Today I’m joining my good Friend Cindy at County Road 407 for her monthly Pinterest Challenge.
Autumn Decor with Elements of Nature is all about bringing the outdoors inside to create beautiful, farmhouse decor with natural vignettes.
Today I’m sharing several different vignettes that I’ve created around the farmhouse using fall foliage, dried stems, and twigs mixed with vintage containers and faux stems.
Pinterest Challenge
This months Pinterest Challenge comes from How to Decorate with Real Branches for Fall from Sarah Joy Blog and here is the inspiration photo.

If you are joining me from Cindy at County Road 407, welcome. Didn’t you just love Cindy’s cozy fall decor. All the other inspiration will be linked at the end of this post. You will want to click each link.
Elements of Nature
What can you bring inside to create interesting, autumn vignettes without spending any money?
What are elements of nature?
Here are a few things that occur naturally as fall approaches.
- Acorns, persimmons and gum balls fall from the trees
- Leaves begin to turn colors and branches become bare
- Flowers begin to dry and fade
- Grapevines are easily pulled from the trees
All of these naturally occurring events allow you to pull from nature for Autumn Decorating.
Cautions about Bringing the outdoors inside
First, a few preventive measures should be taken when bringing the outdoors inside. You may bring unwanted guests into your home.
Here are a couple of way to prevent uninvited guests.
- Place stems, flowers, acorns, etc. in a large bag and spray into the bag with insect repellant. Seal bag for 24 hours to be sure everything is dead.
- Smaller items such as acorns and gum balls can be placed in the freezer for a few days to kill any bugs.
- Larger items can be sprayed with insect repellant and left outdoors. Most bugs will find a new home.
Farmhouse Decor for Autumn
First, creating a rustic farmhouse decor is easy with a few DIY grapevines and some gathered acorns.
To create easy wreaths and candle rings, pull grapevine from the trees before the vines begin to dry. When the vine is more pliable, it is easy to form into a wreath shape.
Next, add some acorns to a hurricane vase and fill in around the candle. Be sure to use a candle poured in a secure glass container to prevent creating a fire hazard.
I like to use Antique Candle Co. candles as you can see in the below photo.

You can see more details of this fall tablescape here.
For my next farmhouse decor autumn vignette, I combined Dried Okra Pods, Wheat Stems and Gum Balls with vintage milk glass vases.

Elements of Nature floral arrangement
I love to forage for fall decor and another great idea is to gather stems laden with persimmons. These stem are great for a simple, but beautiful arrangement for the greenhouse.
For this arrangement, I used a thrifted amber vessel to hold the persimmon stems.

You can see more of the greenhouse decorated for fall on the DIY Greenhouse Fall Tour.
This trash day, roadside ice cream churn loves being filled with floral arrangements all year long. For fall, I combined autumn foliage, marigolds and some faux stems to create a centerpiece for the screened porch coffee table.

Another screened porch arrangement combines dried eucalyptus with foraged autumn foliage in a ironstone pitcher.

The hanging basket is filled with foraged elements of nature.

Dried Flowers for Autumn Decor
You can add dried flowers such as hydrangeas or zinnias to your home to create autumn decor.
Although you technically need to plant these flowers, if you live in the south, you would think they are a natural element.
I like to cut and dry both to use all year long.
This vintage dough bowl holds a large selection from this season.
The dried hydrangeas will hold their color if kept away from the sun.

Another great stem to cut and use all year long is pussy willow branches.
Here, a large basket full fills a corner of my office area.

A basket of last years dried hydrangeas have faded to brown after a year in the greenhouse.

Bare Branches
As autumn turns to winter, the branches become bare and this gnarly tree limb was rescued from a neighbors trash pile. I will be adding a few twinkle lights as we move into Christmas decor.
I also like adding bare branches to outdoor flower containers during the fall and winter. It’s a great way to keep your containers full until spring flowers appear again.

This DIY apothecary cabinet is still a favorite furniture transformation and all the details are on this post.
I hope you enjoyed these vignettes and you are inspired to bring the outdoors inside with some elements of nature.
Time to continue on the tour
Next up is Christy at Our Southern Home and you are going to love her cozy fall vignette. Be sure to click each link below to follow along on the tour.
Thanks for stopping by today. I look forward to sharing my next adventure with you!

Pin it to remember it


christy @ our southern home
Wednesday 3rd of November 2021
Rachel, That greenhouse is just fabulous. I love all the ways that uses branches in your vignettes. I must say that those are the prettiest dried hydrangeas.
Rachel
Friday 5th of November 2021
Christy, I really appreciate this.
Marty
Thursday 28th of October 2021
Oh wow, all of your leaves, twigs and flower arrangements are stunning. I loved them all. Tons of inspiration too.
rahrags@gmail.com
Thursday 28th of October 2021
Marty, I'm so glad you liked them.
Carol@Blueskyathome
Wednesday 27th of October 2021
Rachel, what wonderful ideas! You are so lucky to have access to real fall foliage. All your vignettes are so pretty and I love your containers. I’m jealous of your screened in porch.
rahrags@gmail.com
Wednesday 27th of October 2021
Carol, This is so sweet. I appreciate your compliments.
Cindy@CountyRoad407
Tuesday 26th of October 2021
Love each of your ideas and all the new inspo. Still trying to find an old ice cream container. Thank you for joining us this month. Pinned
rahrags@gmail.com
Wednesday 27th of October 2021
Cindy, I appreciate your encouragement.
Michelle | Thistle Key Lane
Tuesday 26th of October 2021
I want to copy all your ideas Rachel! The gorgeous basket filled with pussy willow branches in your office has to be my favorite! Pinning lots of images!
rahrags@gmail.com
Tuesday 26th of October 2021
Michelle, I really appreciate your words of encouragement.