Fall is our absolute favorite season of the year. Especially here in Michigan! We love the crisp feeling in the air, the smell of bonfires, leaves turning colors and all the extra layers. When it comes time to make our front porch scream Fall we are all in! What we’ve learned through the years of styling porches, decks, steps, patios, roof tops & balconies (thank you, Chicago) is that your decorations change throughout the Fall season.

I find myself craving mums and Fall colors in early Fall, and by mid-October I am ready to layer in all the Halloween my kid heart desires. Once Halloween is over I am left with a lonely looking porch that is again screaming for attention from the time between Halloween to Thanksgiving. If you’re anything like me, or are striving for all the Fall vibes, I’ve got you covered. I am going to break down how I take our Fall front porch from early Fall to halloween Fall and in to Thanksgiving!

Early Fall

When the season hasn’t quite changed here in Michigan yet I’m craving for the Fall temperatures to creep in. This is the time I am talking about to style your early Fall porch! Mums are a girl’s best friend for this porch. I love to layer in all the Fall colors..in fact it’s the time of year I am not afraid of any color. If it says Fall I am jumping on board with it! I like to pair the colors together to provide a warm and inviting space. And by adding lanterns to the mix the candles immediately give a warm welcoming cozy glow of Fall!

Simple Fall Porch

To create a simple and easy Fall porch I used all different fall colored mums. I started off with an even number of mums to allow myself to build the porch around them, and picked all warm Fall colors (red, orange and yellow). I also added white mums to help bring in the color of the house. From there I organized the mums into two different groups. Since I didn’t want both sides of my porch to match, I went with 3 mums on one side and 5 mums on the other. The easiest way to divide the mums was to put my double colors in different groups, so for this porch that meant I had two white, two red and two orange mums.

I started with the like color mums for placement as I wanted to ensure they didn’t end up on the same step or the same placement on each side. From there, I layed in each mum according to size and space of the porch. I wanted to make sure the mums were not hiding from each other and you can see each individual mum. The lantern became my filler piece with each stair.

Halloween Time

Halloween is the perfect time to change up your Fall porch. It can go from simple to a kid friendly porch in a matter of a few minutes. Our dudes are still pretty little and the thought of a spooky front porch just isn’t in their minds right now. We like to keep things fun, inviting, and family-friendly with a touch of black bats to elevate the fun level.

Kid-Friendly Halloween

This transition from simple Fall to Halloween is really simple. On my porch this year I rearranged a few of my mums to give room for this massive Jack O’ Lantern the boys found at Home Depot. Yes, I found them wearing it around on their head! So clearly it needed to make its way into our home. I added in two pumpkins for my dudes to carve later in the season and a few more orange and white pumpkins to add in the Halloween colors!

From there I created these awesome black bats. Michael sketched these bats out for us on construction paper, and I then cut them out and put contact paper over them to help the paper last outside. To keep them on the house we used 3M double sided tape.

Thanksgiving

Every year after Halloween, I always feel like our front porch is completely lacking. I take down the carved pumpkins and I’m left with my mums and a few small orange and white pumpkins. At this point I am always looking for more ways to add Fall layering into my life. And what better way to carry on my favorite part of Fall than through layering my porch too!

Classic Fall

To create the classic Fall look I used corn stocks I bought from Home Depot. I secured them with string in 3 spots. From there I moved the mums around just a little and added in some stackable pumpkins. I like to stick with the set of three rule here. If that doesn’t work out I stick with odd numbers.

I love having a porch that can transition throughout the season. It makes my heart happy to have a porch that loves the Fall season just as much as I do. I’d love to see your Fall front porches too.

Much love-

Danielle + Michael

HOW TO TRANSITION YOUR FALL FRONT PORCH