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A cozy fireplace sets the stage for fall, with layered textures and seasonal touches creating a warm gathering place.
Kerri-Lee Mayland
Fireplaces have always had a way of drawing us in. Long before we had televisions hanging above them, the hearth really was the heart of the home — a source of warmth, light, food and gathering. And while we may not depend on our fireplaces in quite the same way today, we still instinctively gravitate toward them.
So, fireplace season is here. Let’s make the most of it.
If you have a working wood-burning fireplace, use it! Once the fireplace has been properly inspected and cleaned as needed, bring in the wood, find a beautiful basket for the logs and put those fireplace tools where you can actually reach them. A fireplace doesn’t need to look pristine. In fact, they are better when they look as though someone actually lights a fire there.
Fall is also a great time to rearrange the room around your fireplace. Angle a favorite chair toward it. Pull an ottoman closer. Bring out the throws and pile them into a basket. Add a little table for a cup of tea or a glass of wine. Suddenly, you have a place that practically begs you to sit down and stay awhile.
Kerri-Lee Mayland
And then, of course, there is the mantel.
We love decorating our mantels in New England, especially as the seasons change. But fall decorating doesn’t have to mean covering every available inch with orange pumpkins.
Start with what you already have. A favorite painting or mirror can be the anchor. Add candlesticks, pottery, a few branches clipped from outside, perhaps some tiny pumpkins or gourds. The best mantels feel collected and slightly imperfect — as though they evolved with the season rather than arrived in one giant shopping bag.
But what if your house doesn’t have a fireplace?
Fake it.
A good trick it to find an old mantel at an antique store, flea market or architectural salvage shop and use it purely as decoration. A beautiful old mantel instantly adds architecture, history and character to a room, even if there isn’t a chimney anywhere in sight.
And don’t forget: The space underneath is just as much of a design opportunity as the mantel itself.
Place a large basket beneath it and fill it with logs. You may never burn a single one, but you’ll still get that wonderful visual warmth and texture.
Or fill the space with an enormous arrangement of dried hydrangeas from summer. By fall, those bright summer blooms have faded into beautiful muted greens, dusty pinks and creams. Pile them generously into an old basket, crock or oversized vessel and suddenly you have this gorgeous, romantic focal point.
You could even turn the space into a tiny library. Tuck a small bookshelf beneath the mantel or stack favorite books inside. Add a chair nearby, and you’ve created a charming little reading corner around a fireplace that doesn’t actually exist.
And if you want more than the illusion of warmth, electric fireplaces have come a long way.
There are beautiful options now that can be inserted into an existing nonworking fireplace or incorporated into a new mantel. You get the glow and movement of flames, plus actual heat, without needing a chimney. For apartments, newer homes or rooms where adding a traditional fireplace simply isn’t practical, they can completely change the atmosphere.
Because fireplace season isn’t really just about fire.
It’s about creating a reason to gather. To turn off a few lights, pull up a chair and settle in. It’s about the glow, the warmth and that unmistakable feeling that fall has arrived.
A whole section dedicated to camping and outdoor gear at Brimfield.
D.H. Callahan
If you mention Brimfield to anybody who’s been there, they’ll be quick to tell you that it is not actually one unfathomably large antiques flea market. It’s many big markets, all coordinated to open the same three weeks every year: once in May, once in July and once in September.
The whole thing started in 1959, when auctioneer Gordon Ried decided to emulate the outdoor antiques flea markets he’d seen in Connecticut up on his farmland in Brimfield, Massachusetts. It began with 67 vendors but would never be that small again. Within a few years, his Auction Acres was packed to the brim, and nearby farmers started opening their fields to more vendors.
Today, there are more than 20 individual markets, all with different schedules and specialties. Despite the varying lineups, one thing remains consistent throughout the event: quality. No matter what field you wander onto and whether or not they have an entry fee, you’ll find treasures everywhere you look.
A wicker viewing coffin from a closed funeral home for sale at Brimfield.D.H. Callahan
Sure, there are some tents that have more of the contemporary collectibles, like boxes of Funko Pop! dolls and Marvel movie posters — the same stuff you see at every event of this kind. They’re always easy to identify and usually just steps away from some serious treasures, like a whole tent of midcentury furniture or one full of old, obsolete hand tools for oddly specific jobs. There are tents dedicated to vintage lighting and antique fixtures for restoring your new old furniture. Political pins and postcards dating back to the 1800s. Clown shoes and cauldrons and canoes. Funerary art made from the deceased’s hair. More things made of wicker than you’d imagine necessary.
Many of the vendors have their own antiques or interiors shops, and they make the trip once, twice and even three times a year from all over the country. More and more, though, it seems to be avid collectors who use the events as a way to justify their collections, selling off items to make way for new stuff.
A wicker viewing coffin from a closed funeral home for sale at Brimfield.D.H. Callahan
The buyers are everybody from locals interested in the hubbub to regional antique enthusiasts to career collectors. It’s not hard to find interior designers from Florida picking through the good stuff at every field. The social diversity is also pretty rich, with all races, ages and economic categories represented. Everybody seems to get along wonderfully, encouraging one another to make fun purchases and laughing together at the awkwardness of navigating their bodies around all the delicate delights.
Brimfield is all wrapped up for this year, but now is the perfect time to plan for next year. The trip is about two hours from the Northwest corner, so if you want to see all you can see, there are many hotels and motels with rooms available for the May show. Learn more, and plan your next trip at brimfieldantiquefleamarket.com.
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