MORTGAGE BLOGBlog posted On August 27, 2026
As the summer begins to sing its swan song and students trickle back to school, the flicker of fall beckons invitingly from afar. While some may dive headfirst into spooky season with bats and pumpkins galore, we suggest more subtle ways to transition into the next season. Skip those beloved gourds for now and ease into fall home décor styles, with warm color palettes and casual, cozy knits.
You’ll often find some of the best budget-friendly, vintage décor at second-hand shops, thrift stores, estate sales, or even unused furniture your friends and family want to give away. Look for a stack of antique books or nostalgic art pieces and maps. Lean into the yearning and reminiscence of changing seasons. Buy used picture frames and add photos from your summer adventures.
Curating your book nook for cozy reading sessions in the fall is an excellent way to prep for colder seasons. You’re not fully relinquishing summer yet; you’re just easing gently from your patio into your living room/reading corner.
Invest in a few ambient reading lights as you don’t want to be reading in harsh, fluorescent lighting. And you don’t want anything too dim (preserve your eyesight!). Bouncing back to the first tip, keep an eye out for a suitable reading chair or chaise lounge at those estate sales. A dedicated reading space needs a back-friendly throne for long evenings, curled up with a cup of tea and a jazz album crooning in the background.
You guessed it, we’re going to suggest some candle scents other than pumpkin spice. Instead, tiptoe into September with these fringe fall smells:
By the end of September, think about teeing up some apple candles before you hit the homerun of pumpkin fragrances come October.
As golden hours dwindle faster in the evenings, make use of color palettes that can capture shorter sunlight hours. Track how the paths of light in your rooms evolve and shift. By pulling your curtains wider and raising your shades, you can maximize the light and potentially dampen the low energy that accompanies the colder seasons.
You can also add spots of color inside to distract from the encroaching dark hours. Interior planet decoration can add a much needed burst of green to your space. It’s literally breathing new life into your home. Counteract the upcoming gray, colder months as best you can!
No need to dampen the joy of Halloween! We might suggest withholding the pumpkin decorations until the full height of fall. However, why not implement a cheeky ghost mug? Or a coy bat plushie, hung from the bookshelf?
While curled up on the couch in September, we also suggest watching autumn-adjacent films and tv shows in September too! Perhaps hold off on horror film marathons until October (now’s not the time, Michael Myers!). Instead, lean into fall classics like “When Harry Met Sally”, “Gilmore Girls”, and “Dead Poets Society.” The movie “9 to 5” is also set in the fall and especially relevant if you want to honor Dolly Parton’s recent passing this season.
There you have it, a fine array of all things acceptably autumnal without fully letting go of summer. However, we want to emphasize that if you want to go all out and leap into the pumpkins and Halloween aesthetics right way, there’s no shame! You can take as much pride in seasonal maximalism as you want. These are merely some suggestions if you want to take a slower approach. Different strokes for different homeowner folks!
Source: Homes & Gardens, StoneGable, Yahoo! Life
