There is a moment in early September when the evenings start drawing in and the living room suddenly feels less like a place to flop and more like a place to settle. The temptation is to head straight for the shops, but the most convincing autumnal rooms are almost always the result of rearranging rather than restocking. Before you spend a penny, spend an hour shopping your own home.

Walk from room to room with a basket and gather anything that suits the cooler months: a wooden bowl, a wool blanket off a spare bed, a candle that never found a home, a brass or beaten-metal tray, a stoneware jug. Then make the swaps. It helps to think in opposites — what is in the room now that really belongs to summer?

• Thin cotton cushions out, wool, velvet or corduroy covers in
• Glass vases and pale glossy ceramics out, wood, stoneware and matte finishes in
• Light, breezy throws out, something with a bit of weight in
• A spare lamp brought in from a bedroom or hallway for a dark corner

None of this costs anything, and it changes the character of a room faster than a delivery van ever will. Keep the summer pieces in a box somewhere dry and they will feel new again in April.

Layer the light

Autumn light is low and golden by mid-afternoon and gone by half past five. One ceiling light cannot carry a room through that. What you want is three or four points of light at different heights, so the eye has somewhere to rest and the corners do not go black.

Start with the bulbs. Look for warm white — around 2700K or lower — and keep the wattage modest. A 40 to 60 watt equivalent gives a soft pool of light; a 100 watt bulb in a small shade simply glares. If your lamps are on a dimmer, use it. If they are not, a plug-in dimmer costs very little and is one of the best-value changes you can make in a living room.

• Position a table lamp so the shade sits below eye level when you are seated — this cuts glare and makes the light feel much softer
• Put a small lamp on a sideboard or shelf so it washes light up a wall
• Add a couple of candles in proper holders, well away from curtains and anything loose
• Use a timer plug so lamps are already on when you come in from a dark afternoon

Turn the overhead light off entirely in the evening and live by the lamps for a week. Most people never go back.

Bring the outdoors in

Nothing says autumn quite so quietly as a branch. A single stem of hips, a few dried hydrangea heads, seed pods, honesty, or a handful of ornamental grasses in a plain jug will do more than a shelf of new ornaments. Forage from your own garden first, and ask before snipping from anyone else's.

The same principle applies to surfaces. Natural materials age well and take low light beautifully. Swap a shiny tray for wood, add a woven basket beside the sofa or fire for logs or throws, put a rough linen runner under a lamp, and let a few apples or a squash sit in a shallow bowl. If you have a houseplant looking tired, move it to a brighter spot rather than replacing it — a fern or ivy in a simple pot earns its keep in a shaded corner.

Warm the floor and the gaps

Cold feet undo a lot of good work. If you have hard flooring, a rug that reaches under your chair and out in front of your toes makes the room feel several degrees warmer, whatever the thermostat says. Wool or a wool mix holds warmth and softens the acoustics too, which matters more than people realise in a room with bare boards.

Then deal with the gaps. A draught excluder at the door, a curtain drawn across a draughty doorway, and heavier curtains closed at dusk all keep the heat where you want it. Lining light curtains is far cheaper than replacing them, and drawing them before the sun goes completely makes a real difference on a clear, cold evening. A blanket folded over the arm of the sofa, within reach rather than in a cupboard, is the difference between a room you use and a room you leave.

Scent and small comforts

Scent does a great deal of the work in autumn, and it need not come in a jar. Simmer orange peel, a cinnamon stick and a few cloves in a small pan of water for twenty minutes and the whole ground floor will smell like the season. A bowl of dried orange slices on a shelf does the same job more slowly, and looks good doing it.

• A basket by the sofa for blankets, so people help themselves rather than asking
• A tray to gather mugs, a book and a candle — it stops clutter spreading across the room
• Slippers and a hot water bottle kept where you actually sit, not upstairs
• A couple of books or magazines within arm's reach of your favourite chair

Small, useful things beat decorative ones every time in a room you live in daily.

Keep it simple, then live in it

The last step is restraint. An autumnal room should feel layered, not themed. If you have added a throw, a lamp, a branch and a rug, stop there and live with it for a week before adjusting anything else. Notice where you actually sit, where the light falls short, and which corner still feels cold or empty. Then move one thing rather than buying three.

Leave some space. An empty stretch of wall, a bare wooden surface, and a little breathing room around your things will make the warmth of the rest feel deliberate rather than crowded. Autumn is a long season — from the first golden afternoon to the last frost — so build a room you can sink into, and change it gradually as the light changes with it.