Designing Small Spaces for the Fall

With fall comes beautiful scenery, cool weather and beautiful colors. Some of that can be transported into your loved one’s apartment at Dogwood Forest. Autumn is a great time to spruce up your space and fill in with the sights, smells and even textures of the season. While it may seem like a daunting task, even just a few changes could completely revolutionize your space.

Summer was brutal this year, and the transition into the more mild weather couldn’t be more welcome. Decorating even a few weeks early could help your loved one feel more relaxed and at home while they are living in one of our assisted living communities. Here are just a few ideas:

Bring Nature Indoors

Our assisted living communities always include outdoor areas. Trees are a major element of our gardens and other spaces. When fall comes, you can find leaves, twigs and pinecones that have fallen on the ground. A great activity is gathering these up with your loved one and bringing them indoors to make crafts with. Or, you can tastefully arrange them in a basket as a centerpiece for their apartment.

Crafts don’t have to be complicated. As our loved ones get older, it becomes more difficult to make intricate crafts, with arthritis and other conditions afflicting the body. But consider some of these designs:

• Find about 50 acorns (this may take some time), and buy a plain wooden frame. Carefully glue the acorns into rows along the frame.
• Gather beautiful, big leaves. Cover them in a thin layer of glue, then a layer of glitter. These can now be used as garland to hang on the wall.
• Gather leaves or groups of leaves, plus creme-colored hand towels. Paint the leaves with gold paint, then press them on the hand towels. Once they dry, you have hand towels that could be mistaken for professionally-designed ones.

Consider Your Color Palette

We all know autumn is full of rich, darker colors. Burnt orange, umber, ochre and mahogany are the classics for a reason. They go well together and bring a sense of warmth into a home. Other colors like purple go well with fall colors, and whites used sparingly create a fantastic contrast against the subdued pigments. Though paint and other more permanent fixtures can look great in a small space, that is not always practical.

Perhaps the best way to spruce up your loved one’s apartment with autumn colors is with floral arrangements. Remember those twigs we mentioned earlier? Using those in arrangements with chrysanthemums, goldenrods and heleniums, accented with Russian sage, can act as a beautiful centerpiece for the apartment. For a more artsy arrangement, a burlap-wrapped mason jar can be the perfect vase. All of these elements also add a touch of autumn texture in the apartment. After the flowers have been out for about a week, drying them can preserve them practically forever.

The Aroma of Autumn

Though candles can be dangerous, there are other ways to bring the scents of the season into your loved one’s apartment. Potpourri is a great solution. It can act as both an aroma source and as a spot of color and texture to a small space. Potpourri can also remind our loved ones of home, bringing back and preserving memories that may otherwise be lost. After all, smell is the strongest link to memory out of all the senses.

These are just a few simple ways to decorate your loved one’s apartment for autumn. If you believe your loved one is ready to move into an assisted living community near Atlanta, Dogwood Forest can help. Contact us today to learn more about our communities and how we can help your family.