Fall Decorating Ideas For The Front Porch

Decorating my porch each season is one of my favorite things to do! Each season I try to add a little New England charm. Here are my Fall decorating ideas for the front porch this season.

My Fall Porch Must Haves

• PUMPKINS
• CORN STALKS
• SIGN
• WREATH
• LANTERN

Pumpkins

This has been a brutal year in my area for the critters attacking everyone’s pumpkins!! In all my years decorating my porch for Fall I have never had to worry about my pumpkins getting munched on before I even had taken pictures!!! The chipmunks, squirrels, and voles are having a pumpkin party…

The Farmer’s Almanac is predicting a cold winter and I’m afraid the animals sense it and are furiously trying to prepare!!! ( I hope not…I’m not a winter girl!)

To prepare pumpkins for longevity, give them a bath!! Yes, that’s right…pop them in your kitchen sink with bleach and soap and clean them off.

Because some of my pumpkins were starting to get eaten I did give them a coating of clear spray paint. Let’s see if it helps!

Corn Stalks

The site of corn stalks leaning against a house or porch always screams New England Fall to me. I am lucky enough to have a neighbor that grows lots of corn. He loads up the bucket on his tractor and brings me fresh corn stalks every year to use in my Fall decorating!

I love the sight of that Kubota crossing the street!!

To be honest, I had originally put one up on my porch for a couple of days but the darn voles and chipmunks were having a party…and I was so afraid I would open my front door and one would run in…plus they were making a mess!!

Sidenote: I did have a squirrel run in the front door in the Spring!! OMG, it was like something out of a sitcom.

So this year I moved them to the base of my front porch.

Sign

You can pretty much count on finding a sign hanging on my house every season! My house has a good-sized wall next to my front door that is the perfect spot for a Fall sign.

I do enjoy creating new signs…but I love store-bought ones too!

For this year’s Fall front porch I made a wood pumpkin sign; it took less than an hour to put together including the drying time for the paint.

I was going for a rustic look to compliment my decor this season.

Wreath

Is any porch finished without a wreath on the front door?? I have to confess I have a terrible wreath addiction…even before I was blogging I changed my front door wreath every month!! Now I really enjoy making my own DIY wreaths for each season.

DIY wreaths don’t have to be hard to make or expensive. For my front door wreath for Fall, I went out into my garden with my clippers and a basket and collected everything I needed to make a wreath… it cost zero!!

Lanterns

The glow of lanterns on a front porch reminds me of what it must have been like before electricity. Last year I saw another blogger post about these cute Better Homes & Gardens lanterns (Walmart) and ordered them right away! They are under $20 and look so pretty with battery-operated candles inside.

How I Decorated My Fall Front Porch

Now let me show you how I put together the 5 different elements of my Fall front porch this year!

The first thing I did was pack up my front porch furniture (it’s always sad putting away my wicker chairs for the season!!) and then give everything a good squirt with the hose to clean off all the dirt and spiderwebs.

Added a table

The first thing I did was grab my upcycled potting bench from my garden and bring it up onto my porch.

Maybe if I put my pumpkins up higher the critters will ignore them…it remains to be seen!!

add pumpkins

On the top of the table, I added a green Cinderella pumpkin (Trader Joe’s $6.99) and two white pumpkins from the local Wake Robin Farm.

A few sprigs of bittersweet from my backyard finished up my simple look.

To finish off the tabletop I added a vintage metal pail filled with a few corn stalk tops.

Beneath the table, I added a vintage farm crate with a few small pumpkins, pumpkins, and more bittersweet.

Don’t you just love how many interesting bumpy-shaped pumpkins you can find now to decorate your porch??

hang the wreath

Here’s my dried flower wreath before I hung it on my front door.

place the lanterns

My final Fall touch was to add my two lanterns to the edge of my porch. On most years I like to add pumpkins down my stairs but with my critter problem this year I’m just going to skip it for this Fall!

Decorated Fall Front Porch

And here is this year’s Fall front porch all pulled together. Like most of my decorating projects, I mixed vintage, DIYs, natural elements, & something new to create my own style.

Helping my readers create a home that they love is my goal.