Hello friends! We hope you are having a good week, and are enjoying some beautiful weather, as we are here in Gettysburg.
As summer winds down and we wistfully kiss those long days good-bye, we can’t help but anticipate the change of seasons…and fall decorating.
Who out There Loves a Pretty Fall Porch?
Do you love the traditional shades of orange, amber, dusty browns, and deep burgundies, or do you prefer the softer slightly less traditional shades of deep pinks, ivory, salmon, soft greens and peach? We love both, and know you can’t really go wrong either way when it comes to fall decor. But still you ask…how can I decorate my fall porch for autumn? Read on for a little refresher about porches from one of last year’s blog posts:
Have you Been Neglecting Your Front Porch?
“A neglected porch is a little sad. It’s hard to enjoy a porch when you’re so busy thinking about everything it lacks. We tend to think of a neglected porch the way we think of a Charlie Brown Christmas tree: it could be really sweet with a little TLC. A well-decorated porch, on the other hand, is more than just eye candy. It pulls you in and offers the comfort and respite we all need in these harried, unpredictable times. A front porch need not be fancy or expensive. It simply needs to welcome you home.
Yes, porches keep the rain off your head, but in addition to practicality, they offer endless possibilities to improve your mood by creating atmosphere. You can decorate a porch for different seasons and different holidays. Think of your porch as an extension of your home and decorate it as you would decorate a room…more on this later.”
Read more about our other seasonal porch ideas in these blog posts: Decorating Your Front Porch for Christmas and 10 Ways to Decorate Your Front Porch for Spring.
7 Fall Outdoor Decor Ideas
- Consider your style and establish your color scheme. Do you like warm neutrals? Earthy taupes? Fresh greens? Cool blues?
- Fall colors don’t have to be orange, yellow, and brown! Again, treat your porch as an extension of your home, and consider taking your color cues from your interior. This will ensure a lovely transition from indoor to outdoor. Popular fall color combinations include: blues with pinks, apricot and peach, creams and taupes with lots of natural greens and wood accents, oranges, reds, yellows and greens. Your colors can be pastel, muted, or fresh. The possibilities are endless!
- Decide on an area of focus (door, swing, steps, chair, etc.) and make that your starting point. Don’t forget the details! Little details make all the difference.
- Shop at your local craft store or try out Etsy. We love Hobby Lobby, Michaels, and our favorite Etsy shops.
- Craft any necessary items. If you can’t find it or can’t afford it, make it yourself! We purchased most of our fall front porch items from Michaels and made almost all our own arrangements using real and faux flowers, greenery, and real and faux pumpkins. This is a true story: when we traveled this summer, my son Kyle watered ALL of the flowers on the porch, including the fake ones, while we were away. He said they looked so real he couldn’t tell!
- Assemble. I spent several evenings crafting, assembling, and styling the porch. Don’t forget to take photos so you can recreate your fall porch next year.
- Make yourself a nice pumpkin spice latte and sit and enjoy the view when you’re finished!
How to Chose Fall Colors to Complement Your Decorating Scheme
Since we have very soft colors both inside and out, we chose to go soft and lean a little non-traditional. Rather than using vibrant traditional fall colors, which we do love, by the way, we took a softer approach to fall this season. Since our farmhouse has a blue and white color palette with a silver galvanized roof and galvanized exterior light fixtures, pinks, peaches, soft greens, and dusty mauves were a lovely complement.
I usually have a vision, but this time I threw my normal sensibilities to the wind and marched into Michaels and bought what I love, knowing I’d just wing it and make it work. And if I bought too much, or ended up not using everything, I could always return what I didn’t use. Turns out that wasn’t an issue. If you know me, that’s not surprising, since I love a fully decorated porch. We already had coordinating blue pillows on our porch swing, rockers, and loveseat, so we simply added cute fall pillows to start. I lucked out and found our colors right at Michael’s.
Fall Decor for a House with Dark Blue Shutters
Check out how Brittany decorated her front porch this fall!
HARTLAND’S FALL FRONT PORCH DECOR
How did Monica style her front porch this fall? Here is what she did:
- Bought two large wreaths* from Grandin Road for the front door; this was the jumping-off point for our color scheme, since the wreath has all of our soft pretty colors. *similar
- Added pretty pillows on the swing and loveseat to go with our color scheme
- Bought pretty fresh mums in shades of pink, white and salmon
- Bought real pumpkins in white, pink and green (yes, real ones come in pink and green)
- Replaced some of our faux summer flowers on our potting table with faux fall leaves and flowers
- Bought two medium-large white planters and made two new arrangements to flank the double doors
- Moved our Grandin Road faux cedar trees to the front porch steps
5 Fall Porch Decorating Staples:
- Fall wreath
- Planters with fresh or faux mums and greenery
- Potted mums
- Pumpkins
- Accessories of your choice (signs, crates, haybales, corn shocks, etc.)
How to Make Fall Planters
- Select two medium-large ceramic planters. We chose white with a fern motif. Make sure the shape complements the style of your house and the height complements your front door, porch roof height, and isn’t in the way of your lighting.
- We used kindling from our firepit to create a cross hatch pattern in the bottom of our pots. Consider this to elevate your arrangement and to secure stems and branches.
- Arrange taller items first. I purchased six sets of tall twiggy bunches that are tied with twine. Three went in each pot along the back, and are the tallest elements in the pots.
- We bought four white birch logs from Hobby Lobby, and Paul cut them in half with a chain saw. These gives the large pots some heft and is a pretty natural element. We put these in the middle of the pots.
- We filled in the entire pot with deep pink faux mums.
- We filled in around the mums with two different types of fall greens with pinecones.
- To finish it off and add a little sparkle, we added some white glittery branches in front of the tall twig bunches. These came from the (very early) Christmas selection at Hobby Lobby.
The beautiful thing about these planters is that they will do double duty. I simply need to remove the faux mums and replace them with wintery flowers, add a few large Christmas balls, and I have lovely Christmas arrangements ready to go!
Enjoy Your Fall Porch with the Ones you Love
We hope you enjoy putting together your fall porch, and we would love to see what you do. Please feel free to share! As always, thank you for spending time with us!
Until next time…