DIY Fall Festival and Autumn Highlights

Welcome back to the week DIY Fall Festival! You’re invited to share your fall craftiness and autumn decorating or browse the links to visit our festive blog friends already all decked out for fall! There were so many great links last week. Here are a few fall favorites:

5 Minute Fall Crafts

Super cute canning lid pumpkin tutorial at Simply Klassic Home.

canning lid pumpkin tutorial

Looking for an easy autumn decorating or fall gift idea? Check out the cute vintage Halloween (or any season) candle tutorial over at Confessions of a Plate Addict.

easy seasonal candle

Fall plates craft by Dear Emmeline.

fall plate craft

Last week I shared my DIY yarn pumpkins, a super easy and quick fall project:

how to make yarn pumpkins

Fall Mantels

The fabulous fall mantel at Mom4Real has the perfect combination of texture, fall colors and a fun pop of whimsy in that polka dotted pitcher.

fall mantle at Mom4Real blog

Remodelando la Casa has a fall mantel full of DIY goodies. Love the burlap fall blocks and her awesome painted tree with falling flying leaves is perfect for the autumn season!

fall mantel 

DIY Show Off Fall Festival Party

<div align="center"><a href="https://diyshowoff.com/category/holidays-seasonal/fall-festival/" title="DIY Show Off Fall Festival Party" target="_blank"><img src="http://i899.photobucket.com/albums/ac195/Roeshel/DIYFALLFESTIVAL.jpg" alt="DIY Show Off Fall Festival Party" style="border:none;" /></a></div>
  • Link YOUR NEW FALL DO-IT-YOURSELF projects only please! If linking an old project, please reintroduce in a Fall 2012 post to share.
  • Please link back to this party in some way.
  • By linking up you give permission to be a favorite fall DIY feature {with a link back your site}.
  • I will share links to your post on Facebook, Twitter, G+ and Pinterest. Feel free to do the same! Thanks!



This week, I’ll be working on some fall decorating {finally!}. In the meantime, here is our fall decorated dining room last year…

Spring Mantel & 3D Love Letters wall art

I love spring and we have been having some ah-mazing nearly summer-like weather with lots of sunshine and warmer-than-usual temps. Nothing lifts my spirits more than open windows, fresh air and no snow. It’s motivation to do-it-yourself (that’s a verb, right?) something pretty, colorful and fun. A spring mantel:

DIY spring mantel

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DIY Show Off – Living Room Before and After Reveal

LivingRoom Transformation:  Here it is when we bought our home. Before, at time of closing:
Lots of strange angled corners to work with.
We repurposed this mirror by taking it down and framing it (more details here). It hangs in our back entry way.
The white walls were painted wallpaper. Fun!
We also tore out the nasty carpet and refinished the wood floors.
Then, I always wanted a red room. So – I painted the room red. It wasn’t quite what I pictured but I really loved it for a little bit. Excuse the mess. Some of these I snapped right before I began painting.
We installed French doors between the living room and family room.
We mounted the tv above the fireplace…I’m not sure if you can tell, but there aren’t a lot of options (wall 1=staircase, wall 2 = entry to hall and built-in shelving, wall 3 = French doors, wall 4 window/fireplace/window). It’s really not too high for viewing. We’ve adjusted to it being there. Our wood burning fireplace isn’t used at this time (another future project). Since behind the fireplace is a brick chimney and the walls are plaster, I currently hide the wires with garland (upcoming project to build up the fireplace surround will take care of that problem). Brick? Someday we’ll replace it with marble and I got a dirty look when I suggested we paint it. Mr. DIY does not like painted brick.
It didn’t take long before I didn’t grew tired of dark red. The room wasn’t getting any light. It just didn’t “feel” like the right color.
Here it is today:
Color is Benjamin Moore Smoky Taupe. It changes color in different lighting.
Mr. DIY’s leather chair has been replaced with another leather chaise. Compromise.
Updated pictures below.
My thrift store find – wine corks.
Vintage French linen pillows – Restoration Hardware
French pediment – Ballard (I plan on adding more trim to the French door to fill in the gap)
It’s weathered and says “Flanders Sweet Shop”
Drapery is from Target and Ebay. I ordered an extra panel to lengthen them. I love them framing the French doors.
I scored a bunch of vintage boxes and crates at an estate sale (3 are the same found at Pottery Barn for $24. I paid $8 ea!). This little box holds the remote controls.
Wall art from vintageprintables.com. Tips for hanging a wall gallery.
My style? You’ll see that I have a bit of interior design ADD. French, vintage, traditional, farmhouse and so on but the thing I love about designing my own space is that I can decorate with things I love and I don’t have to follow any rules. And we’re obviously not minimalists. It’s for us, not for a decorating magazine, right? We love how much taller and bigger the room looks and our mix of decorating styles works for us. I’d love new furniture but it’s not in the budget and this set from the 90s is in excellent shape. It works for now.
A few updated photos/fall decorated…
before
after
before
after
French doors in living room
before
AFTER

aged, vintage inspired wall letters
What do you think?
gallery wall, thrift store wall art, console table, stair wall, living room
eclectic traditional living room

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