I love fall decor. Deeply.
Give me the candles and the candy apples, please!
But every September, stores seem determined to sell us the same version of fall. Orange. Beige. Buffalo check. A wooden sign that says GATHER. Another one that says COZY. Perhaps a pillow announcing that we are, in fact, THANKFUL.
We know.
What if fall at home got stranger?
One of the lovely things recovery has given me is my creativity. I’ve become interested again in making things, moving things around, trying something I might hate, finding something bizarre at a thrift store and carrying it home like I’ve discovered a minor masterpiece.
So consider this permission to make October look less like the seasonal aisle at Target and very much like you.
1. Blow up the fall color palette
Orange can stay. Orange didn’t do anything wrong.
But she needs friends.
Try pumpkin with peony pink.. Oxblood with pale blue. Mustard with deep violet. Forest green with electric blue. Throw a little acid green into a room full of sensible autumn colors and see what happens. Try dark chocolate with dirty pink.
Leave the fall leaf palette behind.
Look at a beet. An eggplant. A persimmon cut open. Purple cabbage. The almost-black skin of a fig. That weird blue-gray sky right before an October storm.
Steal colors from old horror movie posters, your grandmother’s china, a 1970s kitchen, the produce aisle, the lipstick you bought because it looked incredible and then decided was “too much.”
Fall has never actually been beige.
2. Make one thing way too big
Tiny seasonal objects have had a very good run.
Let’s introduce scale.
A huge branch reaching halfway across the dining table. An enormous bowl overflowing with apples. A giant paper moon on the wall. Three-foot paper mushrooms. An absurdly tall arrangement of dried grasses. One enormous pumpkin instead of nineteen little ones.
Or go in the opposite direction and create an entire tiny Halloween village on a bookshelf.
The point is commitment.
If you’re going to put a crow on the mantel, perhaps he needs to be a very large crow.
3. Go to the thrift store and look for the wrong things
Do not search for the fall section. And go in with absolutely no plan. This is important.
Go find something that makes you stop.
A giant wooden horse. A red lacquer tray. An ornate gold frame. An old globe. A marble bust. A 1970s lamp with a shade full of fringe. A set of green goblets. A strange painting of somebody else’s aunt. A silver champagne bucket that now holds pinecones because it belongs to sober people and we make the rules.
The best thrift-store purchase is the one you weren’t looking for and immediately need to build a small portion of your personality around.
4. Mix materials that aren’t supposed to go together
Fall gets much more interesting when everything isn’t matte and tasteful.
Velvet next to rough wood. Chrome beside dried leaves. Lucite with plaid. Shiny lacquer with wool. Sequins with branches. (I can not get enough of sequins and branches this season!) Leopard print with tartan. Granny-square crochet beside something sleek and modern.
Put something glossy in a room full of earthy things.
Put something furry next to something metallic.
Put something whimsical next to something serious.
Texture makes a room feel alive. And occasionally slightly unhinged.
Both are good.
5. Make something with your hands, preferably imperfectly
Paint pumpkins colors pumpkins have never been or give them all flower crowns
Make paper bats and give them an entire migration pattern across the wall.
Cut stars out of metallic paper. Make a lopsided wreath. Embroider something inappropriate on a linen napkin. Press leaves between old book pages. Make a garland from felt mushrooms. Paint a thrifted candlestick cobalt blue.
This is where recovery and creativity keep bumping into each other for me.
You don’t have to be good at something to enjoy making it.
You can make a truly mediocre papier-mâché pumpkin and display it proudly.
Nobody is grading October.
6. Let nature get a little feral
Skip the perfectly arranged bouquet.
Let the table look like you emptied your coat pockets after a walk in the woods.
Pile crab apples down the center of the table. Fill a bowl with walnuts. Let vines wander. Use moss. Feathers. Seed pods. Twigs. Weird grasses. Bittersweet if it’s native and responsibly sourced where you live. Whatever looks like it fell out of an enchanted forest.
And let some of it decay.
A curling leaf is beautiful. Hydrangeas dry into entirely different colors. Pomegranates get wonderfully strange. October doesn’t have to look freshly picked.
The season itself is getting wilder around the edges.
Your house can too.
7. Create one completely unnecessary October moment
This is my favorite.
Decorate a tiny corner nobody else will notice.
Put a miniature witch hat on a bust.
Hang disco balls in the window so October sunlight scatters across the room.
Fill the fireplace with pumpkins.
Put battery candles everywhere and pretend you live in an old Irish castle even though the CVS is visible from your window.
Make an entire shelf devoted to ravens.
Tie velvet ribbons around things that have absolutely no need for ribbons.
Buy the six-foot skeleton and dress her for dinner.
Her name is Margaret.
The pleasure is the point.
Recovery asks plenty of serious things from us. Decorating the house doesn’t have to be one of them.
Maybe you spent years disconnected from your own preferences.. Maybe you’re discovering that you love purple walls, enormous flowers, weird lamps, Halloween villages, glitter, Victorian mourning art or putting a skeleton named Margaret at the dinner table.
Wonderful.
Follow that.
The world has enough Live Laugh Love signs.
I’d rather see what happens when we recover our weird.
ENTERTAINMENT: Sober October Bingo – How Autumn Have You Become?
LIFESTYLE: Sober October Gift Guide 2025
THIRSTY FOR WONDER: at The Sober Curator, led by Anne Marie Cribben—a passionate recovery coach and spiritual companion based in Washington, DC—offers 1:1 coaching, spiritual guidance, and recovery support rooted in compassion and empowerment. As the creator of The Wellspring: A Celtic Recovery Journey, Anne Marie blends the Celtic calendar with sobriety, connecting participants to ancient wisdom and the rhythms of nature.
A fierce advocate for sobriety as liberation and self-love, she challenges the targeted marketing of alcohol to women and champions authentic, joyful living. Her work goes beyond addiction recovery, fostering a life of vibrancy, purpose, and connection.
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