It’s pumpkin time…almost! I already have a large pumpkin growing in the garden, and Instagram and Pinterest are full of pictures of my beloved heirloom pumpkins in all shapes, colors and sizes! I am still holding out until September before the pumpkins start magically appearing all around our home, but I sure am busy getting ideas and making plans! I especially love French Country inspired fall decor both indoors and out, and I love to incorporate shabby French touches whenever possible. Each year I challenge myself to come up with new designs and color schemes for my outdoor displays, but I absolutely must include soft, muted-toned heirloom pumpkins along with magical mums and beautiful autumn kale!
It is hard to pick a favorite, but I love the soft, peachy-coral color and shape of the Musquee De Provence pumpkin as pictured above in lovely Aix-en-Provence, France. I discovered them several years ago and now it just wouldn’t be fall around our home without several of these beauties! Source: Pinterest
A few years ago I began incorporating softer colors in both my indoor and outdoor fall decor. This year I am hoping to find some pumpkins similar to the ones in the photos I will be sharing today, which are from the fall of 2013 (at our previous home). I had created a French Country inspired fall porch and garden display using heirloom pumpkins in muted tones, beautiful fall plants and chippy garden pots. Of all my fall decorating it is still my most favorite ever! I am looking forward to revamping this look at the yellow brick home!
This amazing container garden via Sunset Magazine is a perfect example of the beauty of Autumn’s softer colors and the eye catching effect of mixing different kinds of foliage in similar hues. Being a lover of all things fall, I still enjoy using traditional fall colors in the garden and around the porch, but my favorite fall plants usually have muted gray-green, silver or pastel hues. French country fall decor must always include chippy urns, lots of fall flowers and heirloom pumpkins!
The photos I am sharing today were originally posted on my former blog, but I decided to “re-blog” them here for all my new readers too. I truly loved this display and I hope you find it inspiring!
I am always drawn to cool and muted pale tones and all types of heirloom pumpkins which add a bit of romance and a vintage feel to the fall and Halloween porch and garden. With such a wide variety of pumpkins, gourds, and squash to choose from these days it can be overwhelming when you get to the market! This particular year I did have an idea in mind of creating a soft, romantic French theme, so that helped me narrow down my choices. For this display I chose only heirloom pumpkins and squash with soft, muted hues and plants with similar tones.
Each year I pick one “show stopper,” pumpkin, and this large white beauty fit the bill! Be still my heart! I have not been able to find another one like it since…but maybe this year!
I enjoy savoring every little detail of autumn’s beauty! Next to pumpkins I get most excited about all the different varieties of autumn kale and ornamental cabbage! They are so beautiful in mixed container plantings or as a single specimen plant nestled in between heirloom pumpkins.
Source: Lowes
In the past I had used lots of deep purple ornamental cabbage, but for this display I chose the Brassica “Peacock Red” with it’s interesting foliage. This variety is more gray/green with purple striations. The lighter color gave me the inspiration for this new, softer grouping. As I was arranging my display I noticed that the purple striations in the kale also brought out the striations in the Musquee De Provence pumpkin when they were placed side by side. Nature is amazing! I have always loved this photo, which reminds me of a painting. My husband is an very talented oil painter and I would love to have him paint this one day!
Of course every fall garden and porch display must have mums! Normally I would not use yellow in this area of the garden, but the special hybrid yellow mum pictured here was a bit muted and had lots of coral tones in the blooms, so it paired beautifully with the coral and peach pumpkins I had chosen. The softer yellow was also a nice contrast against the other greens and gray hues in the grouping, and popped just enough for interest without being distracting.
Over the years I have learned to create beautiful and cohesive outdoor displays by using garden accessories as inspiration and incorporating them in the design. The patina of this shabby chic, succulent-filled urn was perfectly matched to the white and buckskin pumpkins and the result was picture perfect! Of course you can never go wrong with combining pumpkins of all shapes and colors with shabby, chippy urns and garden pots.
This Triamble pumpkin (also known as”shamrock squash”) had a similar shape to the scalloped edges of our vintage bird bath which made a simple and stunning display. The silver-gray icicle plant had succumbed to the first frost by the time I took the photo, but I thought the interesting color and texture of the remaining foliage was a perfect “nest” for my pumpkin.
Style Tip: To create a display similar to the one I have shared today, consider pairing plants with a wide variety of textures and foliage shapes with fall fruits in similar tones and hues. Don’t be afraid to stack and layer pumpkins and gourds of all shapes and sizes together too. Incorporate a chippy white urn or terra cotta pot with a lovely, aged patina for old world, European charm.
Long Island Cheese, Green Jarradhale, Musque De Provence Pumpkins and Triamble squash are all unified by their soft tones.
Isn’t this little cutie just peachy keen? It looks so sweet nestled in a bed of white alyssum. I have not been able to find another pumpkin quite like this one! Keeping my fingers crossed to find one this year! It won’t be long now!
After sharing and discussing all these photos I would love to be able to run straight to the market and start on my pumpkin displays, but alas it will be a couple of weeks before they arrive! Nevertheless I have enjoyed revisiting my old garden and I have gotten some ideas for what I would like to try this year. If you have enjoyed this post and love French Country and shabby chic fall decor, you will certainly want to follow my Pinterest board, Oo La La Fall!
