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!
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.
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.
This post may contain affiliate links. See my disclosure statement.
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!
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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
JOIN THE OSP COMMUNITY
Sign up to get uncomplicated recipes, unlimited seasonal decor, and
understated ways to refresh your home sent straight to your email inbox!
The Autumn Market
A collection of wonderful
fall decor items,
curated especially for you.
This is beautiful Ann! Those gourds will last a long time. Great idea!
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!
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.
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!
I look forward to reading your blogs, I have enjoyed them so much. I appreciate you!
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.