4 Fall Porch Decorating Tips to Achieve a Pinterest-Perfect Look
Fall means many things, the beginning of cooler days, leaves falling, pumpkin spice lattes and my favorite, a time to restyle your front porch! This year we decorated 44 porches in Columbus, Ohio and Fairfield County, Connecticut. We've styled porches for pregnant moms, busy parents, and families that are immunocompromised. 2020 has brought on so many challenges for us all. We were thrilled to be able to do our small part to spread fall cheer in our communities.
After decorating so many porches, we decided to write down our top front porch decorating tips so you can achieve a designer look in your own home! First step, decide on a general color palette. This year, we had a lot of fun designing our 3 distinctive fall looks centered around a concept & color theme.
Tip 1 - Choose a Concept & Color palette
Our Eternal Summer look was inspired by our own neighborhood in Coastal Connecticut. This look included a blush-tinged color palette and nautical-inspired accents. We sourced white, pale pink & lavender mums, white wicker baskets, and a white wood nautical lantern. We added hand painted copper & gold accents to complement the muted tones in the scheme.
Our Modern Monochrome look features bold purple mums. We wanted the flowers in this scheme to really pop and add a bright contrast with all the black and white accents. The black and white pumpkin trend isn't going away and transitions so well into your Halloween decor!
The Tried and Trad concept was our most popular package. The beauty of fall comes alive in this look with a its warm color palette. Golden yellow, burnt orange, and bronze red mums our the foundation for this look. They represent different colored leaves you see as they begin to change with cooler temps. The traditional sugar pumpkins, hay, wooden accents added a bit of country charm to every home.
Tip 2 - layout is key
We are a team of designers trained in basic principles of interior design & interior architecture. Our training and experience came in handy when figuring out how to style our clients homes like the cover of a magazine. However, here are some basic tips you could use to create an editorial style look in your home:
Create balance & harmony with the same number items on both sides of your steps. If you have a lantern on one side, then place a large pumpkin on the other to achieve balance.
- Buy mums and pumpkins in even numbers.
- If you don't have multiple steps to arrange pumpkins on, then focus on creating vignettes or groupings of items.
- Stack pumpkins for height or lay them on their side against a step so they are visible from the street.
TIP 3 - LAYER IN Texture & Decorative ACCENTS
A sign or doormat is welcoming touch to any home. This year, we partnered with AR Workshop to offer custom fall signs and personalized mats to our clients. We delivered them along with our packages and they added so much charm and personality.
A wreath is an important and beautiful focal point on your door. Our wreaths matched the overall concept & color palette with each look. We used outdoor command hooks on doors to hang them. For the modern monochrome package, we tied a large black and white bow on a door hook to hang behind the magnolia leaf wreath.
Don't be afraid to add in faux pumpkins to your scheme. We had fun painting faux pumpkins to add visual interest in our designs. We used metallic blush & gold tones in the eternal summer look and painted black & white patterns in our modern monochrome look.
Hay & Cornstalks are very traditional and inexpensive fall decor items. We like using both to add a variety of textures and height to our designs. The cornstalks should flank either side of your door or mounted directly to columns with simple metal wire. The hay is perfect as the base for a vignette. Stack flowers and pumpkins on top and in front to create a Pinterest worthy picture.
TIP 4 - lighting for those longer nights
Finally, as the sun sets earlier and earlier, think about adding warm lighting to the front of your home. Lanterns with LED candles on a timer are very easy to manage and go a long way to welcome visitors to your home. Michaels & Home Goods are great places to shop for lanterns.