I hope you have also gained some inspiration for creating your own displays using muted heirloom pumpkins and fall plants. I have a few volunteer pumpkins growing right now and I am keeping my fingers crossed for heirlooms! I have decided to grow my own next year and I have included a link below in case you are interested in purchasing seeds and growing some too! Even though heirlooms are my favorite, there will always be a traditional Jack-O-Lantern (or two or three!) to greet guests for Trick-or-Treat! What colors and types do you prefer? I absolutely love to talk pumpkins and fall decor, and I look forward to hearing your ideas too!
Amber
Linking Up:
Mostly Blogging Inspire Me Monday
Inspire Me Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life
Shabbilicious Art Boutique Create, Bake, Grow, Gather Party
16 Comments
Amber, what beautiful pumpkin inspiration. Every vignette is just perfect. I love your heirloom pumpkins with their muted colors!
August 30, 2017 at 2:43 pmThank you so much for your kind words! I am looking forward to using heirloom pumpkins again this year. I do hope you will stop back by again soon. Thank you for visiting!
August 30, 2017 at 3:07 pmAmber, such an awesome post. Love the pumpkin and gourd vignette. The colors are lovely and so perfect for fall. Just a heads up, I am featuring this pumpkin post this Sunday at Dishing It & Digging it.
September 1, 2017 at 3:36 pmThank you so much! Can’t wait to link up again this week. Thanks for hosting the party and visiting my blog!
September 1, 2017 at 6:49 pmHi Amber. Your post is such a beautiful autumn inspiration. Love all the heirloom pumpkins. Fall is a favorite time for me and I love to decorate then. I will be visiting again and again and have signed up to have your blog, which is beautiful, BTW, drop into my inbox. You can do the same from mine also. I’m so happy you visited me and I look forward to your home tour. During the month of October, I put out a post every Tuesday, that is taken over by my alter ego, The Cottage Witch. It is a fun month that you might enjoy. Hope you are having a wonderful weekend..Judy
September 3, 2017 at 12:07 amJudy that sounds sooo fun! I have an old blog I think you would really enjoy as well, junkaholicsunanimous.blogspot.com (mainly the holiday and seasonal posts). I was just learning on that blog and photo quality isn’t great but still a lot of heart went into writing them. We share the same kind of quirky and creative love of fall and Halloween! Many of the older posts are poetic like yours. The Christmas posts are fun too! So glad to meet you and I will be visiting you Tuesday!
September 3, 2017 at 4:27 amHi Amber! Your french country inspired pumpkin display is gorgeous. Thank you so much for sharing with us at Dishing It & Digging It & congratulations on being featured this week!
September 3, 2017 at 8:45 pmThank you so much! Getting ready to link up again this week!
September 3, 2017 at 9:32 pmLovely inspiration…heirloom pumpkins add that extra special touch!
September 9, 2017 at 11:56 pmThanks so much for sharing at AMAZE ME MONDAY!
Blessings,
Cindy
So gorgeous! Thanks for sharing at Home Sweet Home!
September 11, 2017 at 7:23 pmThank you so much Sherry! I am so happy you stopped by. Thanks for hosting Home Sweet Home!
September 11, 2017 at 11:54 pmAmber, I love the heirloom pumpkins as well! The muted tones and fun shapes are beauty to eye!! Thanks for sharing with SYC.
September 13, 2017 at 2:09 amhugs,
Jann
I love all of these pumpkins! I had not heard of them until just a few years ago. They are so pretty!
October 9, 2017 at 2:08 amThank you so much! I love them but this year I have not had luck finding them locally! I am late styling my front garden because I haven’t found any yet. Hopefully this week!
October 9, 2017 at 3:32 amCan remember when living in KY how pretty much anything/everything grew without any help, right climate. When we cleared some wild big bushes between our land and farm land next door we found irises, hostas, wild vines, other plants. We had 5 forsythia bushes growing at front of yard along highway. There was a stream running between our land and farm next door.
October 15, 2017 at 1:59 amDue to so much alkali in our soil where we live now, forsythias die.
One year at Christmas went out to bushes to pull dried vines out of bushes, wrapped them around our Christmas tree like a garland, put birds, nests and birds on nests, wanted something with nature that was different for our tree, that year. When Mr. Furry got home off the road he really liked what I had done, wasn’t sure he would. There is much I miss about KY, especially our place there, really loved it but climate was very hard on me.
All your delightful pumpkins are truly incredible, love pumpkins/gourds with all the funny bumps on them and great colors. Your vignettes are wonderful also. You must enjoy growing it all and making the arrangements, know I sure would.
Happy Sunday
Thank you so much for this nice comment. Kentucky is great for gardening, and I do love the beauty of Kentucky so much, especially around “horse country” in the Lexington area. The climate is also very rough on me as well. Seasonal allergies are terrible for everyone here, and it is very hot in the summers and can get very cold and damp in the winter and spring which I do not do well with (dampness, humidity). One day we may retire in a more suitable climate but at this stage in life we are here, and I am making the best of all Kentucky has to offer. Thank you for stopping by today!
October 15, 2017 at 7:33 pm