Front Porch Tour

A couple of months ago, I did a front porch tour in my stories on Instagram. I was honored to be asked to join in with 4 other ladies to do that tour. The video tour is saved in my Instagram hightlights if you care to watch it, and I will link the other ladies posts at the bottom of this one.

I also did a little tour of my perennial flower beds around my porch and so many of you have messaged and asked questions about specific plants and flowers and where I found some of the decor items on the porch, paint colors, etc., I thought I would share those things here.

Most of my decor pieces are one of a kind and vintage, so a lot of the furniture and accessories on my porch I don’t really have a source for, but you can find a lot of similar pieces at thift shops, antique stores and estate sales. I hope it will give you some inspiration for decorating your own porch.

I’ll just start at one end of the porch and share what I used and where I found things.

My porch is fairly long, so I have grouped furniture pieces and plants in several different areas all along the porch, just to break it up.

This is the far left side of my porch and I have a seating area that my husband and I use almost daily for coffee in the mornings and sometimes wine in the evenings. We can easily pull up more chairs if we have visitors.

I purchased this set of black wicker chairs several years ago at a resale shop for about $150 for the pair. They were already black and the white cushions were in excellent condition, so I didn’t have to do anything to them. Since the cushion covers come off, they are easy to throw in the wash occasionally and keep them nice and white.

The black wicker table I’ve had for so long, I don’t even remember where it came from, but I did have a glass top cut for it, so things would sit more evenly on the top.

The little lamp on the table is vintage, probably thrifted, and I use a lampshade without the fabric on it. Since it’s outside, it doesn’t get so dirty.

This vintage frame with a chalkboard has been used so many times as a message/greeting board for parties and events at my home. I decided to pull it out of storage and use it as wall decor on the porch. I think it will be fun to change out messages seasonally.

And lastly in this photo, are my vintage porch lights. They are on either side of our front door. We purchased them at a salvage yard when we were building the farmhouse several years ago for $75 for 5 of them. We have 2 more by our back door and one by the garage door.

Our front door was purchased at the same salvage yard where we bought the lights. Most doors we looked at ranged anywhere from $1500 to several thousand, and honestly, I didn’t love any of them. Then we found this little jewel for $450! It was in great condition, and only needed new paint. I love that it has an old brass mail slot on the front. We left the original hardware, which is very tarnished, but I love it that way. The door color is Grizzle Gray by Sherwin Williams.

For door decor, I decided to use a wicker wall basket with a plant instead of a traditional wreath. The plant is called Gomphrena aka Globe Amaranth. Since this photo, I have actually planted it in my garden because it has gotten so hot here already, it would need to be watered everyday to survive in that basket.

To the right of my front door is another of the vintage light fixtures. I added a vintage door, just leaning against the house, to create a backdrop and add a little interest. It also gives me a place to hang pictures that I like to change out seasonally.

The tall candle holder was a vintage find from a quaint little East Texas nursery many years ago. I use a large spool of thread instead of a candle, this time of year, because the heat melts the candles out here.

This chair is an inexpensive outdoor plastic chair and I bought a slipcover for it years ago. I actually have 2 of these and we can easily pull these over to the black wicker chairs when we need extra seating.

In the pots I have a topiary of fig leaf ivy, an english ivy, spearmint and a grouping of some seasonal flowers to add a touch of color. And in the background is a huge vintage topiary frame. I love it and just use it for decor.

We used real brick pavers on our front porch, back porch and inside the house in our guest bathroom and laundry room. They are one of my favorite things in my home.

Another one of my favorite things are these antique theater seats. My brother and sister in law found these while on a mission trip in Colorado years ago. They sandblasted, repainted, and reupholstered them and gifted them to me for Christmas one year. They are a treasure to me!!

My pillows say farmhouse 434, because my home is styled after a farmhouse and 434 is my house number, so I refer to our home as farmhouse 434. They are from With Lavender and Grace and you can find them here.

My urns typically hold ferns, but I really wanted something different this year. I found these large topiaries at Walmart and knew they would be perfect. I love how they turned out. I haven’t seen them there in a while, but I saw some at Lowe’s recently, so if you run, you might be able to grab one.

At the far end of my porch is a vintage plant stand. Actually, I don’t really know what it is, but for me, it’s a plant stand. And an antique metal trellis stands on the back of it to create height and interest. Some of my potted plants and a collection of vintage pots live here.

The tree in the large pot is a Bay Laurel tree. I love having this close by my kitchen, because I can easily grab some to use in cooking.

Now, for the garden area. There were a lot of questions about specific plants so I thought I would show some close up and identify them.

All of the plants in my flower garden are perennial, so each year they come back bigger and better.

The plant above is called skullcap. It has tiny purple tubular flowers. I believe it also comes in pink. When mine was planted 4 years ago, it was in a 1 gallon pot and now it is huge. It is fairly low growing, but can get very wide.

This flower is called yarrow. It comes in so many colors. I actually have this dark pink one, a reddish orange and a white one. I love the lacey looking leaves. They are great in cut flower arrangements.

This is the globe amaranth that was also in the basket on the door. This also comes in a variety of different colors. It has very small and papery flower heads on it.

This is lambs ear. It has beautiful velvety grayish/green leaves. Mine has been here for 3 years and bloomed for the first time this year. Although it is fairly low growing, the purple spiky blooms can get rather tall.

Shasta daisies can get very tall and make great cut flowers.

Scabiosa also know as Pin Cushion flower offer small sweet purple blossoms. In the past, I haven’t had the best luck with them in severe heat, but it’s been in the 90’s this week and, so far, they are hanging in there.

Lavender is one of my faves, and I actually have several of these. There are lots of varieties of lavender and this one is spanish lavender. I love the fat purple blossoms on this variety. It smells amazing and is great in cut flower arrangements.

Up next, is summer phlox. This also comes in some different colors. I have several in this bright pink color. The first couple of years they were a bit puny and not offering a lot of blooms but this year they are finally filling out and are about 18″-24″ tall.

In the bed to the side of my porch I have several hydrangeas. Two of them are a traditional (not sure what the correct name of them is) and 1 of them is a limelight which has large greenish white teardrop shaped blooms. They make amazing cut flowers and dry very well. They die back in the winter and come back bigger and better every year.

Also, in this bed are day lilies, black eyed susan, a japanese maple tree and the grayish green plant is called wormwood. Not pictured are blue anise sage, baby sage, peppermint, valerian and lots of mexican petunia. The video tour of the entire garden is saved under my Instagram garden hightlights.

One of my favorite things in my garden is this mosaic birdbath. I made this probably 20 years ago and still love it.

I hope this gives you a bit of porch decorating or gardening inspiration for you own home. Please feel free to message and ask any questions you may have.

blessings
michele

For other porch inspiration, be sure and check out the other ladies that were on the tour.

blessed crazy texas nest – https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/18026118886266360/

my little white barn – https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17845677293100937/

each day is a celebration – https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17851971064991629/

itty bitty farmhouse – https://www.instagram.com/itty_bitty_farmhouse/