Fall is in the air—and now it can be in your living room too! If you’re craving that cozy blend of cinnamon spice, dried citrus, and everything nice, this DIY autumn potpourri bowl filler is your new best friend. It’s like sweater weather in a bowl—super easy to make, totally Instagram-worthy, and smells amazing. Grab your favorite mug of something warm, and let’s make your home feel (and smell) like fall just moved in!
As I type this post at my kitchen table, I have soft worship hymns playing on my Spotify channel, soft light above my table and my candle warmer lamp shining its little light.
The air is full of humidity from days and days of off and on rain (thank you, Hurricane Priscilla). And the doors are open filling the house with clean scents.
Oh yeah, and sounds of the garbage truck coming down the street. Oh, well, nothing is perfect.
But you get the idea, right? Cozy and fall-like.
I was inspired to do a tiny bit of autumn decorating and updated my console table for the season.
The purge is still real in our home so I don’t think I’ve purchased anything seasonal in a long time. So using what I have had, I put together a little vignette include the wavy bowl from Target I got a year and a half ago. It’s been a great decorative addition for every season.
The bowl is no longer sold, but a similar one is here.
The size was perfect to add to my console, but it looked kind of sad empty. It needed some potpourri bowl filler.
And the Citrus Clove Potpourri from Pottery Barn would fit the bill. Oh, except if the bill is 40 bucks. Yep.
And! Everywhere I looked, bowl filler potpourri is running between $15-$20 to start.
You know me. I’m thrifty (um, cheap?). I want the PB look, but I don’t want to pay it.
So I decided to make my own!
Using items I already had on hand, I think it came out great and this is what I did.
Shopped My House
Looking around for items that shout “AUTUMN” and using store-bought bowl filler as my inspiration, I gathered cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, and tiny pinecones.
In my faux floral cache, I found some cream colored spider mums.
From years ago, I added a few of the neutral pumpkins that were an Amazon purchase.
To fill the bowl, I used two plastic grocery bags and topped with Spanish moss. I added decorative pebbles to hold all that down a bit.
The pièce de résistance in my inspiration bowl is the dried orange slices.
Prepping the Orange Slices
Hub to the rescue! He not only brought home an orange from his grocery run, he then ran it through his mandolin for perfectly even slices.
I absolutely do not trust myself operating that piece of equipment. Even with the safety doohickey and steel gloves.
Using the “Dehydrate” setting on our countertop oven, the oranges baked at 135° for about 8 hours. No kidding. They are still sticky because they had a ton of sugary juice, but they are fine in an open bowl.
Assemble the Bowl
The fun part was putting it all together.
The bowl is pretty deep, so I stuff a couple of plastic grocery bags in the bottom and topped them off with Spanish moss.
I added some beige polished stones to keep everything in place and add some neutral natural elements.
I didn’t want the florals to take over the bowl so I used only two and tucked the orange slices everywhere else.
Ditto with the pumpkins. Two of the smallest size and one medium is plenty.
There are only three little pinecones, but it seems like enough. Cinnamon sticks and bay leaves from the spice cabinet topped everything off.
Scent
Surprisingly and a bit disappointingly, there is no scent from the bowl. But a bit of cinnamon essential oil gives off just a little aroma.
I have a lot of candles burning now, and santal in my diffuser, so I don’t really need a lot of aroma from the bowl.
Wrap Up
Simple and pretty darn cheap, I think I achieved the look I was wanting in our foyer. Cozy and simple.
Sorry my pictures are all so dark. It’s because it has been cloudy and rainy! And that is not a complaint. The desert looks so beautiful right now.
So tell me, are you adding pumpkin and pumpkin spice to everything right now? I have a couple keto recipes I want to try out and if they are winners, I’ll share here soon.
Sending you lots of love and thank you for being here.