With no fewer than six maple trees bordering my front yard, I am no stranger to the falling leaves of Fall. While I actually enjoy raking the masses of leaves into huge mounds for my children outside, I also fully appreciate the beauty of one single fallen leaf. The edges, the veins, the shapes and sizes and colors – leaves are unique and amazing pieces of natural art. Here are eight ways that leaves have inspired, and continue to inspire, home décor.

Lacy leaf as a table decoration. I love the feeling of history that this lace provides, a tea-stain color that bespeaks a sense of time gone by. The lace leaf is a wonderful jumping-off point for other Fall décor items, such as some pumpkins, wovens, and stems. The texture and shapes here are beautiful and warm.{found on site}.

If you’re lucky enough to have a large window with a view, consider this fantastic idea of highlighting some choice leaf specimens. Simply gather and press some leaves of varying shapes and hues and frame them in glass-on-glass frames. Hung in front of a window, like this, provides a show-stopping piece of Fall art when the natural light shines through.{found on savvysugar}.

Let’s face it, real Fall leaves can be messy. They can get brittle and break and turn dull brown. A handful or two of some well-placed silk leaves is a great option for bringing leaf décor into your home. I love the random scattering of leaves on bookshelves here, as though they really have just fallen down from the treetops.

I don’t think nature-based art can get much simpler – or more effective – than a display like this. Gluing a variety of well-formed leaves onto plain white paper or cardstock and then mounting them in an orderly collage provides striking contrast to the typical chaos of leaves in nature. In this way, each leaf can be seen and appreciated, while the installation of all the leaves together creates even more than a sum of its parts. Beautiful in its simplicity.{found on dailywt}.

Stringing a bunch of leaves from some twine with clothespins would work as equally well with real leaves as with faux leaves (as shown here). Mounting the twine on an open wooden frame provides a wonderful “natural” context for the leaves to be hanging; I love the irony of an orderly display of natural components here.{found on occasionallycrafty}.

A mantel in Fall (and Winter, but we’re not there yet) screams out for some seasonal love, and an old-time leaf cut-out garland might be just the thing. Brown paper and old book text paper leaves, of various shapes, create simple yet effective visual interest on this white mantel.{[found on acultivatednest}.

Maybe you love the form of leaves but don’t quite know what to do with the ombre browns and reds and yellows in your home. For a basic and visually striking vignette, consider spray painting leaves (real or silk) and mounting them on textured paper or burlap. This is quite an easy leaf-inspired décor project, with a hugely festive impact.{found on site}.

If you’re not one for natural leaf colors at all, don’t lose hope! Last but not least, I present to you this hand-printed fig leaf linen table runner. The colors are vibrant and unexpected, the leaf silhouette is classic, and the linen is perfectly textural. This cool-hued table runner could be used year-round, but how fun to pull it out and use it during the Fall, when warm colors seem to overtake the decorating scene.{found on etsy}.