With the holiday season rapidly approaching and fall in full swing, chances are you’re preparing for a seasonal gathering. Friendsgiving, Thanksgiving, a birthday, or a nice evening with someone special – it’s time to break out the fancy dining room décor and celebrate.
To help you curate the perfect fall dining room décor to welcome you and your guests, we’ve consulted with design experts for their best advice. Whether you’re living in Vancouver, CA, or Chicago, IL, you can create the perfect dining room setup that welcomes the fall season and embraces the cozy dark evenings.
Embrace the season’s offerings
Autumn weather brings us inside our homes and signals the start of holidays and family gatherings. Elevate your table with beautiful placemats, even on top of a tablecloth. Simple chargers, beautiful napkins, and a shimmery napkin ring give sparkle to the table. Flowers, leaves, and berries are a great choice for a centerpiece, but you could also do a bowl of seasonal vegetables like squash, artichokes, and eggplant for an unexpected twist. – Jane Bell, Jane Bell Interior Design
Celebrate the earth through your décor
For me, autumnal designs are traditionally linked to harvest time, a celebration of the earth’s soil as a provider of food. I therefore like to use organic materials, such as bamboo utensils and rattan placemats, with earthly tones of burnt orange, to accentuate the décor. – Rumi Bunya BIID, Rumi Bunya Design Ltd.
Incorporate a variety of textures
Fall evokes a desire to create vignettes that are a collection of textures. I adore natural elements like a vase full of ornamental grasses cut from the garden alongside a handmade bowl filled with stones set on a felt table runner with jewel tone accents. – Rachael H Grochowski RA, NCARB Founder + Principal, RHG Architecture + Design
Colored glass makes a table stand out
For an interesting tablescape idea, we love to add a collection of antique colored glass vessels as a centerpiece. Mixing heights and shapes of vases and bottles in similar colors will add drama to the table without feeling overwhelming. – Nikki Dalrymple, Principal, ACQUIRE
Fall is all about texture
Crunchy leaves underfoot provide a visual and tactile feast for the senses. So, our tip is to add and layer up texture in your interior spaces and bring the spirit of the outdoors into your home. We’re thinking cashmere blankets, deep velvet upholstery, fabric wall hangings, sheepskin rugs, leather stitching detail, and dried flowers. By softening the edges of your space, candlelight will resonate differently around the room – and who doesn’t love a bit of hygge in Fall? – Selina McCabe, Studio Winch
Embrace your interiors
During this fall season we have three words for you – embrace your interiors! Your décor does not necessarily have to be in the traditional seasonal colors. Instead, choose seasonal decorations that complement the rest of your space. – Andrea Fripp and Paulina Cervantes, Dual Concept Design
Keep your décor transitional
Since holidays come and go and the décor for each is different, I don’t decorate for fall with anything that is permanent. For example, I love to create a tablescape with warm colored gourds that can be enjoyed from the beginning of October through Thanksgiving. I also love to accompany them with branches or berries with greens, golds, and reds. I don’t think that a room’s furnishings regardless of their color schemes detract from seasonal decorations. – Jessica S. Nakata, The Black Door
Fall tablescapes are about color, texture and warmth
Right now I am loving mixed jewel tone glassware, matte black flatware and of course the rebirth of pampas. We recently curated a beautiful table setting for a client with Neybir and mixed different shades of cream, green, and terra cotta and it evokes fall perfectly in one palette. I also love foraging for décor, think branches with berries, dried grasses, get outside and get creative. – Brianne A Jones, ASID, NCIDQ Brianne Bishop Design, LLC
Combine indoor and outdoor in your home
When decorating for any season, we always look to create an indoor/outdoor relationship. Taking cues from the vibrant colors as the leaves change, you can’t go wrong with bringing warm tones of orange, yellow and brown. – Robert Jamieson, Studio Robert Jamieson
Decorate with a variety of gourds
For something simple and easy but dramatic, we recommend a fall harvest gourd collection as a centerpiece on a Thanksgiving table, or on a sideboard or hutch. Real gourds are available in a multitude of colors, sizes, and shapes, and you can choose a color palette to give this dramatic display your own signature style. For added drama, put fall foliage cut pieces in the corners of the room in large-ish urns. Real cuts from the garden work, or beautiful faux botanicals can also do the job nicely. Happy Thanksgiving! – Bryan Calkins – Founding Partner of Design Commerce Agency
