How to Decorate for Fall and Pumpkin Carving Tips for Halloween

Is fall your favorite season? Can’t wait for pumpkin spice everything? Do you go hunting for beautiful autumn leaves? Is pumpkin carving your hidden talent? Decorating for fall is a big part of the season, but are you tired of your same old seasonal decor? Maybe you want some new ideas on how to decorate for fall. I’ve got some ideas for you to cozy up your home while you decorate for fall.

Fall Decorating Ideas

Around this part of the country, fall is the season for staying cozy. Whether you’re trying to figure out how to decorate your entire house for fall or just one room, like your bedroom, you are bound to find some ways to decorate your house for fall while making it feel cozy too.

Use candle lanterns

Candle lanterns add soft lighting that will help you make your home feel cozy this fall. You can find themed candle lanterns or you can make your own using mason jars, twine, and Mod Podge. DIY candle lanterns can even use real autumn leaves on the sides of jars to cast cozy yellow and red hues. Warm yellow and red light cast by candles through the leaves will create that cozy fall atmosphere that makes it feel like fall indoors.

Incense burner from Foxwood Provisions

This rustic fall-themed incense burner is a perfect way to decorate for fall, and you can burn your favorite scented incense sticks to make your house smell like fall too!

The bottle incense burner is a safe way to burn your incense with no mess as the two airflow holes on each side of the decorated bottle allow your incense stick to stay lit and scent your home while the bottle catches all of the ash.

Use duvet covers to decorate for fall

Having a fall themed and heavier duvet cover will help you make your bedroom cozy. Switch from your light summer duvet to something a bit better suited to colder nights.. When it comes to measuring warmth, look for the fill weight or fill power. You can use throws or duvet covers in your living room too to make it feel cozy.

Fall pillows

Another easy way to decorate for fall is to use pillows. This will make your house feel more cozy, and there are so many cute fall themed pillows like these:

It wouldn’t be fall without pumpkins! Here is a great book to get you started on your pumpkin carving! Pumpkins are a great way to decorate the outside for fall!

Easy Pumpkin Carving

Did you know that this Halloween season, 64 million Americans will carve a pumpkin? Easy Pumpkin Carving: Spooktacular Patterns, Tips & Ideas can help you make the best jack-o-lantern on the block.

Traditional Pumpkin Carving Techniques
By Colleen Dorsey

Here they are, the very essentials of pumpkin carving! By following these steps that you probably had down pay when you were a kid, you can get carving with any traditional pumpkin carving pattern. You’ll need a little elbow grease and a tolerance for mess to use this technique, but it’s totally worth it.

Pre-Carving Pumpkin Prep

Eat some pumpkin donuts…that’s to give you some energy to get that carving done!

1. Clean the Pumpkin

First, prep the pumpkin first by rinsing it in cold water and using a scrub brush to remove dirt. If you want, you can spray the entire pumpkin with a mild bleach and water solution to kill mold and bacteria.

2. Cut out the Lid

Next, use a sturdy knife to slowly and carefully carve out and remove the lid of the pumpkin, going in at an angle rather than straight down in. Alternatively, you can cut a hole in the bottom of the pumpkin, which will mean you can sit your pumpkin on top of a light rather than placing a light inside the pumpkin.

3. Clean Out the Guts

Use a scoop to completely empty the inside of the pumpkin of flesh and seeds. Keep scraping away at the inner walls of the pumpkin until you only have about a 1” (2.5cm) thick pumpkin wall that is nice and smooth.

4. Attach the Pattern

Transfer the pattern using your desired method. Check out Easy Pumpkin Carving for tons of patterns to choose from.

Carving Tips

• Actually carving your pumpkin is simple enough. Here are some tips to make carving easy and effective:
• Saw steadily with a continuous up and down motion, and don’t press too hard or try to go too fast.
• When you’re finished cutting out a standalone piece (like an eye), pop it out of the pumpkin wall with your finger, not your carving tool.
• To cut clean, sharp corners, remove and reinsert the carving tool.
• Carve starting from the inside of the design and working your way outward.
• Resist the urge to put your free hand inside the pumpkin while carving. Only do so if you can clearly see where all of your hand is.
• If you accidentally break off a part of your carving as you work, such as a protruding tooth, stick it back on with a toothpick!

Finally, Preserve Your Pumpkin!

Keep your carved pumpkin cool and out of the direct sunlight (you can even put it in the fridge). You can also coat the interior and all cut edges with petroleum jelly to help lock in the pumpkin’s natural moisture, or purchase special preservative sprays for pumpkins.

Furthermore, if you’ve got etching tools, you can use those as this is another great way to decorate your pumpkin! Just be sure to clean it and preserve it as above.