Bring a Touch of Autumn's Glow to Your Home with These Seasonal DIY Projects

Dress up a grapevine wreath, taper candles, place settings, and more with accents that speak to the season.

autumnal wreath on wooden door
Photo: Johnny Miller

To get your home in the Thanksgiving spirit, go for fall's halo effect. We took a cue from the season's naturally gorgeous color scheme, conjuring its gleaming coppers and golds, radiant reds, and earthy oranges to create striking (and strikingly simple) décor ideas that lend light and warmth to any setting. For example, transform a plain grapevine wreath into a special-occasion stunner with a few chic additions, including dried bunny tails, sora pods (we painted the insides gold), and autumn "flowers" sewn out of earthy-toned velvet—here's the how-to. And since these supplies (and those from the rest of our autumnal projects, below) are made out of long-lasting materials—from dried leaves and pods to rich velvets—you can display them year after year.

candles with autumn leaf adornments
Johnny Miller

Fall Flickers

Ignite some ambience with these leafy, light-reflecting collars, which we fashioned from copper sheets: Cut out the leaves, twist the stems onto wire, and wrap them delicately around tapers.

Get the Leaf Candlestick How-To

Fruitful Ideas

With their jewel-tone color and sparkly seeds, pomegranates are cross-cultural symbols of abundance, good fortune, and love. Welcome your crew with a plush version that doubles as place setter and party favor. Made of pumpkin-and rose-colored velvet that's lined with brown linen and stuffed with fiber fill, the faux fruits lend texture to a table set with a spray of foliage, bowls of gold-painted nuts, and contrasting mustard-colored napkins.

Get the Velvet Pomegranates How-To

harvest cornucopia on wooden table
Johnny Miller

Harvest Boon

The horn of plenty has represented bounty since Ancient Greece, when, as legend has it, the baby Zeus accidentally broke the horn off his goat babysitter, and it became a cornucopia spouting a never-ending feast. Your guests have other dinner plans, but they'll still appreciate the classic as a centerpiece or sideboard décor—especially after this plush touch. Line the inside with velvet, then secure the fabric with a few stitches and fill the opening with gold-painted nuts and pomegranates (velvet and dried) spilling from the rim.

Get the Lined Cornucopia How-To

orange dried leaves in vase on wooden table
Johnny Miller

Eternal Flame

A burst of shimmering dried branches is simpler and more seasonal than flowers, and it'll never wilt or need water. Just arrange preserved beech leaves in a big vase (days in advance), and let their burnished tones light up your dining table or sideboard for as long as you like.

Created by Tanya Graff and Silke Stoddard

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