Prioritize comfort in your design
Fall is a time of gathering and what’s better than gathering around a table to enjoy a shared meal. Comfort is key, especially the comfort of your guests. A properly balanced chair is necessary and lets you linger longer. Our Giac Arm and Side Chair are cast in aluminum cutting down the weight significantly, yet have enough weight to feel grounded. Available in six frame finishes and custom upholstery, each set is unique and can meld beautifully within a dining space. – DLV Designs
Create a story with your design
When it comes to creating a fall dining room design, I gravitate towards using saturated hues for draperies or in accents throughout the space. I also enjoy using antique linens or china, this way the tablescape creates a story for company to enjoy. – Leigh Jones, Leigh Jones Interior Design
Embrace your own creativity
Adding handmade decorations to your seasonal dining set-up is a lovely way to add a personal touch. You can mask poor craft skills by being super exaggerated so if you’ve made a few paper stars, make a hundred. If you’re gathering sticks or foliage to bring the seasons indoors, gather more. Using only candles for the lighting will create a super cosy feel, don’t be scared to make it almost too dark for comfort. Smell is such an important way of celebrating each season, our current favourite scented candle for Autumn/Fall is House of Hackney’s Serpentis candle. – Zachary Pulman, Zachary Pulman Design Studio Website | Instagram
Your tablescape should be fun and inspiring
Holidays are a time of celebration and gratitude. So creating a beautiful tablescape should be fun and inspiring, not stressful. For me it’s all about layers. To satisfy my inner nature girl I will always incorporate some local flora from branches to flowers, even fruits and herbs. To put a little bit of my cosmopolitan chic into the setting, I look to more playful patterns from table runners to napkins or plating – this is generally where I like to add some color, pattern, and personality. To satisfy the senses I enjoy adding aroma from earthy scented natural herbs like sage and rosemary or eucalyptus and pine, delicately arranged throughout the setting. It is also an opportunity for slightly scented candles – be sure not to overpower, nothing should compete with the food to be served. And for the one of a kind personal touch, I like to include family heirlooms to special vintage finds. These are some of my favorite ingredients for a cleverly curated table – every holiday and every setting has a way of being unique and special in it’s own way. – Susan Knof, Creative Director and Owner of KNOF design, Instagram: KNOF design
Think outside the box
When it comes to fall tablescapes, here at The Design Bar, we always think outside the box. As seen in our showroom, setting a glass pumpkin in the center of each plate while weaving the napkin through the stem of the pumpkin results in a one of a kind style. Instead of using a traditional napkin ring, here, the glass pumpkin adds a little pumpkin spice to your tablescape. You can also mix in smaller fall themed florals with the napkin to add additional texture. Now you are set to entertain in style. – The Design Bar
Pick a color palette and stick to it
Choose a color or two, three at the most. Then, begin to layer those colors using various solids, patterns and textures. The color theme should apply to everything from the tablecloth to the napkins to the dinnerware, serve-ware and non-functional décor (think flowers and centerpieces). Everything except the food itself. Sticking with your palette is a full proof way to add high-style sophistication to your seasonal gathering. – Kimberly R Dean Principal Interior Designer, MAISON STUDIO | Design + Interiors
Don’t skip out on designing a welcoming entryway
Make your foyer into a little holiday event by adding some sparkle into the space. Use one large item to center and anchor everything (like this wreath), then pick an assortment of items you love, whether it’s trees, snowflakes, or candles – whatever says “holiday” to you, just have 5-7 of these. Spread them out across the table so they’re balanced but not exactly symmetrical, add in some simple pine picks, some gold, and some silver – and you’ve turned your little console into a Winter Wonderland. – Kate Dawson, The Decor Whore, IG: @KateTheDecorWhore