Front Porch Decorating for Fall

I LOVE Fall!!! Love it so much I wish we could just keep it around until Spring! My nice way of saying Winter is NOT my thing! I have been wanting to decorate my front porch for fall since we bought our house a year ago. With us moving in at the beginning of October last year and gutting the kitchen within the first 2 weeks of us being there, porch decorations were not at the top of my to do list. I am bummed I missed out last year so I decided to get some inspiration for what I wanted to do with my porch this year by turning to some fellow bloggers. Here I will share some of my absolute favorites, my porch will never look as amazing as theirs but it gives me something to aspire to!

I love her pumpkins! The different colors, sizes and irregular shapes look so cute mixed with the cornstalks and hello Fall Sign.

Doesn’t her porch look so cozy and inviting at night?! I love how she mixed in candles and string lights to give a nice warm ambiance to her beautiful front porch.

I really like this simple Halloween look that Erin came up with! This would be a great compromise for me and my hubby, he loves to decorate for Halloween…I’m more into everything Fall! (Also am in love with her front door!!!)

I really like the mix of old crates and burlap wrapped pots she used for her mums. AND the striped porch floor!!! I know it isn’t just for fall, but I LOVE it!!

Pumpkins, pumpkins and more pumpkins! What’s not to love about this front porch? I am really liking the boxes she used at the top of the stairs as well, what a great find and perfect for front porch decor!!

The neutral color palette of Taryn’s porch is such a change from all the oranges, golds and reds of fall, but I really love what she did with it! The wreath she made for the front door and the pallet sign are simply adorable and I love the color of her front door!

Hope you have found some inspiration for your Fall front porch and hopefully I can get my butt in gear and get mine decorated before it’s time to break out the Christmas decor! Follow me on Pinterest to see more inspiration for your home!

DIY

Craft Table

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I don’t know what my husband has against Ikea, other than my inability to come out with just the things I went in to purchase, but when I told him I was going to Ikea to get a table/desk for my craft space he had another idea. We can build one ourselves! While I am usually okay with making things ourselves, I’ve wanted a craft table for awhile now and I didn’t want to have to wait any longer to get one. With both of us working full time we aren’t the greatest at starting and finishing projects in a timely manner…this ended up being one of those projects, but it was worth the wait!

I started out by drawing my design and figuring out how much lumber I would need. My original design had a more detailed base, mostly because we thought we would need it for support, we ended up nixing it when we saw how sturdy it was. We bought the 2×4’s and 4×4’s at Lowe’s and got the birch plywood for the top at Home Depot because they had better selection and prices. I chose to go with a counter height for my table so it is easier to stand and work at. I picked up some barstools at a yard sale but they need to be stripped and refinished…yet another project to work on.

To begin we made the underside of the table top. This was made out of 2×4’s and screwed together using our Kreg Jig K4 pocket hole system. If you do not own one of these and do any kind of woodworking I highly recommend you purchase one, it is an amazing tool to have! I love the look of not having any screws showing, makes our projects look more professional.

Lots and lots of pocket holes later we are ready to attach the tabletop. The other benefit to pocket holes is the overall strength they provide to your project. That tabletop isn’t moving…ever!

Now onto the legs! Once we decided to nix the more detailed base we decided on lag bolts to attach the legs, these would further strengthen the table and be able to hold the weight of the tabletop…which is super heavy! To attach the lag bolts, 2 holes needed to be drilled in each corner, making sure to offset so the bolts could go straight through without hitting each other.

I wasn’t happy with the look of the plywood edges of the tabletop. After looking at Lowe’s and Home Depot I finally found some window trim at Home Depot that was both affordable and the size I needed without being too detailed. We cut the trim to fit the sides, mitering the corners to create a nice clean finish. After the trim was on we went back and filled all the nail holes and the seam where the trim met the table with wood putty. Several sanding passes later she was ready to be stained.

I went with a dark stain on the top. I applied one coat then sanded it down and applied 2 additional coats to get to the desired shade I wanted. Then I decided to paint the legs and the base of the tabletop, I went with a bluish-gray color and I love how it turned out!

This project was done over several weekends and although it took us longer than I was hoping it would it was definitely worth the wait! It will definitely get lots of use and will hold up for a very long time and bonus… it only cost about $100!

Crafts

Monogrammed Pumpkin

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Who doesn’t love fall? Beautiful weather, the leaves changing colors, bonfires, wearing jeans & sweaters and of course pumkins! I don’t even drink pumpkin spice lattes and I love it! I decided to do a little fall craft to get a jump on my front porch decorating this year since I have a nice covered front porch now.

I have a Cricut, but if you have artistic ability (which I don’t), you could paint your pumpkin. I took the easy way out and did vinyl. The pumpkin is a 9 inch craft pumpkin from Michaels, I found mine on sale for $8 (regular price $20). I purchased 2 sheets of 651 vinyl (also from Michaels) in Navy and Gold. I had the ribbon on hand, it was in the clearance section at Hobby Lobby and I can’t pass up on clearance, burlap or ribbons, so all 3 combined and it was a definite purchase!

Craft pumpkin and 651 vinyl from Michaels

I cut my big T first, I went with 6 inches tall and used Mellow Soldier font which came in a free font bundle on thehungryjpeg.com. I wish I would have chosen a font with a straight bottom on the T, this font angles it so I feel like in some of my pics it looks crooked, I’m a little too critical sometimes. When applying to the pumpkin I tried to choose the side that was flatter than the others so it would be less likely to bubble or wrinkle.

Next step was the Thomas. I will confess the longest part of most of my Cricut projects is deciding on a font. I didn’t have any I was really in love with, so I went and found some new ones to pick from, which added to the length of time I spent on this project. For some reason the letter T just isn’t pretty in all fonts, some it looks like an F, others it looks like a J…it’s the too critical side of me again. So after checking out fontbundles.net and many free fonts later I found the Christina font. I made this 6 inches wide and about an inch and a half tall.

When applying the Thomas I would love to say that I have a perfect way to put it on, but in all honesty I had to cut it twice because the first one I thought looked crooked and it got ripped when trying to adjust it. I usually just eyeball these things, no real good way to measure an uneven pumpkin surface. I started by finding the middle of Thomas and I put that section on first and worked to one side and then the other. It may not be completely straight but it’s pretty close!

Last but certainly not least it needed a little something extra. Bows make everything complete! I went with the burlap ribbon with gold polka dots to tie in my gold lettering. To make the bow I followed a diy from Mommy Suite. I adjusted the measurements for my bow to better match the size of my pumpkin. I cut 2-12 inch long lengths, one 9 inch long and a 3 inch long piece for the center. It is a pretty easy bow to make and honestly would probably be easier in the bigger size and with a wider ribbon…it would also help if I didn’t burn my fingers on the hot glue! Once the bow was complete I simply hot glued it to the top of the pumpkin and ta da!

This morning my cute pumpkin got to be added to the front porch bench where she will have to patiently await her fellow fall decorations…will show you the finished porch…hopefully before Christmas!