DIY a Fall-tastic Floral Centerpiece for Your Table

fall flower centerpiece

Pro floral arrangements might look like complex, intricately crafted works of art, but if you know the right techniques they’re much easier than you’d think. Carly Cylinder from The Flower Kitchen is here to give us some pointers just in time for party season.

Fall Floral Centerpiece

Level: Easy

What You Need

  • 3 red hydrangeas
  • 2 red peonies
  • 15-20 stems marigolds
  • 8-10 dark red roses
  • 10-15 stems red coxcomb
  • 5-10 stems yellow celosia
  • 5 stems orange snapdragons
  • 1 bunch dusty miller
  • 1 bunch seeded eucalyptus
  • 1 bunch dried eucalyptus
  • 1 bunch variety of dried flowers like clover
  • One 6″-8″ vase for a large centerpiece
  • Spray paint (optional)
  • Instructions

    1. Form a Plan

    picking fall flowers

    To create a cohesive floral arrangement, you gotta go in with a plan. First, determine your color scheme to make sure your centerpiece matches your other elements. This tablescape uses a plaid scarf as a table drape, and the color palette for our flowers is pulled directly from the scarf. This arrangement uses a combination of fresh, fake and dried flowers. (Yes, that’s totally allowed.)

    2. Choose Your Vase and Build Your Base

    making fall flower centerpiece

    Once you have your flowers gathered, select a vase. Be careful not to go too big — as you’ll learn, the arrangement often extends far beyond the vase, so even with a smaller vase you can create a big, colorful centerpiece. When you have your vase picked out, fill it about three-fourths with water for the fresh flowers. We’re using a 7″ vase here.

    Time to start arranging! Form a base with greenery using dusty miller and seeded eucalyptus. As you add, make sure to cross the stems. This criss-crossing will secure the stems of your other flowers as you add them.

    3. Add Your Flowers

    adding flowers to centerpiece

    Now for the fun part: flowers. Begin with your biggest flowers and work your way down in size. Here, we started with hydrangeas and peonies. You may need to make adjustments to your flower placement as you go. Remember to take a step back from time to time and assess your growing masterpiece from all angles.

    If things are feeling a bit unbalanced, don’t sweat it. You can always tweak as you go, and it’s actually super trendy right now for arrangements to be asymmetrical.

    detail shot of fall flowers

    Another thing to keep in mind when building your arrangement: contrast is your friend! Add some dark flowers next to bright yellow ones for a dramatic pop. If you want, you can even give your arrangement a metallic accent by spray painting your eucalyptus a bronze, silver or gold.

    4. Make Final Adjustments

    fall flower centerpiece

    Once all your flowers are arranged, go back through and pull out any blooms that may have sunken in and gotten lost in the foliage. Fluff your arrangement until it’s just how you like it.

    5. Finish Your Tablescape

    Place your cloth or runner on the table, add your centerpiece, and accessorize with candles and other fall delights like little gourds and pumpkins. Now all you need is the meal!

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    10 Responses to “DIY a Fall-tastic Floral Centerpiece for Your Table”

    1. Carmella Nelson

      I love fall foliage center pieces and wreaths also. I fall in love with the oranges, coppers, golds, deep reds and browns.

    2. Ann Turner

      Enjoy rhe creative floral blending.

    3. Susan

      Pretty and I like the color scheme,

    4. Patty Harris

      Beautiful but I have a plan that I use every year! I have a grapevine small pumpkin that I simply arrange fall picks in “as many as possible “! I don’t glue them in place so I reconstruct it every year and the picks are available to use as I want to for other projects

    5. Patricia

      I learn better with instructors who use visual. This didn't have enough visual.

    6. Vikki Cooke

      I like the simplicity of this very attractive arrangement. Thanks for the dyi instructions, 🫶

    7. Tommie

      That’s a lovely selection of materials. Do you have any suggestions for sourcing flowers when there are no flower markets around and you can not buy from a wholesaler?

    8. Joyce

      The instructions are so clear that I am going to try. It’s beautiful. Thank you

    9. Sue Enns

      Thank you for such instructions on how to complete

    10. Sara Alicea

      Lovely, thanks so much.