a little fall decorating || at the cottage

I haven't been in the mood yet for Fall decorating. I think it hit me as September approached, that my baby was going to be in school all.day.long.  Of course I have my moments of frustration and exhaustion, but I really enjoy spending time with my girls.  I just wasn't ready for school to start, and in my book that meant not being ready for Fall decorating!  Now we are in the swing of our school schedule and my kindergartener loves school!  Savanna and I are having so much fun, just the two of us!  The weather is starting to change, as are the leaves, and I am finally feeling ready to add a few Fall touches.

After dropping Addilyn off at school, Savanna and I headed to the cottage to do a little Fall decorating.  We just added things that we took from the shop....pillows, faux pumpkins and mums.

This was happening the entire time I was taking pictures.  This child is so full of life, energy and just pure crazy!  She was fluffing pillows, re-arranging pumpkins, moving flowers like she was the boss.

We took a few pictures inside too, I will post those soon.  In the mean time, here are a few details......

-Twig Wreath  | available at the shop, $75

-Faux Pumpkins, various sizes | available at the shop, ranging from $16-$30

-Les Indiennes Pillows | available at the shop

-The wood porch was painted 4 years ago with Chalk Paint®.  It has weathered and aged just perfectly!  We used the color GRAPHITE and COUNTRY GREY.

The andiron deck chairs were purchased 'raw' and we used Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint (color TROPHY) to make a wash.  They look naturally grayed out and have held up perfectly!

A FEW FALL TOUCHES || using what I already have to decorate for fall

This time of year always gets so busy for me (and I know for so many others!)  The tourism is so seasonal here and our vacation rental reaches the peak of busy-ness in August and September.  For me that means a lot of cleaning, gardening and paper work.  But, even during the busy-ness of life, it's so important to make time for family and friends.  Saturday was spent hosting a booth at Carlton Crush ( a darling, local festival ).  It was a long, fun, successful and exhausting day, but the good kind of exhausting!  Sunday we spent the day at Pacific City with Matt's parents….celebrating his dad's birthday.  Pacific City is one of our favorite places to spend the day.  We drive the truck down onto the sand and set up camp for the day.  Football, fire, food and lots of sand and salt water….the best kind of day!

And today has been our first 'slow' day at home in a while.  So, the girls and I have been cleaning and slowing adding touches of Fall.  When decorating for Fall, I like to go 'all natural' and use things from nature.  Mostly branches, berries, pumpkins and gourds.  It's easy, cheap and looks great.  A couple of years ago I painted all of my fake orange pumpkins white and light green.  I used Chalk Paint to paint my pumpkins, but I am sure any paint would work just fine.

As you can see by the dining room photos, the room is in progress.  When Matt starts paneling the stairway to the basement, he is going to add an opening to the dining room and panel the entire room.  We contemplated wall papering but we would need to tear off of the layers of wall paper and it honestly would be easier to panel the room than to try to remove the wallpaper, patch the holes and hang wallpaper.

The girls and I are planning on adding some Fall touches to the their bedrooms and the outside of the house later today, I will post pictures later in the week!

xoxo

THE DESIGN STUDIO :: a few Fall touches

I have added a few Fall touches to the cottage, and am just now getting around to posting a few photos.

I would categorize my holiday decorating style as simple.

I found these 'carve-able pumpkins' at Joanne's Fabric.  They were bright orange, and I wanted something a little more muted.  I slapped on two coats of 'VERSAILLES' Chalk Paint®, buffed them with wax, and called it good.  I think it took less than 30 minutes!

They sit proudly on the kitchen countertop, next to the sink.

Last winter we painted the fir hutch 'CHATEAU GREY' {Chalk Paint®}.  It adds a warm touch to the room and looks great with the bold colors of the paint samples.

This winter I plan on painting the inside of the hutch.  I can't decide if I should add some fun color, or just stick with the 'CHATEAU GREY'.

I did have cute little pumpkins scattered on this trunk, but I just realized my little helper must have moved them ;-)

And a few Fall touches outside!

Now I am off to go bake a pumpkin dump cake!  I will post the recipe and photos tomorrow!!

xoxo~Darci