Melissa Valeriote is an artist and designer whose delightfully quirky folk-art style is immediatel...

1. Cozy, Folk Art-Style Fall Decorations for the Home and
Garden

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Melissa Valeriote is an artist and designer whose delightfully quirky folk-art style is immediately
recognizable. She also has a wonderful obsession with holidays– the name of her blog makes
that pretty clear: Melissa Valeriote’s Fantastical World of Holidays.ÂÂ

3. She’s previously shown us how she used faux pumpkins to create a luminous Halloween
garden. She’s back with more of her enchanting fall decorating ideas, this time focusing on
the fireplace mantel, the entryway and again in her backyard.
This is Melissa’s contribution to our Halloween and Harvest Style Challenge series. We sent
Melissa and several other notable design bloggers mystery boxes of Home Depot Halloween and fall
decorations. The bloggers then performed their magic, generating Halloween and fall decor ideas
we all can use in our holiday celebrations.
Melissa’s fall decorations create a warm, cozy and inviting atmosphere, capturing the spirit
of autumn in a truly unique way. Read on to see how she created her fall decor, including a simple
DIY for a flower planter that doubles as a support for café lights.
Harvest is a time for gathering. A time when food, family and friends are far more important than
getting things done. Rich colors and spicy scents are in abundance. With a little help from Mother
Nature, feathering your nest for the holidays is made easy as another growing season comes to an
end. So head outside, gather up a selection of fallen foliage, in a mix of vibrant hues and textures
and join me in my journey of creating an atmosphere of rustic style and comfort by co-mingling the
found with the fabricated in small vignettes throughout home and garden.
The Halloween and Harvest Style Challenge Box Arrives

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The process of the Style Challenge is short and sweet from start to finish. A mystery shipment is
delivered to my doorstep, and I am given a couple of weeks to complete a design project, using the

5. contents of the box. The goal of the project is to inspire Home Depot Blog readers to try their hand
at some DIY holiday projects of their own.
I hope you are inspired to try your hand at something you see here or in the many other wonderful
Style Challenge posts. You will learn that many of the projects are quite simple and can be
accomplish in just one weekend or less creating holiday memories that may end up lasting a lifetime.
Upon opening the shipment, I discover nested crates, harvest basket wreaths, burlap pumpkins,
grapevine pumpkins, stuffed fabric owls and wood yard signs. The wood and moss green toned color
scheme has all the perfect makings of a rustic harvest theme for the home.
Halloween Decorations for the Front Door and Entryway

6.  A home’s entrance sets a tone for both family and guests. These shimmering Harvest
Basket Wreaths hanging on the outside of the front doors make the perfect first impression,
transitioning our home from summer to fall. A pumpkin spice scented candle in the foyer adds a
spicy scent, adding another layer to the style statement.
Halloween Decorations for the Mantel and Fireplace

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In the family room I stripped down the fireplace mantel, leaving it looking rather cold and in
desperate need of the warm seasonal colors of fall.
As the days get cooler and the nights come early, I wanted to create an atmosphere around the

8. hearth  that is both soothing and restorative using earth tones and warm flickering candle light.
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9.  Many of the items you see on the mantel are from Home Decorators Collection.
The burlap pumpkins from Home Depot add both texture and charm to the rustic setting on the
mantel.

10. For the firebox I chose to stack the nested crates and assemble vignettes within, using a variety of
found fall foliage and a mix of candlelight to entice those who pass by to sit and enjoy an unhurried
moment or two.

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After completing the mantel, I made a quick trip to my neighborhood Home Depot store to pick up
some items for the garden. That is when I stumbled upon these charming and well constructed
pottery pumpkins. I fell in love with the rustic tones and festive faces, so I decided to scoop them up
and see how I could incorporate them into my design.

14. These cheery grinned pumpkins add a playful and primitive feel to the firebox. I will use these
pumpkins again in another outdoor nighttime display that I will post on my blog.
Halloween Decorations for the Backyard

15. With a balance on my Home Depot gift card and plenty of product yet to be utilized, I decided to
spice up the backyard in preparation for holiday celebrations with friends and family.
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 I wanted to use some string lights across the patio to brighten the area so I studied several how-to
videos online then got to work. I went back to The Home Depot and purchased two flower
containers to use as the base for the string lights. I set 8 ft. tree stakes in the center of the
containers using Fence Post Concrete.
To add color to the project, I filled the containers with an assortment of festive flowers.

17.  I used ½ inch PVC piping to create a drainage hole for the planned flower bed.

18. I inserted eye hooks on the top of the tree stakes to anchor the café string lights.

19. Seasonal flowers are so cheerful. It was hard to limit myself to purchasing only enough flowers to fit
inside the containers. So I didn’t.
I had enough flowers and plants left over to fill another small planter box that you can see on my

20. blog.
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A dozen of these grapevine pumpkins came in my shipment. With a little bit of work I knew I could
make them into lovely luminaries for the yard.

21. I inserted a battery operated pack of string lights into the center of the basket cage. I cut 8-in. strips
of rustic color ribbon, and looped it through the top of the glittered foliage then hung them on
shepherd hooks along the border of the yard.
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To add more lighting to the border, I set these cheerful, candlelit pottery pumpkins underneath each
of the hanging grapevine baskets.

24. The remaining Pottery Pumpkins were placed underneath two weathered fence boards to make a
display shelf for the nested crates. This could also double as a small bench or a side table to place
food and drinks… oh the possibilities.

29. One last look at the patio before the festive transformation:

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All aglow and ready for festive twilight gatherings that can now easily extend late into the night
thanks to the addition of the glimmering lights and the harvest home décor from the Home
Depot.
See more photos of Melissa’s gorgeous fall decorations on her blog. ÂÂ
Melissa Valeriote is an artist in the Bay Area who specializes in amazing one-of-a-kind holiday
decorations. See her creations on her blog Fantastical World of Holidays.

31. The mystery shipment of Halloween decorations The Home Depot sent to Monica included these
items:
For more great ideas for Halloween and fall decorations, see other articles in our Halloween and
Harvest Style Challenge series here on The Home Depot Blog, and follow our Halloween
Style Challenge pinboard on Pinterest.
Visit The Home Depot’s online Holiday Decorations Department for everything you
need to decorate for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
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