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Make this foraged tabletop decor for fall with greenery found in your yard. Add natural elements like small pumpkins, gourds, pine cones, or berries for a one-of-a-kind creation!

dining room with board and batten fall tabletop decor

Up today is tabletop decor for fall made from foraged materials, featuring our lovely dining room table at the Sutton Place house. This project was inspired by a photo featured in the Fall edition of Country Home Magazine a few years ago. I loved it the minute I saw it, and it was so easy to recreate.

foraged tabletop decor inspiration

My favorite aspect about this tabletop decor is that it’s very easy to add your own personal touch. Use any greenery growing in your yard. Use whatever pumpkins & gourds you already have, or can get at your grocery store. It may be too early for juniper berries, but bittersweet would be lovely. Read on for the easy instructions.

foraged centerpiece for fall tabletop decor

What is foraged?

To forage means to conduct a wide search over an area in order to obtain something, usually food or provisions. In this case, I’m referring to the greenery and pine cones needed to make this tabletop decor. Instead of heading to the nearest nursery or florist, I simply stepped outside and gathered what I needed. Of course, I didn’t forage the pumpkins and gourds…but if you grew them in your garden, you definitely could!

traditional dining room with fall centerpiece

Be Careful

If you are foraging for greenery in someplace other than your yard, please be careful. It’s a good idea to wear gloves, and take along garden pruners. Watch out for poison ivy, poison oak, or other undesirable plants.

foraged centerpiece tabletop decor

Gather your materials

  • 2 types of fresh greenery: boxwood, cedar, cypress, seeded eucalyptus, anything you have in your yard.
  • Mini pumpkins + gourds.
  • Pine cones: vary the sizes.
  • Real or faux berries or bittersweet. (Optional)
tabletop decor boxwood and cedar branches

Place something for protection on your table

If your table is wood, or some other material that may be damaged by the greenery, a table runner or tablecloth works well to protect it. If your table is metal, laminate, or something that won’t absorb moisture, no table covering is needed. I used a DIY tasseled burlap table runner.

natural fall centerpiece on burlap table runner 2022

Place the greenery

Begin by placing one of the types of greenery on the table. Start in the middle, and work out to the left and right. When your first type of greenery is where you want it, place the second type. There is no right or wrong way to do this! Simply lay your pieces of greenery in a flowing pattern.

tabletop decor for fall

Add the embellishments

Nestle the mini pumpkins, gourds, and pine cones in and around the greenery. Mix up the types of pumpkins and gourds, and vary the colors. This idea can easily be adapted to any season, and any decor style. I shared similar centerpiece ideas using eucalyptus, and faux lamb’s ear.

burlap table runner with fall centerpiece

I want to say thank you to those of you who make it to the end of my posts. I know your lives are busy, and I don’t take the fact that you’re here for granted. Each one of you is important to me, and you keep me going. I haven’t told you that in a while, so I just wanted to make sure you all knew.

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PAINT COLOR GUIDE

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fall bouquet element

The Autumn Market

A collection of wonderful
fall decor items,
curated especially for you.

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18 Comments

  1. Liz/Home and Gardening With Liz says:

    This is beautiful Ann! Those gourds will last a long time. Great idea!

  2. Mary Sullivan says:

    Ann, you have no idea how welcome it is to see your blog email pop up on our email.
    I love all of your ideas and have incorporated so many into our home, you would feel right at home here. I especially love using items that I forage in my own yard. Sometimes these items need to be replaced in 10 days or so, but when I do they new woodsy smell comes with it. My newly retired hubby and I just today finished decorating our front porch for the harvest season. It turned out lovely. He had built me a wooden wheelbarrow out of old fence boards, so we filled it with pumpkins and fall leaves. Thank you again for all of your ideas and please keep them coming!

  3. Jan Fusco says:

    I enjoy your blog so much. And I love this fall centerpiece. I think I’m going to try it in November. (I’m a huge Halloween decorator so my house is all about that right now. We have over 400 trick or treaters). I was wondering if you spray your greenery with anything or prep it in some way to assure they don’t bring in any bugs.

  4. Your centerpiece is beautiful Ann, just like all of your decorating ideas. I have admired the numbered plate on your wall in other posts you have shared. Is there a post with DYI instructions for the plate?
    Thank you so much! You are appreciated!

  5. Jeanie Nichols says:

    I look forward to reading your blogs, I have enjoyed them so much. I appreciate you!

  6. 5 stars
    Lovely idea and economical, too. You could use faux pumpkins, real or faux fruit, add some candlesticks, etc. You are only as limited as your imagination–my kind of project! Thanx.

  7. How perfectly simple and beautiful! Love it, Ann!

    1. Ann Drake says:

      Thank you…and thanks for getting us together!

  8. I love foraging for tablescapes and do it all the time in our lush gardens! This is so inspiring Ann!

    1. Ann Drake says:

      Thank you Janet…you are so lucky your gardens are still lush. Mine is over for the season!

  9. Susan Horn says:

    We all appreciate you & love your posts! I get so many ideas from you and need the push to decorate! Why decorate when no one comes over!! But you make us feel good about ourselves and we need to do for ourselves! Thank YOU!!!

  10. MARY-ANN (FROM CANADA!) says:

    Ann, your foraged fall centrepiece is so pretty! What a great idea! Your instructions for this — and everything you bring us — are so easy to follow! You inspire us!

    I thank you for every post you have brought to us during this covid crisis. You have always been there and have been such a ray of sunshine throughout this time. How we pray that a vaccine will soon be available.

    Covid has just hit our province big time. There are so many restrictions placed on us right now. Some are needed but others are definitely not. Sometimes I feel that our government has gone overboard and those making some of the decisions just don’t have the knowledge they need to do so!

    Thanks, Ann, for being so special! We appreciate all you do for us!

  11. Pamela Turner says:

    Hi Ann,

    I love this natural centerpiece with organic materials, great textures and colors. Bonus that it would be long lasting!

    I found and started reading your blog earlier this year and hadn’t yet stopped to comment. Your voice offers calm and serenity with lots of pretty things to look at and great ideas.

    Thanks for sharing all you do with us.🙂

    Best,
    Pam
    P.S. I have the same China pattern as yours!

  12. I love this centerpiece. I have done something similar for Christmas. I never would have thought of doing it for fall, but it really turned out great. Thank YOU for being there for us. I always enjoy your posts and look forward to reading them. Your ideas and recipes are very practical and “do-able”, which I appreciate!

  13. Not read Ann to end…NEVER! You are my favorite blogger. I love the foraged table decor. At our house it would have to be all artificial though because of Mr. Jingles the cat! He is not allowed on the table…but he is a cat!

  14. Trust me, reading your posts has been a great comfort in these trying times. I started looking at blogs a few years back when my husband and I were estranged from both our sons. Coupled with the fact that we had downsized to a home where we didn’t have any friends, it was a lonely, sad time for me. I considered the people in these blogs my friends and all of you became my lifeline.
    Things are fine now with our boys (44and 48) but this past year has taken its toll on a lot of us. I appreciate all the work and ingenuity that each of you bring to us.

  15. I love this centerpiece! I live in N. Alabama and plan to add some Magnolia branches and seed pods to mine.
    The past months have been a challenge! I appreciate you continuing your daily emails to us! Thanks!!

  16. Ann, your centerpiece is beautiful. Your posts are always lovely. Yes, this year has been rough and reading your posts is a wonderful diversion. Thank you!