Feel that crisp autumn breeze? That's Mother Nature reminding you it's time to create your innovative fall centerpieces for the dinner table. The main tool you need to fashion an inspired and innovative fall centerpiece is your own imagination.
Color Inspiration
In planning a fall centerpiece, take your color cues from Mother Nature. Rely heavily on the gold and red vibrant hues of the maples. Your innovative fall centerpiece need not be a literal representation of nature but should convey the feeling of autumn by drawing upon autumnal color schemes and themes.
Material Inspiration
Autumn winds shake down cascades of acorns and chestnuts, inspiring squirrels and chipmunks to stockpile them for the barren days of winter. Autumn is harvest time, when Mother Nature generously produces an abundance to sustain us in the frigid months ahead. These fruits of the autumn harvest might figure prominently in your fall centerpiece.
Practical Considerations
With leaves to rake, gardens to tend, and hatches to batten down in preparation for Father Winter, are you wondering how you'll find time to create a fall centerpiece? It won't take much of your precious time if you aim for simplicity and functionality. Some of the most innovative and inspired decorating ideas are created from a few basic design elements.
You also can avoid future storage dilemmas by creating a centerpiece from items suited to become part of your year-round decor, and perishables that can be consumed or discarded once Father Winter sends word that it's time for a new centerpiece.
Innovative Fall Centerpiece No. 1: Flaming Wood
This practical yet attractive fall centerpiece does double duty as a napkin holder. Using a combination of red, orange and yellow stiff cloth napkins and a root bowl, create a display of colorful flames emanating from wood.
Root bowls, made from tree stumps, rely on natural features for their beauty including growth rings, gnarls and color variations in the wood. When you are finished with your centerpiece, you can recommission the root bowl for other uses.
To make a flaming wood fall centerpiece, iron any creases out of the flame-colored napkins spray it with fabric starch if needed. Intersperse the different color napkins in the root bowl with their corners pointed upward and outward to resemble flames.
Make sure to have extra napkins on hand, ready to add to your innovative centerpiece to replace napkins as they are used.
Innovative Fall Centerpiece No. 2: Nut Bowl with Squirrels
This simple fall centerpiece is both functional and adorable. Fill a root bowl or rustic basket to the top with edible nuts. Arrange ceramic squirrels amid the nuts. Keep a nutcracker handy so the nuts can be eaten.
Innovative Fall Centerpiece No. 3: Mottled Candy Jar
The treasured button jar has moved into the light as a decorating element, not merely a utility hidden away in the sewing box. Instead of filling a jar with buttons to create an interesting design, this centerpiece uses colorful candies.
Using only color, you can give the dining room a distinctive autumn feel. Choose an attractively shaped clear glass container with a slip-on lid, whose neck is wide enough to insert your hand easily. Fill the glass container with candy coated chocolates in autumn colors: reds, yellows, browns and oranges. Arrange the candies to mimic the mottled coloration of autumn leaves.
This fun centerpiece gives you the added bonus of eating the green and blue candies.
Innovative Fall Centerpiece No. 4: Blooming Autumn Flowers
Using a root planter, you can enjoy the natural look of a root bowl but incorporate live flowers into your fall centerpiece. Choose seasonal flowers such as chrysanthemums or, if traditional autumn colors don't appeal to you, try pink, white or purple asters or elegant Japanese anemones.
When it's time to retire the centerpiece, the entire arrangement can be moved from the table, or the plant can be repotted and the root planter reused for an updated seasonal planting.
Innovative Fall Centerpiece No. 5: Seed Jar
In the same way that clear jars of pasta and grains beautify kitchen counters, you can use jars filled with seeds or beans to create an eye-catching dining table centerpiece. Use edible sunflower seeds, brilliant red magnolia seeds, or yellow popcorn kernels, alone or in combination, to fill a clear glass jar. For a different look, substitute a variety of dried beans or peas for the seeds. If desired, adorn the seed jar with a complementary-colored ribbon tied into a bow.
You can make any one of these simple, functional fall centerpieces in a jiffy at minimal expense to give your dining area an autumn feel.
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