This rusty fall leaves palette brings together several warm shades of red-brown, for a cozy start to Autumn.

It’s not even close to feeling like fall here in Albuquerque, but I’m thinking maybe if I start decorating for fall, the weather will cooperate.

I don’t usually look forward to fall, mostly feeling like it’s the end of something rather than the beginning. But this year is different, maybe because I’m so ready for the end of this season that started in March with everything shutting down and our lives forever changed by a pandemic.

That should have been fall.

Now it’s time to look ahead. So, as with most things in my world, I decided to start with color.

Rusty Fall Leaves Color Palette

I love the warm red tones of these leaves. They read neutral, but when you start really looking at their colors, they’re full of blush, coral, umber, and almost black.

Further proof that any color can be a neutral, if you use it right.

These warm tones lend themselves to boho design and would be lovely in a neutral nursery, or as part of a woven wall hanging.

A Few Thoughts on Fall Leaves

I find irony in the warm and rosy tones of these leaves that are decaying from their original bright green colors. It should be a sad thing when a leaf falls, but we know it’s serving its purpose in life and paving the way for new life.

And that is how I look at this season of our lives that has lasted far longer and claimed far more from us than we would like. We don’t know what’s being planted, nurtured, and protected in the soundless fall of the leaves whose loss we are grieving.

“The trees are about to show us how lovely it is to let things go.”

-anonymous

So we carry on, look towards the spring, and appreciate the gifts of this moment in our lives.

Personally I’m looking forward to the weather cooling off enough that I can pull out my yoga pants again. Then I can live in those all day, instead of the one pair of cut-off shorts I own that are comparatively comfortable.

It’s the little things, right?