These Fall Porches Are Probably the Cutest Thing We’ve Ever Seen
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It’s no secret that we love fall. From delicious pumpkin spice treats to the return of game day tailgating and cooler weather, it just doesn’t get any better than autumn. (Like, what better way is there to spend a Saturday than leaf peeping with your friends?) And let’s be honest — is there any space more fun to decorate for fall than your front porch? We’re talking way beyond that gorgeous wreath that adorns your front door (though that is a necessity!). Give us all the cozy plaid blankets, charming carved pumpkins, and mums galore, please and thank you.
Whether you have a sprawling wrap-around porch (lucky you!) or a tiny home walk-up, there’s always an opportunity to bring a touch of seasonal style to your entry and give your guests a warm welcome. After all, it’s only a matter of time before those little trick-or-treaters stop by! Below, we’ve rounded up our favorite front porch fall decorating ideas that are suitable for just about any home out there.
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Go Spooky & Stylish
Make your front entry the must-stop spot for trick-or-treating with this spooky scene.
To get the look: Hang “witches” brooms from your windows by drilling holes through the handles and threading with fishing line. Arrange purple mums with loads of white and green pumpkins and gourds around the steps. Place black cauldrons on either side of the door and fill with bare branches. Hang a moss wreath on the door and nestle black bats around the scene.
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Spooky Up Your Pumpkins
Add more spook-factor to your scene by decorating your pumpkins on theme.
To make the pumpkins: Draw a bat or crescent moon outline on a pumpkin. Next, fill in the outline with nails, using carbon steel nails for the bat or silver flatheads for the moon.
For the star pumpkin luminaries, hollow out a gourd. Freehand star shapes with a pencil, then carve over the outlines. Illuminate with a battery-operated tea candle.
RELATED: The Cutest Pumpkin Decorating Ideas You’ll See.
Set a Festive Scene
Kick off your fall entertaining by going all-out on porch decor. This festive doorway features loads of plaid, including plaid-etched pumpkins (more on those below!), layered front door mats for extra coziness, a bittersweet wreath hung by a (yes, plaid!) scarf, and mums perched perfectly in vintage galvanized olive buckets.
RELATED: See How We Created this Bittersweet Wreath!
Plaid Up Your Pumpkins
Bring a bit country charm to your pumpkins by etching them with a classic plaid pattern. You can even coordinate the colors to match the rest of your porch decor. Find the full tutorial below!
RELATED: See How We Created The DIY Plaid Pumpkins, Step-by-Step
Craft a Display to Take You From Halloween to Thanksgiving
If you love fall but hate decorating for both Halloween *and* Thanksgiving, look no further than this seasonal arrangement. Here, pumpkins adorned with freshly fallen leaves ensure that the look stays fresh all season long.
To make the pumpkins: Coat the back sides of colorful leaves with adhesive spray. Immediately attach the leaves to your pumpkin, being sure not to push down all the points so they have a more organic look.
RELATED: How to Keep Pumpkins from Rotting and Ruining Your Pretty Fall Porch Displays
Fill Your Hanging Baskets for Fall
Hanging baskets might conjure up images of cascading florals and springtime, but they can be equally stunning in fall. Here, floral designer Deborah Herbertson lined zinc baskets with moss and filled them with annuals, pumpkins, succulents, and cut branches.
RELATED: These Are Our Favorite Hanging Plants to Bring Country Charm to Your Space
Accent with Adirondack Chairs
Ready to embrace cooler temps and turn your porch into a gathering spot for family and friends this fall? All you need to do is pull out a pair of sit-a-spell Adirondack chairs. And, while they don't have to be a fun color, we love the unexpected hit of ruddy red these chairs bring.
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Pick a Pretty Wreath
Sometimes all you really need is a wreath. This seasonal wreath was crafted from an antique grain sifter and prettied up with fall foliage, collected feathers, and craft-ready berries and acorns.
To make: Attach a piece dry floral foam to the bottom inside, slightly to the side, of a vintage grain sifter with wire. Cover the floral foam in preserved floral moss, holding it in place with hot-glue. Insert fall leaves, feathers, Hypericum berries, dried wheat into the foam. Attach acorns with hot-glue.
Pile on the Firewood
Take a note from designer Anthony D'Argenzio and rely on your stock of firewood to style up your front porch. (A moody black exterior also helps to push this scene into cozy fall territory.)
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Embrace More is More
We’re not saying you have to repaint your front door to coordinate with all the colors of fall, but this charming cottage sure makes a strong case to! Homeowner Amy Whyte fully embraces the autumn season with an explosion of pumpkins and mums that frame her home’s narrow porch. The hanging vintage gathering basket holds even more seasonal blooms and foliage.
Get the Look:
Front Door Paint Color: Golden Retriever by Benjamin Moore
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Add Grain Sack Accents
A country classic—vintage French grain sacks—inspires a simple and rustic embellishment for fall pumpkin stacks. Display on the porch, maybe even next to a bench with pillows covered in grain sacks, to create a warm fall welcome.
To make the pumpkins: Simply Mod Podge striped ribbon either vertically or horizontally around white pumpkins. Display stacked on pumpkins, benches, or stools.
