It’s amazing how simply swapping out or layering cushions can transform a room at relatively little cost. Add a sapphire-blue pillow among your sky-blue cushions, or a pair of emerald-green solid pillows alongside your pastel floral ones. Complement linen with velvet, silk with chenille, and consider adding suede, leather, faux-fur, and knit options as well. As Autumn approaches, you can incorporate more of the autumnal pillows to the mix and subtract a few more of the summery ones to further switch up your look. 

Just as the scenery outside your windows will be changing, you can modify the scenery on your walls. If you’re a fan of, say, coastal art or floral images, you needn’t swap out your collection. Instead, consider replacing a sailing scene of saturated blues and yellows with one that features toned-down hues. Or add to a gallery wall of botanical drawings on white backgrounds a few with darker palettes.

If you folded away your throws in the Spring, it's time to fetch them back out. A whisper-soft cashmere or alpaca throw brings not only colour and warmth to a space but also a sense of luxury. If it never gets cool enough where you live to require a knit or faux-fur throw, stick with your lightweight materials but in a deeper colour—rust, sage, gold, brown. And don’t forget to add a few to your outdoor spaces. Even in warm climates, evenings can get brisk enough to raise goosebumps, and you don’t want to let a bit of a chill keep you from stargazing.

On the one hand, displaying arrangements of faux tulips and magnolias year-round serves as a reminder of the joys of aSspring garden even when you’re dealing with a foot of snow and cold temperatures, which is nothing to sniff at. On the other hand, replacing these bouquets with autumnal alternatives such as chrysanthemums, grasses, wheat, or even warm-weather flowers in oranges and golds subtly introduces the new season. Bonus points if you display them in a terracotta urn or Autumnal coloured vase.

A few other easy changes to make:

• Replace decorative seashells with acorns or pebbles.

• Introduce to your shelves leather-clad books or books with spines in caramel, siena, and olive tones.

• Layer in a few leather items in general; something as seemingly small as replacing a ceramic coffee-table tray with a leather one can make a big difference.

• Add touches of brass or gold in lieu of silver—they’ll feel much warmer but easily as luxe. If you’ve been wanting to replace a silver-framed mirror with a golden one, now’s the time.

Apples, eggplants, squashes, and pomegranates are among the many reasons to welcome Autumn. Not only can your recipes take a cue from these seasonal fruits and veg (does anything beat homemade applesauce?) but so can your table settings. Simply using an ecru rather than white tablecloth, opting for tortoiseshell napkin rings, or bringing out rattan charger plates to a seasonal scene.

Floral, fruity, and beachy fragrances can seem incongruous as the season grows brisker. At the same time, those woody, musky scents that felt too heavy in spring are perfect for fall. Candles and diffusers with notes of sandalwood, amber, ginger, tea, or patchouli are autumnal treats for your olfactory sense—and once their fragrances have faded, it’ll be time for winter scents such as pine and eucalyptus.

We’ve long sung the praises of natural-fibre rugs: they’re durable and versatile, bringing organic texture to just about any style of room. As the weather cools, though, consider layering a second rug on top. Shaggy rugs such as Beni Ourains and sheepskins are especially welcome once temperatures fall; hide rugs bring earthy glamour; and just about any other type provides an opportunity to once again warm up your palette. They’ll literally help warm up the room as well.

Layering isn’t limited to natural-fibre rugs, by the way. You can enhance any flat-weave solid with a hide rug, real or faux. Or for a boho look, layer pattern upon pattern.