How to create a simple Fall Centerpiece that will easily transition through Thanksgiving.

As much as I do enjoy decorating seasonally and for the holidays, I also strive to make my decor work as long and as hard as possible. I'm not really keen on getting my house ready for fall, only to have to turn around and get it ready for Thanksgiving.  What I do in the middle of September needs to work up until I take it down and decorate for Christmas.

When it came time to put together a long lasting fall centerpiece for my dining room table, I fell back to the ‘neutral and natural' feel that I was channeling in the rest of our home. I picked up some more cotton branches and white gourds and was able to use some branches, dried hydrangea and feathers that were already up in my attic.

This loose and free-flowing fall centerpiece came together easily…here's the step by step process I used.

What I Used for my Fall Centerpiece

• My mom's silver plate punch bowl, circa 1950 (it's one of my most favorite things!)
• 3 branches of ‘faux' cotton stems or like this.
• Several bunches of dried hydrangea
• 5 faux white gourds
• Several branches of dried fall leaves
• 10 feathers
• Florist Foam dome
• Bamboo Skewers
• Clear Florist Tape

How I Made my Fall Centerpiece:

• After placing the foam dome in the punchbowl, I began with what I consider the ‘bones' of the centerpiece…the biggest structural elements.  In this case that would be the cotton branches.  I placed them equally spaced around the base of the foam and separated and adjusted the branches such that they reached different heights around the base.
• Next, I placed the branches of leaves…the next biggest structural element.  I filled in the spaces between the cotton branches.  In trimming the branches, I ended up with quite a few shorter ‘sprigs'.  I taped those sprigs to the bamboo skewers to give them some of the height I needed. 
• Then it was time for the ‘fluff' of the hydrangeas. Once again, I extended the height of some of my hydrangea bunches by taping them onto the bamboo skewers.

 

• The next element, the focal point, are the white gourds.  I poked the skewers in random places around the gourds so that they presented at different angles. 
• These gourds are foam, but I would imagine that with smaller vegetables you could do the same thing with fresh ones.
• At the last minute I decided to poke a few feathers that I had in my closet into this fall arrangement. They just add just some subtle texture.

So I put this together last week before I headed out of town for girl's weekend.  When I came home yesterday, this is what I saw when I walked through the dining room.

In my absence, Peep the kitten had gone through and removed every single feather in the arrangement and scattered them across the floor.  I will put them back in and I'm tempted set up a video camera to watch her process of removing them!

Bookmark this page or pin this image for your future reference.

 

Thanks again for spending a few minutes of your busy day with me today. Know that you are appreciated and that I welcome each and every comment that comes my way. If you want to make sure you don’t miss future content, pop your email in the beige box up on the right or click here.  I usually send out 2-3 emails a week, so I won’t inundate your inbox…believe me, I’m sensitive to an overflowing email inbox!

 

You Might Also Like:

Fall Container Garden

 

Neutral and Natural Fall Decor