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Spring and summer is the perfect time to refresh your front porch decor and this year I’m going for a whole new look. I’m starting with new planters and then I’ll be updating our lighting, a little bit of landscaping, and a new entry rug. I love to have a clean, simple, sophisticated feel as you approach our home. The curb appeal of your home, including your front porch decor, sets the tone for the whole vibe of your home. It’s great to review and refresh these areas each season. I’m excited to start with my planters because these have a big impact on the overall look. Let’s walk through the steps to update these!
First, Make a Design Plan
It’s important to take a look at your home exterior and measure a few areas so you can develop a design plan. It doesn’t need to be complicated, but doing a bit of upfront work to plan it out could save you time later. A design plan will help you to shop for your items with some direction.
Step back and look at your current home exterior, your curb appeal, and your front porch. What do you like? What do you feel needs to be improved? Take a walk or a drive and look at the homes around your neighborhood to see what others have done for their front porch decor.
It helps to get inspiration and ideas by looking at homes in your same area rather than just Pinterest. Homes in your area will have the same weather conditions, which affects the planter materials and plant species that will work in your climate.
Sometimes you’ll learn what you don’t want to do! When I scoped out the planters in my neighborhood, I saw a lot of tall black planters that were very similar to the planters I already had. It felt like everyone had the same look, including me. To be a little different and make a change, I decided I wanted to do new planters that were not black. I wanted to look for planters in a neutral stone look and a different shape and silhouette.
Then, Shop for Planters
Now it’s time to find the right planters. Like a lot of front porches, mine is very symmetrical. There are two stone columns with just enough space to put a planter in front of. I measured the space and knew I could only fit a new planter up to about 18 inches. So now I knew to shop for two planters in a neutral stone look that could fit in an 18 inch deep space.
There are several great local nurseries where you can find planters. I decided to shop online so I could read the product details and reviews. A few of the best sites to look for planters are West Elm, Crate & Barrel, CB2, Pottery Barn, Amazon, Home Depot, Lowes, and Target. For my climate, it was important to find planters that could be outside all year. If I found a planter that was suggested to be brought inside in the winter, I skipped right past it.
After spending a few nights shopping online, I came across a 18”w x 18”d x 15”h grey planter that looked like stone but was actually made of a realistic-looking, subtly textured plastic construction. This is a great material for the midwest because real stone might crack in freezing temperatures. Plus it was from the Studio McGee collection at Target, and I really appreciate their design aesthetic. The simple, round form of the planter with a lip at the top gives it a modern feel but with a hint of classic or traditional style. I liked that about it and thought it would work perfectly with the style of my home. It really would look good with almost any style of a home!
Here’s the 15″ Grey Planter that I found at Target:
Fill with Plants
The next step is to decide what you want to put in the planters. Because the summers in the midwest can get very warm mid-summer, plants require a lot of watering and can be very high maintenance. Then the winters have such low temps and winter freezes that plants won’t survive outside all season. I’ve gone through boxwoods, azaleas, and various mixes of flowers that all ended up dying. Because of this, I’ve decided to find some faux plants that work outdoors.
I recently saw some inspiration while on a trip in Park City, Utah. There were these three evergreen trees in low planters at the entry of Arhaus, and I loved the look of these. I had been looking at faux olive trees from Nearly Natural, so I went to their website to look for evergreen trees that would be okay to have outdoors. I found these 4’ Cedar Trees on sale for 30 percent off! With other cedar trees around our house in other landscaping areas, I felt like this was a good choice.
With a low 15”h planter, I definitely wanted to add some height here. By planting a lower height plant or just flowers, the scale of the planters would feel unbalanced against the front of the house. The height of the low planter and 4’ tree would fill up this space and feel very balanced.
Here is the 4’ Cedar Tree from Nearly Natural:
Finally, Put it All Together
Once I had both planters and the trees arrived, I was so excited to put these out on our front porch. To add some weight to the planters, I filled the bottom of each planter with some gravel and big rocks we had leftover from another landscaping project. To fill the space of the planter, I put in some spanish moss rather than soil. You could fill your planters with soil or rocks. I plan to finish off the top with some decorative rocks for a clean look.
The front porch looks so much better now with the fresh, updated decor. Now I’m even more excited to update our lighting, landscaping and rug! The faux cedar tree looks very authentic and real. I don’t think anyone would be able to tell that it’s artificial unless they looked very closely and felt the branches. They look amazing from the street and as you approach our home. You’ll have to follow along for the final reveal!
Here it is all put together:
Updating your front porch decor for spring and summer can be a small project that makes such a big impact. Start with the biggest item first, like planters, and then go from there. It’s fun to invite friends and family over when the entrance to your house is warm and welcoming, setting the tone for their visit to your home! New light fixtures are next . . .