If you love fall (we do) and you love home decor (again, we do), this time of year always brings a desire to dress up the porch with autumnal moods. Unfortunately, it doesn’t also bring an abundance of extra time to creatively reinvent your curb appeal.
There’s nothing wrong with old standbys — we’re not afraid to break out a pile of gourds and corn stalks, and we have the pictures to prove it. (The above: maybe a little too much.) But for 2017, we were hoping to get a little creative, and think outside the hay bale — but also do so in a way that fits with a busy schedule.
Feeling the same way, and looking for some simple, original, autumn-y inspiration? (It’s definitely not the worst idea if you’re about to put your Nashville home on the market, and want to improve the first impression.)
Here are a few left-of-usual fall porch decor projects we’re thinking about and sharing with each other. Let us know if they catch your eye, too.
Ornamental corn banners
We like these simple banners (via Southern Living) for front or back doors, especially if you have french or full-lite doors. The ease is definitely there: Grab burlap garland at Michaels and some ornamental corn at the grocery store, tie the corn on, attach the banners with velcro. To us, this project offers a disproportionate amount of style for the effort.
Fall lanterns with gourds
Have a few lanterns in your home/on your deck stuffed with candles? (If not, TJ Maxx always has a mess of them.) Easy idea from HomeBNC.com: Swap out the candles for a fistful of grocery-store gourds, and flank your front door.
Monochrome piles of stuff
For us, having a little direction helps more than anything. So something as simple as deciding to go with a monochrome approach can make things easy. This HGTV example sets the stage: go with all-white, put some mums and white pumpkins with a white chair, and you have a thoughtful fall porch vignette that really just took buying a few things in the same color.
Blanket ladder
Praise to Country Living for this easy idea — if you already have a rugged blanket ladder sitting in your living room, try propping it on the porch and laying out some snuggly throws in fall colors next to your bench/swing/seating. Sure, you run the risk of the elements getting to your blankets, but a month or so probably won’t do much a washing machine wouldn’t cure.
Gilded Pumpkins
Country Living also has a very detailed, involved step-by-step that’ll help you take your porch-pumpkin game from run-of-the-mill to glorious-in-gold. We loved the look of gilded pumpkins on a transom or gilded gourds hanging from a front door… the involved step-by-step, not so much. So we’ll probably go the gold spraypaint route. Still gives a fall shimmer, in what has to be a tenth of the time.
Fall bushel basket
For stuff like porch decor, Pinterest tends to be a well of cute ideas that require hours of crafting. This one (from the Prudent Penny Pincher blog) was a rare exception, which is a big part of why we pinned it. (It also looks pretty cute.) A bushel basket stuffed with some fall-leaves garland, plastic (or real) gourds and twinkly lights from the Christmas decorations box, and we’re done.
Mumkins
Much easier (and less Halloween-y, more fall) than Jack-o-Lanterns: Carve out the center of a few pumpkins, “plant” some mums in there, and line your porch steps. (Via Southern Living.)
Sunset Harvest wreath
For absolute minimal effort and expense with maximum style, we’re grabbing this Sunset Harvest wreath and calling it a day. It’s full of fall color, not corny (in the literal or figurative sense) and about $20. Sometimes going really, really minimal lets the decor you do choose pop. (And sometimes you really are juggling too much to do more than order a wreath and hang it up. No judgment.)
Have a few fun fall decor ideas you’ve been holding on to? We’d love to get some more inspiration — please share in the comments or on the ACRE Facebook page.
And if you’re looking for a new Nashville home to put your home-decor stamp on, we’d be thrilled to help you find it. Reach ACRE here, or fill out this quick form to get your Nashville househunting process started.