A Cambridge Interior Designer's Guide to Seasonal Styling

Although the sun has still been shining some days, I've noticed this week that the streets of Cambridge are starting to feel more autumnal. The trees along Jesus Green are buttery yellow, and the Backs are filling with leaves. It's the point in the year when I start looking at my own home differently and asking what it needs to feel cosy through the darker months.

Autumn styling isn't about buying a new set of everything. Done well, it's a handful of considered changes, such as warmer colours, natural materials, more texture and better light. Here's how I'd approach it in my own home, with British makers and a few local spots for the perfect autumnal styling pieces.

Start with warmer colour

Autumn palettes work because they echo what's happening outside, with ochre, rust, terracotta, deep olive and chestnut brown.

Warm paint colours

Farrow & Ball's Red Earth is a soft terracotta that deepens as the light drops in the evening. It suits a snug, a downstairs loo or the back reception room of a Victorian terrace. In Cambridge's historic housing, from Romsey to De Freville Avenue, back rooms often get little direct sun, and warm mid-tones almost always look better there than the cool greys many people default to. If red feels like too much, an earthy green such as Farrow & Ball's Bancha does the same job more subtly.

Layer colour rather than commit to paint

Cushions and throws are the lowest-risk way to shift a room's palette for the season. Tweedmill has been weaving pure new wool blankets in North Wales since 1971, and their pure wool Dartmoor Ketchup throw shows how one piece of seasonal colour can carry a whole sofa.

Dress the table

Swap white linen for rust or olive, and use handmade ceramics. Cambridge has a strong pottery scene, much of it centred on Kiln Cambridge, the open-access studio off Newmarket Road. You'll find work by local makers such as David Stonehouse at the Kettle's Yard shop and Cambridge Contemporary Crafts. Kettle's Yard has a useful guide to buying ceramics locally.

Bring the outside in

Cambridge does autumn colour remarkably well, and some of the best styling material costs nothing.

Pumpkins and squash

Pick your own at the Milton Maize Maze Pumpkin Patch at Rectory Farm on the A10, open through October, or at Pumpkin Jim's in Ickleton. Mix sizes and varieties. A loose cluster of three or five on a doorstep or mantel looks more natural than a neat row. Heritage varieties in green, blue-grey and cream feel less obviously Halloween, and they'll keep well into November.

Leaves and branches

Gather fallen leaves on a walk or from your own garden and press them, or put a few branches of beech or oak in a tall stoneware jug. For inspiration, the lake and Autumn Garden at the Cambridge University Botanic Garden and the oak, beech and sweet chestnut at Anglesey Abbey are hard to beat at this time of year.

Dried stems

Seedheads, grasses and dried hydrangeas last for months. A single stem in a narrow-necked bottle often reads better than a full arrangement.

Layer for comfort

This is where texture matters more than colour.

Rugs

A rug softens a room visually and acoustically, and makes cold floorboards bearable. Weaver Green, designed in Devon, makes rugs from recycled plastic bottles that look and feel like wool but go in the washing machine. They're a practical choice for family homes and anyone with a dog.

Faux fur

A faux fur throw over the end of a bed or the arm of a chair adds instant warmth. These examples from Helen Moore are perfect.

Mix your textures

Pair chunky wool with linen, velvet with leather, smooth glaze with rough timber. A room of nothing but soft furnishings can feel heavy. Contrast keeps it interesting.

Light it like a good pub

Before I started Styled, I spent years in hospitality, including guest experience roles, so I perhaps have a different take on what autumn means for homes. Walk into a well-designed pub on a cold evening and it feels warm before you've sat down, and that is almost entirely down to light.

Turn off the ceiling light and build the room from lamps at different heights, such as a floor lamp by the reading chair, a table lamp on the sideboard and candles on the table. Choose warm bulbs, 2700K or lower. For scent, Plum & Ashby's Smoky Birch and Oak candle, poured in England with soy wax, has a woody warmth that suits the season. Our guide to layering lighting for darker evenings goes into much more detail.

Make a corner for slowing down

Most homes have a spot that gets ignored, such as a window seat, a wide landing or the corner beside the fireplace. Autumn is the time to claim it.

A reading nook needs very little. A comfortable chair, a throw, a small side table for a mug, and a lamp that lights the page rather than the whole room.

The mantelpiece is where restraint pays off. Candles at varying heights, a few stems in a jug, one small pumpkin. Leave space between objects so each one is seen.

If you'd like help applying this to your own space, our Virtual Interior Design service  and one-to-one Interior Design Consultation are designed for exactly this kind of refresh, whether you're in Cambridge or further afield.

For more seasonal ideas, follow along on Instagram @styled_home_design

Shop the look

A few pieces we’re loving this season, chosen to bring warmth, texture and a little seasonal colour without starting from scratch.

• Gingerbread Scented Candle, Zara Home. A warm, spiced scent for the first cold evenings
• Ellen Striped Stoneware Vase, Westwing. Graphic stripes for a single stem or a few dried grasses
• Stoneware Pumpkin, H&M Home. Keeps the mantel autumnal well past Halloween
• Corston Spice Cushion, The Cotswold Company. A fine stripe in warm spice, easy to layer with linen
• Fifield Spice Block Print Cushion, The Cotswold Company. A hand-printed look for the sofa or a reading chair
• Leaf Reactive Glaze Stoneware Mug, John Lewis. For slow mornings in the reading corner
• Autumn Eucalyptus in Ceramic Vase, John Lewis. Deep burgundy stems that last the whole season
• Seasonal Scented Candles, Zara Home. Spiced fragrances to carry autumn through to winter
• Textured Hand Woven Throw in Terracotta, The Cotswold Company. One piece of colour to carry a whole sofa