Fall decorating tips for your front porch

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I’ve been feeling a little bit like we’re in limbo over the last several months. We’re currently looking for a house, but haven’t found anything yet. So therefore, we’ve been sort of preparing for a move that may or may not happen in the near future and trying to survive life at the same time. Anyone else get where I’m coming from? Since we’re in this season of feeling unsettled, I wanted to do some fall decorating around here to help get me in the spirit for all things pumpkin and apple cider. Our front porch is the easiest place for me to do that since we don’t have a fireplace in our house (also on the list for the next one). It also saves me from cleaning our house, so, win.

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Sometimes I feel like starting from scratch and decorating a space in my home can be a little overwhelming. So I pulled together a few tips that I use every time I tackle a new decorating project:

1. Keep it simple. Less is always more, especially when it comes to your front porch since this is the first thing people see when they look at your home. It’s always easier to add something else if you feel like the space needs more, but it’s much harder to censor yourself and cut back once you’ve already purchased items and placed them on your porch. Even small changes, like switching out your welcome mat, can make a big difference.

2. Be realistic about your space. We had a beautiful lemonade porch complete with a wooden swing on our house when we lived in Tennessee. It’s probably the thing I miss the most about that house. The porch on our current house is significantly smaller. While I have lots of ideas on how to decorate a larger porch and hope to someday have that porch swing again, there’s just no way I can cram all the same fall decor onto our tiny porch. Bring realistic about the space you have to use is important because you want everything to look like it was meant to be there. It’s also a space that gets used by visitors and for package deliveries, so you want to make sure that your porch will still be useable.

3. Choose a theme. What do you want your front porch to say? For a more traditional look, you can focus on leaves and pumpkins, or you can add in some hay bales and a scarecrow for something a little more casual. Don’t feel like you have to go all #teampumpkinorange, but the colors and general look of your fall decorating should work together and be cohesive.

4. Pick a central item. One or two eye-catching central items are perfect. Everything else can accent your favorite pieces. You want people who view your home to immediately be drawn into the total look. If everything on the porch is big and bold, it can be hard to know where to look first.

5. Look at your budget. The “B” word doesn’t have to take the fun out of everything, but the size of your budget may require you to work harder to look for sales and deals. I try to pick up things at the end of season sales if I have enough foresight too. I always have to remind myself not to get my heart set on the most expensive things and rather try to find some more affordable alternatives.

6. Think about longevity (and storage space). I personally like to purchase things that will either last for multiple seasons or for more than one year. While I do love real pumpkins and will sometimes use them, they’re not going to last for several months. It’s also why I opt to decorate for fall vs. Halloween. Fall decor will looks perfect on our porch from early September all the way through Thanksgiving. If you have the additional storage space and love Halloween, you might prefer to decorate for each specific holiday. I use these and these to help me organize and store out-of-season decor.

So there you have it! Some tips to help you fill your front porch with fall.

Want to add some similar fall decor items to your front porch? I scoured the internet to find some super cute items. Which one(s) will you be adding to your porch? Leave me a comment and let me know, or tag me on Instagram to show me what your porch looks like! I may even share some of my favorites in my stories!