Home Style: Building blocks for great fall displays

Decorating your home for fall can sound like a daunting job. But it's a lot of fun and really easy to do when you have the right tools. Through the years, I've come up with a short list of must-have decorating building blocks I use over and over again to create memorable fall displays. Here are a few of my favorites.

While wooden dough bowls make great year-round decorating tools, I think they look their very best in fall displays. The aged wood brings in a wonderful soft brown color and the subtle grain lends interesting texture.

Rugged, scooped-out bowls are ideal for holding a cornucopia of fall decor, like branches bearing autumn leaves, twists of fall vines and berries, mounds of gourds, hedge apples and fall fruits. We sometimes place lanterns, garden statues or urns in the center of the bowls, then fill in around them with fall foliage.

Twisting, turning honeysuckle vine is one of the most cost-effective yet innovative ways to add a subtle fall feel to any display. The vine comes in big rolls that look like wreaths. All you have to do is pull it apart and weave this loopy vine into any indoor and outdoor decor.

One reason honeysuckle vine has stolen my heart is because it is so incredibly easy to decorate with. You absolutely cannot make a mistake with this stuff. For instance, I can't arrange floral displays to save my life, but I can make a fall display look cool with honeysuckle vine -- it's that forgiving!

Here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing. Place groupings of pumpkins and gourds on your front steps, then weave tendrils of honeysuckle vine around them. In an instant, your ho-hum display looks more rustic and natural. Or put a gourd atop a small urn and twist some honeysuckle vine around it. You can try the same trick with a tall, thick candlestick.

I love to bring the outside in when I decorate, celebrating the natural world in my decor. And one of the most intriguing ways I've found to do this is to work tree branches into my seasonal displays. Scour your yard for great fallen branches, the more twisted and gnarled the better. For a wild bouquet in your entry, place some sticks in a large garden urn, filling in with faux foliage. Or, let an interesting branch twist across your fireplace mantel, hang down over the side of a tall bookcase or teeter on the top of a window or doorway.

Like dough bowls, lanterns make great additions to displays all year long, but they are especially wonderful in the fall and winter. There is something irresistible about the warmth of a lantern when the days are shorter and the weather colder.