Add Pretty Plaids
Even though this is actually a back porch, we love every one of these ideas for fall front porch decor: cozy plaid blankets used as tablecloths, lanterns with glowing candles, a grapevine wreath adorned with fall flowers, and of course, pumpkins!
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Perch Pumpkins on Crocks
This simple porch display just screams fall! Decorate the front steps or stoop with a menagerie of flat, wide pumpkins and mums perched on an arrangement of your favorite stoneware crocks.
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For a Tiny Stoop, Less Is More
Because this restored New Hampshire farmhouse’s exterior is so beautifully simple, a tiny touch is all that’s needed—a few pumpkins on the steps, a contrasting wreath, and an adorable row of white mini pumpkins sitting on the door transom.
RELATED: Tour More of This Centuries-Old New Hampshire Farmhouse Was Made for Cozy Nights by the Fire
Switch It Up with a Neutral Palette
Crisp whites with pops of bright blue and muted oranges is a fresh, sophisticated color scheme for this time of year. Paper oak leaves glued to leafless branches create a dramatic window swag. Display white mums in bushel baskets and stack heirloom pumpkins on an array of colorful shaker boxes.
RELATED: These Beautiful Front Door Colors Will Give Your Home an Inviting Entry
Keep It Simple for Early Fall
The porch of this stunning North Carolina cabin keeps things relatively simple when dressing up for those early fall days. Rusty-orange-hued pillows and terra-cotta pots filled with faded yellow and red flowers bring a hint of the season.
RELATED: Tour This Rustic Mountain Cabin That Is Filled With an Eclectic Mix of Antiques
Step Up Containers with Fall Blooms
At this California board-and-batten cottage, stone porch steps wrap the entire house and provide the perfect perch for clusters of fall blooms in terra-cotta pots. A throw blanket for cool California nights and a pair of pumpkins rest on a bench under the window.
RELATED: These Orange Flowers Will Add Dimension and Color to Your Garden
A Little Goes a Long Way
This cute little porch with built-in benches, on the home of Food Network personality Nancy Fuller, doesn’t need much to make it festive. A simple berry wreath hangs on the top portion of the Dutch door, while the benches get a soft accent from pillows.
Get the Look:
Front Door Paint Color: For similar, Cottage Red by Benjamin Moore
RELATED: Sweeten up your fall with Nancy Fuller’s recipe for Pecan Slab Pie.
Swap Mums for Cabbages
Fall cabbages tucked into the landscaping and in planters with patina are a nice change from the season’s ever-popular mums. A dried hydrangea wreath hung on the happy golden yellow door and pumpkins scattered casually below make for an effortless fall look.
Get the Look:
Front Door Paint Color: For similar, Lemon Drops by Benjamin Moore
Decorate High and Low
If you are lucky enough to have a double-decker porch, be sure to add fall touches to both spaces. Grapevine wreaths with swaths of orange and yellow flowers adorn the doors of this Colorado farmhouse of designer Margaret Shutze. Cozy striped blankets are perfect for wrapping up with when rocking away on cool nights, while lanterns filled with candles offer soft, romantic light.
Add Rustic Accents
The red-orange paint on this log cabin’s front door provides an easy jumping off point for other design decisions, like the matching pillows on the Adirondack chairs. An oversize tobacco basket hanging between the windows and bright mums planted in galvanized buckets finish off the look.
RELATED: These Rustic Living Room Ideas Are Classic, Cozy, and Modern
Pile it On
Go big or go home, right?! This gracious front porch packs it all in, with multiple stacks of pumpkins, a plethora of mums, plenty of plaid fall blankets and pillows, and a door wreath made from pecans.
RELATED: Here’s Everything You Need to Know About Mums
Forage the Yard
There’s no need to look any further that your backyard for pretty fall-colored foliage. Branches of colorful maple leaves and sprigs of dried yarrow are all it takes to glam up this front porch. (No peacock, necessary. Although we do encourage chickens!)
Add Accents to the Native Plants
Lush greenery grows all year long on this beautiful South Carolina porch, so all it takes to gussy up this scene for fall is a scattering of pumpkins and seasonal plants.
RELATED: These Are The Best Fall Flowers and Plants for Autumn Interest
Make a Tobacco Basket Door Hanger
Nothing says fall like orange, yellow, and hunter green. Add gourds and magnolia leaves to a tobacco basket for a seasonal wreath. A magnolia garland, accented with dried bittersweet berries, frames the window. Line the steps with tree stumps topped with classic orange pumpkins and vintage camp lanterns.
Get the Look:
Front Door Paint Color: Pumpkin Patch by Glidden
RELATED: Try One of These Unique Fall Wreath Ideas to Spruce up Your Front Door
Decorate with Corn Husks
Add some serious seasonal curb appeal with these easy autumn DIY projects that use corn husks.
How to make the garland: Cut a piece of ½-inch jute rope to your desired length (make the garland a few inches longer than the outline of your door to get the swag effect at the top) and attach corn husks and silks with a hot-glue gun. (You can also use tamale wrappers.)
