How I added a DIY autumn mural to my stairs – all it took was a few sample pots of paint to give them a unique seasonal update on a budget

Home decorator and content creator Leah Hodson is one of Ideal Home's new Open House contributors, sharing her thoughts on overhauling a home with clever DIY and decorating tricks. See the rest of her articles here.

With the weather getting chillier, I'm in the mood for adding small, cosy touches that transform a room without spending a fortune. Before you venture out to the shops in search of new decorations for the season, here’s how you can create something different instead! There’s something truly magical in creating or reimagining something you already have - and for me, it's the often forgotten side of the stairs.

When I decorated my hallway at the start of the year, some people will say (by some people, I mean my husband) that the hallway was devoid of colours. We inherited a beautiful sage green hallway that unfortunately just didn’t work for me - it always looked too dark and gloomy for my liking. So, I decided to open it up with lighter colours and wall panelling. The combination of ‘Sail White’ and ‘Blended’ by Crown Paints (their trade range has exceptionally good coverage) really made my small hallway brighter and much wider than before.

It’s not that I don’t like colour, just that I get bored of bright colours and patterns very easily. I actually really love looking at other peoples colourful homes! I came up with a genius solution to adding colour in the hallway without it being permanent - a seasonal hallway refresh. This means I get a pop of colour in the hallway whilst getting a chance to change it up seasonally - which coincidentally, is roughly the time it takes for me to get bored of a pattern!

The summer design I made was a soft petal vine. As it was a small section, I was able to complete this by mixing paint samples and coming up with a soft romantic design, for free! What I planned for autumn consisted of bolder autumnal colours and patterns - think a striped background, that could easily turn into gingham for Christmas, and pumpkins. What is autumn, without pumpkins?

The hardest part was deciding on the thickness of the stripes. I had my heart set on thicker stripes but when I created a draft of what it would look like, thinner stripes looked better. In the end, I found my Goldilocks width - not too thick or too thin. To prevent paint bleed after taping up my stripes, I used a credit card to firmly press down the tape. However, I’ll be honest with you, the best way to prevent paint bleed is still going over with the base paint so it can fully seal in the tape. Painting the stripes in Rosie Posie from Earthborn, a beautiful vintage pink hue with dusky rose undertones, added the perfect soft feminine touch.

Tracing out pumpkins was fairly simple as it only consists of varying sizes of ovals. I used a spare roll of tape as a template to mark the space I wanted the pumpkins to go, so that all the pumpkins look fairly uniform. I used Earthborn’s Freckle, which they have just named Colour of the Year, for the pumpkin. It’s a subdued orange that perfectly contrasts the stripes, and also works very well to complement the greyish beige panelling on the walls behind. To create depth to the pumpkins, I went over with Flower Pot by Earthborn paints, shading around the sides.

To add a whimsical touch to the design, I tied it all in with an autumn vine at the bottom. Also using Earthborn colours, I painted the vine in a mixture of Hobby Wood and Sunday Stroll, and added maple leaves painted in Freckle to tie in with the Pumpkins.

The best part? This mural was done using nothing but sample pots, proving you don’t need a big budget to make a big seasonal impact! There’s something about getting a paint brush out and creating something truly unique. So before you go out to buy a new pumpkin that will sit in the loft the next 10 months of the year, I challenge you to think about creating something instead!