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Easy Ideas for Bringing the Beauty of Fall Into Your Home

Bringing the look, feel and fragrances of fall into your home doesn't have to mean hiring a decorator or going on an accessory buying frenzy at your local home design store.

According to design experts at The Art Institutes schools, just a few simple and easy-to-do ideas can usher a beautiful and colorful autumn right into your home.

For Mary Saleeby, an Interior Design instructor at The Art Institute of New York City, the arrival of fall means, "It's time to put summer behind us and escape into cranberries, pomegranates and lovely leaves."

In her Manhattan home, Saleeby likes to fill glass cylinders with Clementine's and branches, and for a wonderful smell, insert four or six whole cloves into the fruit before making the arrangement or centerpiece. The cloves release their smell and the arrangement maintains its fragrance for weeks.

Pomegranates arranged in baskets are also a wonderful and affordable addition to creating a fall look for your home. Saleeby recommends taking a shallow dish or platter, lining the bottom with fresh cranberries, and insetting pumpkin scented pillar candles of various heights. "This idea works as a random arrangement or a centerpiece," she says.

"Try adding an indoor fragrant wreath or swag designed for the season," says Alma Yoss, an Interior Design instructor at The New England Institute of Art in Boston. Yoss, who lives in New Hampshire, likes to "locate the wreath close to the entry of a home and complement this with seasonal potpourri at strategic locations where people will be sitting or congregating."

Changing the color of candles and throw pillows, Yoss suggests, is another inexpensive and creative way to change your décor seasonally.

And nothing says fall like mums. Mums are very affordable at most home garden centers, and can be found in all sorts of colors, sizes and varieties. "Mums are hearty, long-lasting plants. Fill wood baskets with mums, and place them throughout your home to add freshness and color," recommends Mary Saleeby. If you live near the woods, use the great outdoors as your home design store. Saleeby likes to make door arrangements using acorns, dried leaves berries and dried apples.

Lastly, Saleeby says, "Use that special copper pot for mulled cider which will be simmering on your stove with a few cloves and cinnamon sticks."

For more information on The Art Institutes, visit www.artinstitutes.edu/nz.

Courtesy of ARAcontent