Fall Table Centerpiece Revisited

I thought I’d revisit my fall table centerpiece for my dining room table to share more ideas on how to do one with what elements you may have on hand or easily acquire depending on your location.

Here in the Northern California Valley, our weather doesn’t significantly cool down until November, so our leaves don’t really start turning color until mid-October. This was the first year I seriously got into decorating with natural elements, so I’ve never really paid attention to when the leaves start turning before that point. I had been chomping at the bit all summer to start decorating for fall, so when September 1st rolled around (I know the official start of fall is September 21st, but I was so worked up about it by then,  just making it into September was close enough), I was really to start decorating with leaves. Visions of fall wreaths, garlands, vases, etc. decorated with natural leaves in all the brilliant colors of fall danced in my head, only to be crushed by the fact that everything was still very green with no sign of turning anytime soon.

Sigh.

I resorted to using what we still had plenty of until the leaves turned… flowers!

Here’s the bouquet from the original fall centerpiece post using sunflowers from the garden, a mix of corn and gourds, and a few scant leaves I could find that had actually turned color: The sunflowers eventually wilted, so my hubby was nice enough to buy me a bouquet of daisies and carnations to replace them. As beautiful as the bouquet was, it just wasn’t enough to fill the jar up. I added some zinnias from the garden and it made the arrangement really pop! I also managed to scrape up a few more fall leaves in yellow and red to arrange on the table.

These eventually wilted as well, so I needed something to replace them. I took a swan gourd, cut off the top, cored out the neck with a knife and added a few branches from a liquid amber tree. The leaves hadn’t quite turned color all the way, and some were still green, but beggars can’t be choosers! 🙂

And, last but not least, for a totally no-fuss centerpiece that you can set-and-forget for a good few weeks, use a pumpkin or a large gourd for the focal point. Simple yet very cute!

I hope this post has given you some great ideas on how to use the natural elements in your area to create a fall centerpiece that will last well into Thanksgiving!

Until next time, happy fall decorating! 🙂
Mi