How to make the wreath: Start with a flat-wire 18-inch frame. Hot-glue corn husks (roughly 18) and ears of flint corn (roughly 9) in an alternating pattern. Fray the ends of the corn husks to add dimension.
Add Contrasting Colors
Hints of bright orange contrast perfectly with the bright blue door of this New Mexico entryway. A driftwood wreath on the door adds rustic flair.
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Add More Pumpkins
The owners of this Alabama dogtrot home keep it old-school with seasonal favorites—mums and plenty of pumpkins.
RELATED: Tour More of This Gorgeous Alabama Farmhouse That Will Have You Dreaming of Fall
Head to the Apple Orchard
No need to break the bank for this simple look—you probably already own most of these materials.
If you have a wooden ladder: Display a cozy blanket on each rung.
If you have a grapevine wreath: Dress it (or a pair) up by nesting nuts and apples along the lower curve, then hang with 3-inch-wide burlap ribbon.
If you have a bushel basket: Repurpose it as a rustic planter or fill it with apples.
Go Big On Your Wreath
This Connecticut porch of floral designer Deborah Herbertson makes use of every bit of space on the front porch with a giant wreath, a variety of gourds, lanterns, and throw blankets draped over rocking chairs.
RELATED: Peek Inside More of This Quaint Connecticut Cottage That’s Decorated for Fall All Year Long
Create a Rustic Cabin Welcome
With architecture like this, it doesn’t take much to make the porch sing. Here, a trail of various pumpkins and gourds plus a pair of white mums do the trick.
RELATED: 11 Fall Pumpkin Display Ideas That Give Cozy Cabin Vibes
Get Playful With Your Patterns
Can't decide between plaid or gingham? For fall, you don't have to! This barn home's front porch features a mix of both. A subdued scarf in green and gray plaid sets a classic fall scene while a blue and white gingham blanket adds a modern farmhouse flair.
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Make an Autumn Garland
Drape a garland (this one is made from natural grapevine with seeded eucalyptus, olive branches, and preserved pink berries wired into it) over a front window to add extra fall flourish to your porch. Accent with white pumpkins piled atop olive buckets.
RELATED: Try These Painting Ideas for Decorating Your White Pumpkins
Add Cozy Textures
The cotton wreath is the first thing that stole our hearts about blogger Eden Passante’s dreamy fall porch scene. But the lush arrangement of dried reeds and flowers is equally captivating.
Get the tutorial at Sugar and Charm.
RELATED: These Black Flowers Will Add Offbeat Charm to Your Garden
Employ a Rolling Cart
Give your outdoor bar cart more time to shine this fall by stashing pumpkins and gourds on each shelf. Add even more flair by interspersing a bit of greenery.
See more at Home Stories A to Z.
RELATED: These Are The Best Outdoor Bar Carts for Serving Drinks at Your Next Porch Party
Keep it Symmetrical
Symmetry is an easy way to create order, especially when you’re dealing with lots of materials. Here, cornstalks, pumpkins in many colors, white mums, and terra cotta planters flank this entrance while a charming door wreath hangs in the middle. Note the mini pumpkins lining the topiaries!
See more at Modern Glam.
Go Bright and Metallic
Plain orange pumpkins are classic, but you can also brighten up your front steps by mixing in copper coated pumpkins. Bonus points if you have lanterns on hand that are fit to match!
See more at Sanctuary Home Decor.
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Use Bright Colors that Pop
Chile ristras add a bright red pop of color to this New Mexico porch. No yellow bike? Try using golden-hued mums instead.
RELATED: Tour More of this New Mexico Ranch That Is the Country's Most Charming Place to Spend Thanksgiving
Offer a Warm Sentiment
No need to scour the craft store for pretty outdoor fall signage—these bloggers provide a free printable version of this adorable chalkboard-inspired message. Prop it up beside your front door, or let it hang above a pumpkin-adorned table.
See more at Lolly Jane.
Pack It In
This blogger didn’t let her farmhouse’s small porch stop her from decorating for fall. Instead, she made good use of the space she does have by lining her steps with bushel baskets filled with mums and a scattering of small pumpkins. A hand-painted sign doubles-down on the warm welcome.
See more at Serendipity Refined.
Add a Rocker
There’s no better spot to relax on a crisp fall day than in a rocking chair (and under a plaid blanket, no less!) with a mug of hot apple cider in hand.
See more at Stone Gable Blog.
RELATED: The Best Outdoor Rocking Chairs for Relaxing on the Porch
Paint a Pumpkin Crate
After your trip to the pumpkin patch, and before your pumpkin carving party, try adding some DIY flair to more than just your gourds with a sweetly painted wood crate perfect for perching your picks.
See more at Anderson + Grant.
RELATED: Make Our Viral Pumpkin Patch Cake!
Fill Olive Buckets with Seasonal Blooms
The summer days of tending to your garden may be dwindling, but garden lovers rejoice: Thanks to their late growing season, mums are the perfect floral for fall. Flank your door with olive buckets (search Etsy to find ’em) “potted” with these bright flowers.
See more at On Sutton Place.
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