My Budget Friendly Fall Front Porch

Since it’s now October, I thought it was time to take down the Spring décor from the front porch. Somewhere in there I completely skipped over Summer, which is not like me, but hey it’s the year of ‘anything goes’!

I made it to the storage unit and hauled all the Fall bins home, and found quite a few items I had previously forgotten about (my favorite part about decorating for a new season). It’s still randomly hot here in Iowa, so I am holding off on any real pumpkins as my porch faces the west and they just bake in the afternoon sun.

Y’all know I am all about budget friendly decorating, and especially free! I have some decorative grass in the front of my house that we cut down each year about this time, and I saved some of it for my front porch.

I have a large milk can that I stuffed full of the cut down grass, and as it dries out it will look really nice and fall-ish (and even better since its free). In fact, the only portion of this porch project that cost any money, are the fresh mums I picked up from the nearby grocery store. They were only $6 each, so I feel pretty confident that I won’t be devastated if they don’t last too long, due to my inability to keep plants alive. Here’s a closeup of these huge (and cheap) mums!

Everything else was from my stash of things I already had, I mean I collect super inexpensive vintage things all year round for these precise moments! Here is how it turned out!

I hope you enjoyed my budget friendly front porch project! As always, thanks for stopping by the blog, we really appreciate all of the support!

See you soon!

-Rachael

My Farmhouse Christmas Front Porch

I FINALLY finished my front porch this weekend, and it’s a good thing I did because today it’s snowing along with 35mph winds…gross. Iowa always keeps us on our toes! There’s an old saying that if you don’t like the weather here to wait a day and it will change. Well, yesterday it was 50 degrees…

Enough on that, let’s get to the fun stuff.

My front porch came together rather late this year, as you can see, and that was mainly due to me waiting on these two trees I purchased online from Target during their black Friday weekend sales. Personally, I think they were worth the wait! I had my eyes on this pair last year but never ended up getting them, something about the trees being ‘less full’ caught my eye. You can see them below!

These trees came in their own wooden stands, which I did keep, however for this project I wanted them to have more of a vintage vibe so I put them in an old crock and a wooden box. They are pre-lit which made it easy to decide to place them next to the outlet.

For the rest of the items, I simply shopped my house/garage. You might wonder what kind of hoarding situation I have going on if I can simply rummage through my house and find all these things for the porch…well I do have a lot of things, but I use them mostly year round in different capacities each season. I am blessed with a lot of storage options at this house, so I always keep my eyes open for a good deal and constantly add to my collection…y’all know I love a bargain!

For example, this wash tub on the right, it was originally purchased at a flea market several years ago. For this season, I simply snagged it from my front flower bed where it had been on display this fall with a water pump. During summer months I will fill it with flowers or twigs/branches. Currently, it’s holding some over-sized metal ornaments originally from my wedding, over 4 years ago. Reusing decor in different ways drastically reduces the cost of changing things up each season!

Here is a photo after dark, to show the lit trees. I don’t often talk about or recommend products, there are plenty of bloggers out there that do that. I do, however, give my non-sponsored opinion from time to time about certain things that I really like or enjoy, and these trees fall into that category.

Here is another front view of the porch! I posted this image on Instagram today and someone asked if the front of our house had tile on it, which is a good question! It is actually cast stone that is smooth and made to look like tile…each one weighs 130 pounds! We chose this stone for the front door area to give a contrast to the cobblestone look of the rest of the stone on our house.

And while we are on the topic of the front door, this was not our door we had in mind and I cannot wait until we replace it with the permanent door. Until then, white metal door it is!

Hopefully this post has provided you some inspiration to decorate your own house, and as always I love seeing what you come up with so make sure to tag me on Instagram or Facebook or whatever platform you share your pictures.

And if you have made it this far, thank you so much for stopping by the blog today! I can see when y’all visit this little corner of the internet that I call home, and it means the world to both me and Adam knowing that you are sharing this space with us.

That’s all for now, make sure to check back soon for more farmhouse renovation updates coming up, or feel free to subscribe to our mailing list if you want them sent directly to your inbox.

Cheers!!

-Rachael

The Final Summer Porch Refresh!

If you have been following along you might be aware that sweet corn season officially started this week here in Iowa, and I might be just a teeny bit excited about that! In fact, I had to incorporate the first delivery of corn into my final Summer porch refresh of the year. That’s correct, the next time I redo this space it will be with pumpkins!

But for now, I had to take down the 4th of July decor and I wanted to incorporate a few farming pieces to set up for the future harvest season. As a collector of all things random and old, I happened to have everything I needed stored in the garage (which has kind of unintentionally become my decor locker, just don’t tell Adam). This John Deere seed planter from an old tractor is a great example…

The fresh ears of corn in this photo are from our local CSA/farm share program that is delivered weekly throughout the spring and summer. For more information about farm shares, you can see my full post here.

Here are a couple more photos of this newly refreshed space!

For the other side of the door I snagged some of the decorative grass from my front landscaping that is currently out of control, and stuffed it into an old rusty milk can that i picked up at a garage sale a couple years back. The black metal ‘hello’ sign will stay for now, but I might take it down for the winter months, as it gets pretty cold here and I don’t want it damaged or warped in any way.

Here’s a front shot of the whole front porch, which is one of my more favorite area’s to decorate at my home. Now, if only I can light a fire under Adam and have him replace the construction door that’s been there for 4 years next month! It’s the little things….

That’s all I have for you today, thank you for stopping by the blog and I hope I have been able to inspire you on your own decorating adventure! As always, feel free to share your projects and questions either here or over on Instagram.

Happy Summer!

Rachael

Summer Front Porch Decor

Hello from Iowa, America’s heartland!

As we get ready to celebrate our country’s birthday in just a few short weeks, I thought I should dig out some patriotic decor and spruce up the front porch. Luckily, Target has metal stars in red, white, and blue in their dollar section currently and since I am there several days a week I was lucky enough to have an early pick and I was able to snag all three colors. These stars were the initial inspiration for my summer porch refresh, and the rest of it came together pretty quickly. I have a few photos pictured below that will hopefully bring you inspiration for your own outdoor decor.

This little lemonade setup was the first part of the porch that I decorated, and I mostly just grabbed things from my house that I thought could withstand the Iowa weather. The lemonade sign is recently from Hobby Lobby, which is having their final closeout prices on their spring items (there are some good deals!!).

Next, it was time to add the pop of patriotic colors…

If you remember from my spring porch setup, this old bi-fold door was used to hang pots of succulents and I kept it in place for the metal stars I found at the Target dollar section.

I kept the ‘hello’ sign, the black star, and the welcome mat from my Spring decor, and moved the water pump and wash tub to the right side of the door and added a few plants. Adam keeps saying that this is the year we will get a ‘real’ front door, and I’m holding him to it, so stay tuned for that!

Here are a few pictures of it all together!

I may add a few plants to the steps/walkway to the door, however I don’t want to make it too narrow either, so it will just depend on what I am able to find. Personally, I feel as though outdoor spaces can get a cluttered feeling rather easily, so I try to keep it as simple as possible for that reason.

Well I better get back at it, as always thank you for stopping by the blog today, it really means a lot to us! I hope you were able to find some inspiration for your own home, and feel free to share your own photos and connect with us either here or on Instagram. See you soon!