Celebrate Fall Outside Comfortably With The Help Of These Décor Ideas

Home & Garden Articles

If you're like most busy homeowners, chances are that you don't spend nearly enough time outside enjoying your patio furniture. So why not take the time to celebrate fall outdoors with your friends and family? Send out the party invitations and prepare by decorating your patio with the help of these ideas:

Create Crafty Table and Chair Covers

A great way to brighten things up for your fall celebration is to make simple covers for your outdoor table and chairs. The extra cushioning of the chair covers will keep guests comfortable as they dine or play games, and the table cover will give the space a warm and inviting feeling. Here's how to make your own covers:

• Head to your local fabric store and find some fabric on sale that comes in fall colors like brown, yellow, and orange.
• At home, use stencils of leaves and other fall shapes like acorns to decorate the material. Markers, paint, and even glitter are great decorating options.
• Cut the material to a size that when it hangs over the table, there are about three inches hanging over the edges.
• Cut the rest of the material into pieces that hang loosely over each chair.

It's a good idea to place a throw pillow on the seat of each chair for added comfort and to hold the chair cover in place.  on the other hand, if you would like to replace your outdoor furniture with new pieces, try checking out Modern Home 2 Go.

Set the Ambience with Special Lighting

Most patio lights are very bright, so they can be an impersonal way to brighten things up in your party space. However, there are lots of fun ways to create a more intimate atmosphere while still making sure that there is plenty of light to go around, such as:

• Implementing tiki torches around the entire perimeter of the patio.
• Hang holiday lights up along the top of the patio.
• Hang a few candle lanterns from the patio roof.

If you anticipate your celebration to last into the night, it is helpful to implement more than one unique lighting feature in the space to accommodate various scenarios that might come up, such as cloudiness or a bright moon.

Warm Things Up With Your Centerpiece

Celebrating during the fall months usually means fighting off the chills, which is easy to do by warming the centerpiece of your table up. You'll get extra light, better ambience, and a great conversation piece out of it. Try some of these options:

• Use a tabletop fireplace as the centerpiece.
• Put enough candles on an old serving platter that when lit, they provide some warmth to those sitting nearby.
• Decorate a portable space heater with chalk to use as your centerpiece.

Portable masonry heaters are also a decorative way to add warmth and light to your celebration space.

Keep Annoying Pests Away From the Party

Let's face it—spending time outside means having to fight off the flying pests and crawling bugs as they inevitably come out of the woodworks. Luckily, there are a variety of herbs and flowers that can be used to keep pests away from your celebration while brightening things up with color and design. You can incorporate one or all of the following choices to get good results:

• Lavender, marigolds, and lemon balm are effective at repelling mosquitoes.
• Keep ants away with the help of fragrant mint and colorful tansy.
• Use pretty sachets full of flowers, bay leaves, and catnip to get rid of nasty cockroaches.

A variety of these herbs and flowers can be used in vase arrangements, as potpourri, and they can even be strewn on the floor to give the patio a fall feel.

These ideas will help to liven up your outdoor celebration space and ensure that you and your guests stay comfortable the entire afternoon.

30 October 2014