The Fall Den

Hello everyone!  I'm trying really hard to get some "photo shoots" of the various rooms in the house while it's still technically Fall.  I told my husband that in a few weeks, I'll be seeing posts about Christmas and Christmas home tours in blog land.  Here are some fall pics for you before we all have to start thinking about Christmas.

I enjoyed putting together our fall mantle this year.  I'll be switching out the picture above the mantle in a few weeks to our winter print.  It's a snow scene, and I thought it was a bit early yet for that.  

I've used the mercury glass pumpkin here before, and I brought it out again this autumn.  I've had fun adding to my collection of faux pumpkins this year.

I've used one of my velvet pumpkins on the mantle this year; this was a HomeGoods find earlier this fall.  I have a larger one that I found there last year.  Good old HomeGoods -- one of my favorite shopping places.  To the right of the pumpkin, a pair of faux antlers that I purchased three or four years ago.  To the left of the pumpkin is a big acorn, found at the hospital gift shop when I was visiting my dad in the hospital.  My mom and I both got some of these.

 I had a bag with different kinds of moss from Michael's, which I've used to fill in around the pumpkins and acorns.  There were also some bits of lichen in with the moss, and I've added those, too.  I love the natural, outdoorsy look of the mantle this year.

I also used silk leaves to add more color and texture.

On the other end of the mantle, I've placed more faux pumpkins, two more acorns, and my barley twist candlesticks.

I just love these big acorns, and they were such a great price.

A shot of the hearth.  I'm still loving gingham -- it looks good with so many things.

The berries on this pillow look red, but they're actually orange -- perfect for fall.

You can see our new carpet in this shot; we were so relieved to get the old stuff replaced.  I'll give a review of this carpet at the end of the post.  The English foxes are back.  This is the first time I've put them here in almost four years, because I was afraid that our little"fox" would try to nab them.  😉 🐶 🐾  Duncan grabbed everything that wasn't moving when he was still a puppy, so I figured it was easier just to leave the foxes packed away.  He tried to get them a few times the first night I had them out, but since then he's left them alone.

They're so cute dressed in their English hunt clothes.  ;)  The cozy Scottish blanket hangs on the back of the chair through fall and winter; I do love me some tartan plaid.  :)

You've seen most of the things on these bookshelves before.  I got my pottery mugs back out,

and the candle holder my in-laws brought me from Colorado.

The ceramic pumpkins came from HomeGoods -- made in Portugal.  These are probably meant to be soup bowls, but I enjoy using them in the den.

This room is so cheerful in fall and winter with the late afternoon sun pouring in.

It's time to replace our sofa, and I dread spending that money.  This has certainly been a good one, but it's looking kind of sad these days.  It's a sleeper sofa, and it's probably close to 30 years old.  The cushions are looking flat, and they've got some worn spots around the piping.  I know patterned sofas are not in style now, but I had this re-covered about 13 years ago, and I've always liked this fabric.  It's a Williamsburg fabric, and the colors are perfect for this room.  We also had the window valances (previous picture) made to coordinate with the sofa. Hal and I have been looking at sofas online, so if we don't have any budget emergencies, we'll probably get a new sofa after Christmas.

Got this small, glass pumpkin at Pier One earlier this week -- love the curly stem!

This punched tin lantern is actually a tart burner, but I just prefer to use it as a lantern.  I don't keep it out year-round, but I love it in the fall and winter because it puts out a cozy light on those long winter evenings.

I like to do a seasonal vignette for this chest.  This year I just added a pottery bowl filled with fall potpourri, a ceramic fleur-de-lis, and a Tom Clark gnome.  The gnome was a gift from my husband's mother.  Did you know that all of the gnomes have names?  This gnome's name is Hal -- a name he shares with my dear hubby.  :D  Since Hal the gnome is standing behind a big jack-o-lantern, I always bring him out in the fall

 
You may remember that we got new carpeting in our den and down the hallway back in the spring, as well as wood floors in the kitchen, dining room, living room, and foyer.  We love how much better everything looks, and I'll show you those other rooms in the coming days.  For our den carpet, we chose a Stainmaster pattern from Lowe's Home Improvement, and we think it's a beautiful carpet.  However, the whole Stainmaster thing has not impressed me.  Our carpet already has many stains on it, and they're not that easy to get out.  We even purchased the Stainmaster spray cleaner that Lowe's recommended, and it's been useless, as far as I'm concerned.  Having a pet in here makes it hard to keep things clean, but honestly, we've made as many stains as he has.  It seems like every time we come in from outside, something gets tracked in.  I encourage everyone to wipe their feet, but we still get dirt in here.

I will say that our old berber carpet didn't show stains as easily when it was new because it had specks of other colors woven throughout the carpet, and it just didn't show dirt as much.

 This was the previous carpet (berber) before we got Duncan.  However, that carpet was 20 years old, and Duncan had torn up a big section when he was a young puppy.  So my overall review of the new carpet is this:  The installers did a terrific job with installation, and we like the thick, Stainmaster pad we chose to go with the carpet.  As for the carpet itself, the color is just perfect for the colors in this room, and we love the pattern and quality of the carpet.  If we had chosen a darker color, it probably wouldn't show stains quite as much, but we didn't want dark carpet in this room.  This is not a sponsored review at all -- just my opinion for those who are interested. We're probably going to buy a fairly big area rug to cover the area where we seem to walk the most, and hope that helps to protect the carpet.

When we got the new carpet, we made another improvement in our den.  Hal had installed a home theater in the den about 15 years ago.  We enjoyed it for many years, but we're not watching as many movies since our son has grown up and moved away.  Since this house wasn't originally wired for a home theater system, our speakers were placed around the room on speaker stands and Hal drilled holes in the wall and the floor to run the stereo wires down to the basement.  Soooo, it was good that the wires didn't show, but the speakers were still pretty big, as were the stands.

We have a large den, but those speakers made the room look cluttered as we added more furniture over the years.  We had six speakers on the floors around the room, and two small speakers on the wall beneath the TV.  In addition to taking up a lot of our space, they attracted dust like a magnet.  Dust, dust, dust!  The speaker stands were almost impossible to keep clean.  Bless his heart, Hal was willing to take that system out when we got the new carpet, and we got a new sound system called Sonos.  We love it, and it looks so much better!!

This is our new Sonos sound bar; it's sleek and easier to keep clean and not that noticeable at the back of our stereo cabinet.  You can see a few cords and cables, but only when you're standing right in this spot.  We now have almost no cords visible in the rest of the room -- a much better look all the way around.

I wanted to share our fall den with you because this is the room where we spend the majority of our time, and I really think the room comes into its own in the fall.  Because of the paneling and the stained trim and woodwork in here, it has a more masculine look and feel.  The colors we've used are red, yellow/gold, green, and tan -- all fall colors.  Those are not colors I ever thought I'd choose in my home, but I just love them.  They make the room feel warm and relaxed, and Hal doesn't feel like he's spending time in a froufrou den. 🏈

This was a long post, and I appreciate your patience.  There was a lot to show and tell today.  :)  Thank you so much for your visit, and I'd love to know what you've been doing to celebrate fall.  I hope you have a lovely rest of the weekend.  Sharing this post at "Metamorphosis Monday," on Between Naps  on the Porch blog, hosted by Susan. 

Hugs,

Denise

**Thanks to my husband for taking all these pictures -- the lighting in this room is so hard to work with, and he did a great job!