The time for all things pumpkin spice and cozy hoodies has finally arrived and this girl couldn’t be happier! I am not sure if it’s the cooler weather or the way the world kind of transforms that I love the most but Fall is my favorite season next to winter. So in true fall lover fashion, I spent the weekend preparing our home for the season, starting with our Fall Front Porch and I may have had a slight twinkle in my eye while doing it.
I am not sure if it’s the cooler weather or the way the world kind of transforms that I love the most but Fall is my favorite season next to winter, so I spent the weekend preparing our home for the season starting with our Fall Front Porch and I may have had a slight twinkle in my eye while doing it.
Before we purchased our first home I had spent many days dreaming about the gorgeous wrap around porch with matching rocking chairs and beautiful cedar posts our future home would have. I just knew that the home we chose would have all of these elements, then real life happened. I absolutely love our home and love the fact that we were blessed enough to have such a beautiful home but just like anyone else, there are definitely things that I would change.
One being the asymmetrical front porch, this is pretty much a nightmare when trying to decorate and there is unfortunately only room for one rocker, not two like my daydreams. We have absolutely no control over the position of the door but if it were up to me, the door would be centered instead of on the far left.
That being said we have found a way to make things look beautiful without having the ideal canvas to start. You may have these problem areas in your own home and most people do but it doesn’t have to stop you from decorating. It is situations like these that often result in some of the most gorgeous spaces because it causes you to think outside the box and create something unique.
Even though Fall is one of my favorite seasons by no means am I crazy about the orange and brown color palette that comes with it. The good news is you don’t have to use the typical fall color palette to achieve a seasonal look. Keeping with the color palette of our home is important to make things flow nicely in my opinion and our front porch is no exception.
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With all of the other projects we currently have going on this one had to be affordable. We have so many things on our todo list that just thinking about it all makes my wallet skinny and splurging on our front porch decor just wasn’t in the cards and really there is no need when you can create the same effect with less money.
So to kick things off I headed over to Target with a few ideas in mind, within minutes I spotted the most beautiful throw blanket in a perfect for fall plaid print and this cute “Gather” pillow that can carry our front porch well into Thanksgiving. The two go great together and I love the coziness they both bring to an otherwise dull area.
It just isn’t Fall without pumpkins and mums, right? My goal was to use white mums instead of the typical orange or yellow, but apparently, they don’t carry them anywhere in our metro area. So orange it is, orange and blue look really good together so I was okay with it, kind of.
Next, the little and I headed over to grab some pumpkins to paint. We used the Martha Stewart brand chalk paint from Michaels that I had on hand, in the color Linen. Chalk paint tends to dry faster and plus I love the finish it gives.
We threw a drop cloth down on the counter and painted several pumpkins for the porch. They probably won’t last into Thanksgiving but the project literally took maybe 30 minutes so I am okay with doing it again in a month or so. Not only was it an easy project it allowed our daughter and I to spend some time together doing something fun. Within the hour the pumpkins were dry and it was time to decorate!
When decorating an asymmetrical porch it can be tricky to make things look proportioned but if you can find a way to decorate on either side of the focal point mine being the rocker, you can bring everything together without it looking too heavy on one side.
We used the mums on the front side of the rocker and I threw them into an olive bucket to dress them up a bit, with two pumpkins in front of the bucket. On the side of the rocker closest to the door, we used a larger pumpkin with two smaller pumpkins to help balance that side out. Pairing items in sets of three is always a great rule of thumb when decorating, also just make sure you use an odd number if you would like to add more than three pieces.
The best way to incorporate this trick is to use two like items and one item that is different in some way. In this case, I used larger objects mixed with smaller ones. There are tons of guidelines when it comes to decorating and sometimes I follow them sometimes I don’t, so if it feels right to break the rules I say go for it!
You are the one that has to love your space not someone out of a magazine or your neighbor Susan down the street. Do what makes you happy friend!
Things do not always have to be by the book and some of the most amazing trendsetting spaces have come from designers and decorators throwing caution to the wind and the rules out the window!
This is actually the first time I have decorated our front porch for fall since we moved into our home two and a half years ago, honestly, I have always been a bit hesitant since I didn’t have the perfect symmetrical porch. Overall I am very happy with the way it turned out and I love the welcoming feel it gives our guests and I cannot wait to curl up with a cup of coffee and a good book.
Don’t allow the fact that your home isn’t perfect or doesn’t possess some of the qualities you had hoped to stop you from making the space feel like YOU or from creating something that you can be proud of. If you are going to be spending every single day somewhere it might as well be beautiful, right?
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Kelly says
Gorgeous, Ashley! The white pumpkins look great with the rich blue and yellow. Love it!
Ashley says
Thank you so much Kelly, I am so happy with the way it turned out.
Ashley says
Thank you so much Neelam 🙂 White mums are so hard to come by here in the Midwest, but Im loving the orange and navy together so it worked out.
Neelam says
Beautiful! I love the colours you went with! While I favour white mums as well, the orange when paired with the navy creates a modern and fresh look!
xx
Neelam