Decorating For Fall When You Don’t Like The Color Orange
Fall decorating without orange is simple. Use your home’s color palette, muted tones, and natural accents for a beautiful seasonal look.
Fall decorating does not have to mean bright orange pumpkins and leaves. If orange isn’t a color you enjoy in your home, there are plenty of other ways to bring the cozy feeling of autumn inside. The good news is that neutral palettes, natural elements, and layers of texture are just as seasonal and often more versatile.
Let’s talk about how to decorate for fall without using orange so your home still feels warm and inviting.
Why Skip Orange?
Traditional fall decorating often leans on orange due to its association with pumpkins, leaves, and harvest themes. But for many homes, orange can feel overpowering or clash with an existing color palette. Skipping orange lets you create a softer, more natural look that works beautifully with neutrals, muted tones, and timeless textures.
I actually like orange, but not necessarily pumpkin orange. Much of my fall decor features other colors, like butterscotch, green, brown, and creamy whites. This year I cut drying hydrangeas from my garden that had turned a deep burgundy (Ruby Slipper variety). When I styled them in a basket in our living room, I was so surprised by how much I loved this additional color for fall.
Pro Tip
Look to your own garden for unexpected fall colors. Drying blooms, branches, and leaves often surprise you with shades that add richness and variety to your seasonal decor.
Choose A Color Palette You Love
The most important tip for decorating for fall without orange is to look at the colors in your home. If your palette leans neutral, creamy whites, warm beiges, or soft grays can be the backdrop for dried grasses, wooden bowls, and white pumpkins. If you use blues, consider layering in navy, denim, or even muted teal with natural elements like pinecones and branches. Homes with greens can play up olive, sage, or moss. Even pinks or blush tones can feel seasonal when paired with copper or gold accents and cozy textiles.
When you pull fall colors from your own palette, the look feels natural and intentional. Your home will look like itself—just dressed for the season.
Color Tip
Before buying new fall decor, take a walk through your home and notice the colors you already use. Choosing fall items that echo those shades makes your seasonal look feel natural and intentional.
For more on choosing colors that work together, see Clean And Dirty Colors: Undertones Are The Key To A Cohesive Home.
What Colors Are Trending This Fall
Every year, certain colors and textures stand out. Currently, muted jewel tones, such as plum, burgundy, and beautiful greens, are making an appearance in seasonal decorating. Brown has been a trending darling for a couple of years and could be worked into almost any color story to add a subtle richness and depth.
Adding even one or two of these colors to your existing palette can make your fall decor feel fresh and current.
Fall Color Story Ideas Without Orange
One of the easiest ways to decorate for fall is to use the colors you already love in your home and build a fall look around them. Here are a few color stories that work beautifully in almost any home:
- Blue + White + Wood Tones: Navy, denim, and muted blues paired with crisp whites and warm wood. Add white pumpkins, woven baskets, and brass accents.
- Sage + Cream + Natural Wood: Sage or olive with creamy whites and natural wood creates a calm, earthy palette. Add eucalyptus, plaid throws, and pale pumpkins.
- Blush + Taupe + Antique Gold: Blush tones with taupe and gold feel soft and seasonal. Layer in velvet pillows, wheat bundles, and cream candles.
- Gray + Black + Linen: For a modern look, stick with charcoal and gray accented with linen. Add boucle pillows, stone bowls, and gray gourds.
- Brown + Cream + Green: Soft brown, cream, and green look timeless with pinecones, leather, and dark wood accents.
Pro Tip
Pro Tip: Pick one accent color from your existing palette and repeat it in at least three places around a room. That repetition is what makes your fall decor feel intentional.
If You Still Want a Hint of Orange
If you don’t love bright pumpkin orange but still want a little nod to the season, try working with softer shades. Burnt orange, rust, and terracotta evoke a sense of groundedness and naturalness, especially when paired with creams, browns, and muted greens, as well as blue and white.
Coral can also be beautiful with blush, taupe, or brass accents. These shades give a warm seasonal look without overwhelming your home.
Pro Tip
Use muted orange tones in small ways, like a throw pillow, a ceramic vase, or a single candle. A little goes a long way when you’re working with stronger colors.
