• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
The Art of Doing Stuff
menu icon
go to homepage
  • HOUSE
  • COOKING
  • GARDEN
  • HOW-TO
  • EXTRA
  • Subscribe
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
  • search icon
    Homepage link
    • HOUSE
    • COOKING
    • GARDEN
    • HOW-TO
    • EXTRA
    • Subscribe
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
  • ×
    Home » House Stuff » Decorating

    Fall Porch Inspiration For a Cozy Outdoor Retreat.

    October 1, 2017 by Karen 67 Comments

    Pin323
    Share
    Email
    323 Shares

    Fall immediately evokes thoughts of coziness and comfort.  But it doesn't mean you have to huddle up indoors! With just a few things you can turn your porch into a cozy place to wrap your hands around a warm mug of cider and watch the leaves fall.  Fall Porch Inspiration for you. 

    Fall Porch Decorating The Art of Doing Stuff

    It is officially fall, (or autumn for the more uppity among you.) This means three things:

    1. You are going to find a ball under a hedge while raking up leaves. You will not know where it came from.
    2. You will remind yourself to clean your furnace filter every month. And then you will not do it.
    3. You will succumb to wearing jeans and flannel even if it's still 30 degrees celsius out.

    In Southern Ontario we were kind of robbed of our summer. We did eventually get warm weather, it's just that it showed up 3 months late. No one's sure who held our summer hostage but we all secretly suspect Australia.  Or Jason Bateman.  It's a toss up.

     

    I'm including tips, tricks, how I did it and where you can get it with each of the photos.

    The Fall Porch

    The Dahlias are from my garden. The variety is Ice Cube.  They appear more peach in real life and are very pale.

    Lazy Bones Tree Stump table DIY can be found here.

    The Porch Swing is a kit that I bought on Amazon.  It came as natural cedar, I painted it.   I also swapped out the metal chain that came with the kit for hanging it, with a nylon rope.

    Fall Porch Decorating The Art of Doing Stuff

    THIS is the obligatory boots on the front porch shot.  Look back among the posts of any blogger worth her weight in affiliate links and you'll find a front porch shot with a pair of boots by the front door.  No.  We don't wear more boots than you do.  No, we aren't more likely to take them off before entering the house.  We just like to take pictures of boots on front porches.

    Bogs boots, going strong since 2012.  They don't make this exact style anymore but these are close.

    Those grey/blue pumpkins are actually one of my favourite squash varieties to grow. They're sitting on the front porch both as decoration and to cure.  They're called Grey Ghost and they're my go-to squash for pumpkin ravioli and that favourite pumpkin soup recipe of mine.  I got my Grey Ghost squash seeds from Stokes. 

    Fall Porch Decorating The Art of Doing Stuff

    I use old crocks for holding flowers and utensils.  I use new crocks for fermenting and pickles.  As much as I'd love to use an old crock because I'm the kind of person who gets a thrill out of using anything that's been used for generation after generation, it isn't entirely safe.  And even though I'm the kind of person who sometimes gets a thrill out of using anything that isn't entirely safe, I still say no to using old crocks for food.

    Luckily you can still get old fashioned looking new crocks. The added bonus is that new crocks come with a lid and you can also get weights for keeping your pickles pushed down.

     

    Fall Porch Decorating The Art of Doing Stuff

    Would you like to save this stuff?

    We'll email you this post, so you can refer to it later.

    I forgot to mention there's one other way you can tell it's fall.  People start dragging out their sheepskins and throwing them around.  Moments later cats find them and start rolling on them.

    Like the water hyacinth basket? If you're in Canada you can get the exact same one at Canadian Tire. If you're outside of Canada, this one on Amazon is a relatively good imposter.

    It's planted with 3 large cabbages, 1 large Dusty Miller, a pepper plant, thyme and sedum.

    I tend to stay away from mums or use them kind of minimally and lean more towards edible stuff for fall arrangements.

