with pale yellow sunflowers. They politely interrupt the autumnal statement of bittersweet, eucalyptus, and fresh flowers. The featherlike wisps evoke dried flowers although they are actually grasses.

I find that the most visual impact comes from a layered presentation of pattern-on-pattern. In this case, a plaid cashmere blanket drapes over the table and is held in place by a wood box inlaid with a woven grid. And of course, nothing says Halloween like miniature pumpkins strewn here and there.

I remember the Halloween decorations of years past that my boys adored as we prepared for children’s parties, costume selections, and trick or treating. Skeletons, spiders, webs, and witches were the magic of Halloween and the wonderment that oozed out of all things eerie.

Those days come with wonderful memories of two little boys dressed as Napoleon and a cowboy or as favorite action figures. I’m still a ­good steward of candy corn, chocolate, and sweet tarts as neighborhood littles ring our doorbell for sugary loot, but I love the eye candy I create within my home.

SHARE