Use Texture And Layers
Fall decorating is really about adding layers. A soft throw tossed over the back of a chair, a couple of textured pillow covers, or a woven basket filled with pinecones or dried hydrangeas will give your rooms that cozy seasonal feeling. Think about what makes a space feel warm to the touch.
Wool, boucle, linen, and nubby cottons all add that extra bit of comfort.
You’ll be amazed at how a few well-placed layers can transform a room into one that’s ready for fall.
Use Natural Elements
Nature is the easiest way to bring fall indoors without using orange. A vase filled with eucalyptus, a bowl of acorns, or a bundle of wheat on a table looks instantly seasonal. Dried hydrangeas or branches cut from the yard are beautiful in large containers. If you love pumpkins, choose white, gray, or soft green varieties.
These simple touches create a fall feeling while keeping your home’s palette intact.
Reimagine Fall Staples
You don’t need to skip the things we associate with fall, just reinterpret them. Pumpkins look lovely painted to match your decor. I do this often! Wreaths can be made with dried grasses or seed pods instead of orange leaves. Candles in creamy white or smoky glass give the same soft glow as their brighter cousins.
Even a lantern filled with pinecones or moss makes a cozy fall statement.
Sensory Touches Beyond Visual
Fall decorating is about more than just what you see. A home feels cozy when all the senses are engaged. Light a candle with a warm seasonal scent, simmer a pot of spices on the stove, or set out a basket of cinnamon-scented pinecones.
Use soft lighting from lamps or lanterns instead of overhead lights to create a golden glow in the evenings. Even adding a soft playlist of quiet instrumental music can set the tone for autumn evenings at home.
For more inspiration, see our Easy-to-Make Fall Simmer Pot. Your home will be filled with the aromas of the season.
A Simple DIY To Try
If you want a quick project, buy a bag of small faux pumpkins and paint them to match your home’s palette. Use chalk paint for a matte finish and display them in a bowl, on a mantel, or on a table. It’s inexpensive, easy, and gives you pumpkins in exactly the right colors.
Why not gild pumpkins for a little soft bling? See How To Gild Pumpkins.
The faux pumpkins below were once orange. I painted them with craft paints and added a sealing wax to give them a realistic look. Then I glued real stems to them.
Pro Pumpkin Tip
Swap out the plastic stems on faux pumpkins with real ones for a fool-the-eye look. At the end of the season, pop the stems off your real pumpkins and glue them onto your faux pumpkins. They’ll look so much more realistic year after year.
Favorite Fall Finds
Frequently Asked Questions About Decorating For Fall Without Using Orange
There are so many colors that are found in nature during the fall. Some of the most versatile are cream, taupe, olive, sage, navy, plum, and cocoa brown. They pair beautifully with natural textures.
Even though a pumpkin is an iconic element of fall, there are so many other natural items that this season has to offer. Branches, dried grasses, acorns, and cozy textiles all say fall without using a single pumpkin.
Store dried florals away from direct sunlight, wipe down pumpkins before displaying, and keep organics in cool areas.
More Fall Posts To Enjoy
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How To Create A Beautifully Elevated Fall Look In Your Home
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10 Inexpensive Fall Organics To Use In Your Home
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Decorating A Fall Mantel With A TV or Artwork
Learn how to style a beautiful fall mantel when your focal point is a TV or large artwork.
Fall Decorating On A Budget: 11 Easy And Beautiful Ideas
Discover creative and affordable fall decorating ideas that make a big impact without breaking the bank.
Fall decorating doesn’t have to include orange to look seasonal. By using your home’s color palette, adding natural elements, layering texture, and including small sensory touches, you can create a home that feels warm, personal, and ready for the season.
What colors are you decorating with this fall? I’d love to hear in the comments.
Happy fall decorating… without orange, friend.
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Hi Yvonne, Enjoyed your post, photos, and ideas about fall decorating without using orange. Your home is beautiful. Thank you
Aren’t you so sweet, Annette! I was surprised when I got all the photos together how little orange I actually use. Next week’s porch post is just the opposite. I embrace pumpkin orange.