    Fall Porch Decorating The Art of Doing Stuff

    The other thing I did to change my front porch this year is I moved my porch swing to the other side of my porch.  I then moved these two chairs to the side of the porch the swing was on. I like this configuration a LOT more. Sometimes you just have to move shit around and fall (autumn, la-de-da) is a great time to do it.

    You can barely see the cheesebox under my Ikea sheepskin but I got it during my 3 days of relaxation up at Lynne Knowlton's treehouse this summer.  I found it in a closet. Stole it.  Just kidding, I got it from the Keady market which apparently is a very famous market that I'd never heard of.  The best place to get one of those wood cheese boxes is at a flea market or antique store.  Or ya know ... a closet.

    Fall Porch Decorating The Art of Doing Stuff

    The table you can just barely see there is a wine barrel my mother was throwing out years ago.  Silly mother.  I originally had a small table that matched the wicker chairs but something about it didn't look right.  When my niece showed up unexpectedly she nailed it. All the textures were the same.  It threw everything off.  Somethings you have to make things wrong to make them right.

    So I picked up the wicker table and threw it into oncoming traffic.  I pulled over the wine barrel, put a glass tabletop on it and now it's perfect.

    Fall Porch Decorating The Art of Doing Stuff

    If you read the post last week, you know all about the wheat sheaves and the wreath. If you didn't here's the step by step tutorial on how to make this simple fall wreath.

    Fall Porch Decorating The Art of Doing Stuff

    Tomatoes.  To the left, Celebrity, a hybrid.  To the right, Black Krim, an open pollinated.

    I took some shots for this post that featured me.  You know, me hanging out in a chair with a coffee, me hanging the wreath on my door ...   I even changed out of my linen shorts and loose tee shirt for the pictures since this is a post on fall decorating. I put on jeans.  And flannel.  I looked so hot, sweaty and flushed in the photos I appeared to be fighting off a heart attack.  So I didn't use those pictures.

    Oh!  To the lower right in the reflection of the door you can see my iPhone sitting on the cheese box.

    As I'm sure you guessed, I was just calling the big cheese about the upcoming fall forecast.

    More Decorating

    • An Autumn Antique Show
    • Some Room Rearranging Happened This Week
    • DIY Easter Wreath Ideas with No Pastels
    • The Rental House. Before & After Photos.

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

      Leave a Reply Cancel reply

      Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

      Recipe Rating




      The maximum upload file size: 512 MB. You can upload: image, audio. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop file here

    1. Gabrielle

      October 14, 2019 at 1:36 pm

      Karen,

      Your posts never fail to make me laugh & smile. Thanks for being your amazing self. Stunning porch btw, so cozy!

      Reply
    2. Christie

      October 13, 2017 at 12:28 pm

      Long time reader, first time comment maker. Where are the gorgeous pillows and bolsters from? Thanks. Chris

      Reply
    3. Nancy Blue Moon

      October 06, 2017 at 2:09 am

      Your Autumn porch looks very nice darling!...(snicker)

      Reply
    4. Thandi

      October 05, 2017 at 6:45 pm

      I'm so late to this party. But could some kind person please explain what a furnace is? I love finally having the opportunity to ask Northern Hemisphere people strange questions about everyday objects (the toaster oven one was especially thrilling, but not as exciting as "what is a radiator and how does it work" or "explain how an airing cupboard works"). Nothing like describing an everyday object to make you appreciate it.

      Reply
      • Karen

        October 05, 2017 at 8:42 pm

        Wait? What? You don't know what a furnace is? Oh what a life you must lead in South Africa. It's a big machine that we keep in our basements that heats the house. We have vents throughout the house and the furnace blows hot air through it. Unless you heat old school style with hot water rads. It's like air conditioning but reverse. ~ karen!

        Reply
        • Thandi

          October 06, 2017 at 3:30 am

          That is insane! You have a machine in your basement! You have a basement! And finally all those random Pinterest pics about making your vents pretty make sense. Thank you, oh wise woman of the north. I shall add these facts to my list of "Things I've read about in books but never really understood".

        • Thandi

          October 07, 2017 at 5:37 pm

          Now who wants to explain snow? Can you eat it? Does it smell anything like rain? Does it make your socks wet? Is it like sticking your hand in a freezer? Why would you make a snow angel? Surely your pants get wet.

    5. Dee

      October 04, 2017 at 1:01 am

      Another source for crocks is Medalta Clay Works, near Medicine Hat, Alberta. Various sizes, with lids, also bowls, bean pots, pitchers .......

      http://shopmedalta.com/

      I really like the porch swing.

      Reply
    6. JulieD

      October 03, 2017 at 4:08 pm

      Everything looks so attractive and inviting. And those squash - I love them.

      Reply
    7. Benjamin

      October 03, 2017 at 3:05 am

      You could maybe give the gourds a little glitter sparkle ombre effect to bring the subtle glitz. Invite me for Thanksgiving and I'll show you how. ;)

      Reply
    8. Sarah McDonnell

      October 03, 2017 at 1:08 am

      You should always keep a small amount of moonshine in case of snakebite. Also, you may need to keep a small snake. http://learntomoonshine.com/how-to-make-a-simple-pot-still-easy-step-by-step-process

      Reply
    9. Whitney Goller

      October 02, 2017 at 10:23 pm

      This was another one of your posts where I just kept scrolling saying "ugh... uGH... UUGH!" ... shit's so pretty it's just dumb.

      Love your stuff, lady.

      Reply
    10. susang

      October 02, 2017 at 6:19 pm

      are they dinner plate dahlias?

      Reply
    11. Grammy

      October 02, 2017 at 5:05 pm

      We stole your summer. Sacramento, I mean. Our normally hot summer turned brutal this year and it screwed up gardens and everything else. Crime doesn't pay.

      As for "Autumn" as opposed to "Fall" -- it's not snooty at all. People your age follow people my age around checking to see if somebody broke a hip every time they hear the word "fall" so we avoid that as much as possible.

      You have a lovely porch, by the way.

      Reply
    12. Jody

      October 02, 2017 at 3:52 pm

      Inspiring APU. I realized Th'giving was coming up quickly but could only seem to manage a mum. I wasn't inspired with the crazy heat other than thinking of a kiddie pool.
      What paint do you use on your porch floor? Mine is stained but the morning sun and foot traffic just wears it off. Repainting is on Spring 2018 agenda.

      Reply
      • Karen

        October 02, 2017 at 4:15 pm

        That's Benjamin Moore's Porch and Floor paint. As long as you prep properly it wears really well. ~ karen!

        Reply
    « Older Comments

    Primary Sidebar

    SHOP ON AMAZON

    Use it 👆 to support my work. LEARN MORE

    My name is Karen Bertelsen and I was a television host. In Canada. Which means in terms of notoriety and wealth, I was somewhere on par with the manager of a Sunset Tan in Wisconsin.

    I quit television to start a blog with the goal that I could make my living through blogging and never have to host a television show again. And it’s worked out. I’m making a living blogging. If you’re curious, this is how I do that.

    So I’m doing this in reverse basically. I’m the only blogger who is trying to NOT get a TV show.

    More about me 👋

    Seasonal Articles

    • Today's Puzzle: 72% Chance of Greasefire
    • Today's Puzzle: Literature, SPF 30, & Processed Cheese
    • This Fruit Fly Trap Catches 25X More Than Your Bowl of Vinegar Does
    • Apple Watch Band Stuck? How to Remove It.
    • Cleaning Copper with Ketchup: A No-Rub Experiment
    • Garbage Apples, Jam Trauma, and the Beige Poppy Crisis

    Popular Articles

    • This Is Where I Try To Buy Your Love
    • Guaranteed Crispy Sweet Potato Fries & Sriracha Mayo Dip
    • A Year Full of Pots: Win Sarah Raven's New Book
    • The Difference Between People Who Eat Mayo & People Who Eat Miracle Whip
    • Your FIRST look at my new kitchen in Canadian Living Magazine.
    • How to Print an Image on Wood.

    Footer

    as seen in

    About

    • About
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy

    Newsletter

    • Sign Up! for emails and updates

    Social

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Twitter
    • