Festive Fall Home Tour at Chatham Hill on the Lake

Welcome to our First Annual Festive Fall Home Tours!

I am so excited to host this tour along with Karen at Dragonfly and Lily Pads.

We have 11 beautiful homes on this tour that will begin today and continue for the next two days.

Today we hope you stop by at:

September 22

We invite you to visit:

September 23

Open the Doors to these lovely homes!

Now on to my Home Tour!

My little greeter, BeBe is wanting to see who is coming in for the tour.

She won’t bother you unless you don’t like kisses!

 

Colorful Mums & Pumpkins clustered together create an invitation for company and even me! I love driving up to see this everyday. It really makes me happy.

This wreath is so bright and full. I had one of my less colorful wreaths on the door first but Orange is the complimentary color to Blue which is my Front Door Paint color and that makes a huge difference. Now from up the street the wreath and all its glory pop off the front door and grab your attention.

Whoops!

Before we go in, got to wipe those feet.

I know, its just too pretty isn’t it?

I love this rug. I love to find the little things that add that finishing touch and they are usually not very expensive.

You can see more of my ideas for finishing touches in my post 5 Decorator Touches & Their Sources.

I love almost all decor but I think I am very partial to a French Country Casual look for it’s quiet elegance, rugged beauty and long-standing traditional roots.

A quick history on our kitchen:

This home is 26 years old. We built it. All of the woodwork was stained Honey Oak, window trim, doors, cabinets, moldings and baseboards. Last year we finished painting all of the trim, replacing the base and had our cabinets professionally painted. What a transformation. I will share a before in another post, it is hard to imagine.

We had updated the formica counters to granite years ago and added bead board to some walls, expanded the island and added the bookcase.

The future hopefully holds updating the tile around the window sill and a backsplash. Unfortunately we need to replace our cooktop and no one makes one that large any longer so we have to get new stone for the island. I am considering a lighter top and painting out the island in a different color.

What do you think?

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This post contains affiliate links which means if you click through to a store and buy something I will receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. As you can tell I love the shops I talk about and some are not affiliates. I just want you to know where you can find them as well!

Here are my favorite candlesticks. I purchased these at Ashley Furniture and I think I only paid $36 for all three! Aren’t they gorgeous? I have always had the garden balls on the top and though it isn’t easy to see there is a tassle hanging off of one of them. To dress them up for Fall, I just tossed a few pine cones, leaves and gourd at the base. I love the simplicity of it.

 

 

Here is one of my favorite spots in the kitchen. The Bisque Deep Sink and Oil Rub Bronze Faucet add to that Casual French Country style. From the sink I get to look out at the Gazebo, Deck, Pool below and the grand field and trees where the deer roam daily. It is a very relaxing spot.

 

 

My mug tree is brand new. Just picked it out at Pier 1 Imports. I know most of you could make it yourself, but not me. Love it. Adding the Hammered Copper mugs brings the shine and sparkle of the holiday to an everyday item. I use these for all of my cool drinks because it keeps them super cold.

The little Beverage Dispenser I found at Kirklands and it is filled with fresh slices of Lemon, Lime and Orange for a high Vitamin C infused water.

And there is one of my Seasonal Soaps. I love spreading the scent of the season anyway I can…candles, soaps, and food.

 

 

Roosters are probably the epitome of French Country and this one I purchased from Uttermost which is a wholesale source for Decorators. The bowl of pears was from the same place. I think they speak Fall softly.

 

 

Another reason I think I love French Country is that you can mix antiques, primitives and new pieces all together and it just works! I love antiques. The print “Cherry Ripe” is a favorite I found in one of those antique malls. It was not expensive and I didn’t change the frame, I just loved her as I found her. She moves around a bit. Her first home was our Living Room, then on to the Dining Room and now adding some beauty and history to my Kitchen.

 

 

Several years ago I was staging a display home and I had found a pretty large pig in yellow. Well the builder decided after some time to simply purchase my furniture and accessories because he loved it so much and while it is nice to thin out the storage items, I truly love everything I purchased and I lost the pig.
So I went on a hunt for another one but all I could find was a Blue Pig!

My husband fell in love with it and thus began our little pig collection of sorts. I will show it in another post.

This little guy was probably from TJMaxx and he was the perfect addition to my wagon centerpiece.

 

 

I know you know where this is from.

Yep…it is Pier 1.

I have about 4 or 5 Fall dish sets. You can’t have pumpkins in every setting, so what a refreshing find to discover this Acorn Tureen. If you notice the dinner plate also has the acorn on it. Framed by the distressed wooden charger…if you have been a reader of mine you know how I love chargers.

Check out my tutorial on building a table setting with layers.

Just want to revisit the centerpiece here and mention how I just took some things and pulled them together. I didn’t see it anywhere. I bought the Happy Fall wagon and I had a bag of Fall gourds, leaves, pumpkins and pine cones. I put them in there and it was just too small. So I looked around the room and the little yellow pig was on the book shelf in my island. I thought “how cute you are and you need some attention!” Combining the two ( wagon and pig) makes one centerpiece with lots of interest, color and texture. And yes, it makes me happy~

I also want to point out my upholstered chairs from World Market. I love those colors. They are actually the brand colors I selected for my blog. They have a little bit of everything if you look close. When I started thinking Fall and this is the chair’s first Fall, I was worried even though as I already mentioned….orange is the complementary color for blue. But these spectacular chairs have greens, orange and even pinks in them along with the blue. I think they are going to be fabulous no matter what the season!

 

 

 

The one thing we haven’t touched and you can give me your opinion~

I have considered dry brushing our brick with a white but I would not want it totally white and I have to say I just kind of love the brick as it is. The mantle is the only wood we did not paint. Again I don’t think it would look great against the brick as it sits now if it were white. But that gives you a good idea of what our trim, cabinet, windows and even floors were all that same color wood. It is kind of orange.

So much to enjoy in this shot. The opening in our fireplace is quaint and reminds me of an old fireplace in a little cottage used for cooking. The fireplace screen is from …yep you probably guessed it

Pier 1!

The copper wood box mixed with the mercury glass candle holders and other mercury glass in the room…I just love it!

The picture is from Uttermost as well.

Now to the mantle.

I wanted it to be free flowing and have texture and color and balance.

 

 

 

The statuary could be candlesticks or a vase, anything that would bring some height and texture to the setting. Make sure not to set your pumpkins all straight up. This looks more natural, almost like you ran across them growing in the garden.

 

 

 

 

The relaxed flow of the garland hanging off the front and going up and over and around the pumpkins makes it kind of look tossed up there yet in a really pretty way!

Little things for Big Impact.

Mercury Glass Candle Holders, Mercury Glass Lamp and jugs and pumpkins.

A splash of Gold, the third metal in this room, on the pillows and a floral that is low and natural looking.

Rugged woods and tufted leather on the Chesterfield make people feel warm and welcome.

Mercury Glass just captured me when it first came out. I love its transparency, shine and the fact that it looks old and well loved. Here I just grabbed some of my collection and mixed them with glass and plastic pumpkins…hard to tell which is which right? The pine cone is an ornament~

This is my Dining Room at Chatham Hill on the Lake.

I loved finding these Copper Wine Goblets because they are most certainly surprising and unexpected. The shine so bright, I just now caught my reflection in them!

What a lovely addition to the Dining Table.

 

 

Didn’t get to the centerpiece here yet but we are definitely ready to host family and friends at our Lake Home.

I have never been one for rules when it comes to creativity.

What we really love is when someone breaks the rules. I can think of a songwriter whose song broke the rules and it is one of the most beloved contemporary songs sung in the church even though it is years old….”Shout to the Lord” by Darlene Zschech. And though I never followed this show, my daughter just had me watch the finals of “America Has Talent”  and the little winner for a Las Vegas show was a 12 year old girl singing her own songs and playing a yukalalee.

Talk about breaking the rules, right?

So when I look at napkins for the table I find some way to make them different and fun. In fact as I consider it this moment I have  4 unique ways to use them on my tables right now!

This was simple. There were so many right angles and straight lines in the napkin and the table runner that I knew it should not be too frilly looking. A trifold with the seam on the bottom beneath the plates and then pop the shiny copper ring on the end and then and only then just a teeny bit of poof.

I have so much more to share with you but I don’t want to tire you out.

So I will post another Home Tour for Fall so you can see it all.

I think I may have held some of the best for last!

 

With that I leave you with my well used Chalk Board and menu.

Once I wrote it, I had to make it.

Once I made it I had to eat it!

So yummy.

I’ll share that chili and cornbread recipe as the weather here begins to settle in with a chill.

I really hope you enjoyed the tour here at Chatham Hill on the Lake.

Please visit my other friends at their homes as well.

I would love for you to become a reader and if you comment, I will get to know you more.