How To Style Fall Dough Bowls And Trays

Bring fall into your home with these simple fall dough bowl and tray ideas. By using a two tiered tray, a dough bowl and a decorative tray, you can easily transform your home for the fall season.

Dough bowls and decorative trays are the perfect centerpiece for your dining room table. I like to use a tray on my coffee table. I love the look and the simple styling.

Tiered trays work great on kitchen counters or buffets. They are tall so I like to place them where they don’t obstruct anyone’s view. Like on a coffee table in front of the tv. That wouldn’t work in this house. I think football season takes priority over that one.

What Is A Dough Bowl

A dough bowl is made from a single piece of wood and dates back to the colonial era. They were used to mix bread dough and then left to rise. Since dough bowls are generally rectangular in shape, this is the perfect container to let the bread dough rise in loaf form.

Where To Purchase A Dough Bowl

Antique dough bowls are a bit difficult to find these days. They have become very popular as decor pieces. If you do find one, they can be quite expensive. Try looking at estate sales or antique stores.

Luckily, we can now purchase reproduction dough bowls through stores like Hobby Lobby which is where I got mine.

Rustic Fall Dough Bowl Ideas

When I think of rustic, I lean towards a neutral color palette. Plus lots of texture in the decor pieces that is placed into the dough bowl.

To achieve that rustic look, add lots of texture such as the burlap pumpkin and the twiggy one next to it. By including the faux sunflowers and pinecones, there is lots of texture.

I kept the all the decor items in soft whites, beiges and browns. This is a very soothing color palette.

When designing a dough bowl, choose a focal point that you can build around. One or two large items will elevate your display. This dough bowl uses a large burlap pumpkin and a large twig petal pumpkin as it’s focal point.

Placing two faux sunflowers on either end of the dough bowl, I then added in pinecones and acorns to fill in the empty spaces. Simple and elegant.

A Traditional Fall Dough Bowl

Fall is the beginning of my favorite home decor seasons. I love the vibrant oranges, reds and browns for fall. Traditional decor is dear to my heart. Although many color palettes have been introduced to include neutrals and shades of blue, the traditional color palette will always be my favorite.

I am very traditional when it comes to styling my dough bowl for the fall season. Keeping with tones of oranges and reds as my color theme.

For this dough bowl, I kept the pinecones and acorns but used a large orange pumpkin as my focal point. Then added two smaller pumpkins on each side in varying tones of red and orange.

This is the easiest dough bowl I have ever done.

First, I placed the large ceramic pumpkin in the middle of the dough bowl as my focal point.

Second I added some smaller pumpkins. Then, I tossed in lots of small pinecones and acorns.

That’s it! I love the impact it has in my dining room.

Fall Kitchen Decorative Tray Ideas

In my kitchen, I have concentrated hard in the brown and orange tones. I love how this reflects the outdoors as the leaves begin to turn colors, from gold to red to brown.

This two tiered tray is perfect for my coffee bar. I love the warmth of the wood and the beading around the edges.

Create A Theme For Your Tiered Tray

Two tiered trays are a lot of fun to put together. The number one tip is to create a theme. This tray is themed around pumpkin spice coffee. It has the hello pumpkin mug with a sign on the top tier. Then I layered in fall accent pieces such as small pumpkin and pinecones with a few leaves scattered throughout.

Then to reinforce that theme, I placed more like items on the kitchen counter around it. I especially love the pumpkin themed coffee pods. It’s best to make everything cohesive so the display is visually pleasing.

Placing items in varying heights plays a significant part in the whole display.

There’s a lot for your eye to rest on without being cluttered.

In a tiered tray, more is always better. A full tray looks better and is more interesting. Fill in any empty spots with florals, leaves and acorns.

My kitchen is my absolute favorite place to decorate for fall. I get to bring out all the colorful cookware, tea towels and plates. Not to mention the mugs.

I used this tray idea last year in my post on Fall Kitchen Counter Decor Ideas. This tray was my favorite display, that I used it again. However, this year I used a wooden round tray instead. The wood tray with the beads around the edge as well as the metal handles, gives a lot of visual interest.

I used real Granny Smith apples in a wired basket along with some florals and a fall candle holder. It’s simple but effective. No filler needed but you could definitely add some if you like.

This tray incorporates the following design rules:

• The rule of odds where you group objects in odd numbers only.
• Uses height to add visual interest.
• A focal point which is the item your eye see first.

Using those above design tips will help you get started but remember design rules are meant to be broken.

Fall Tray Ideas

This wooden tray has appeared in many of my blog posts. It is so versatile. It is a find from Pottery Barn many years ago. You can see how I use this tray for everyday in my post on Ten Tips on Decorating Your Coffee Table.

For this tray I used faux pumpkins in different sizes and textures. I kept with a neutral color theme. It’s all browns, whites and beiges which fit my living room decor. I placed a tall pail filled with fall floral picks which added a black accent and some height to this display.

I like to use acorns when I can. Using a small dough bowl from Hobby Lobby, I filled it to the brim with faux acorns.

Filling in the empty spaces with fall florals, made the tray fuller. This creates a layered look without a lot of fuss.

There are endless ways to decorate your trays for fall. Pick a tray and some small pieces to get started. Don’t forget to pick a theme and a focal point. Have fun with it!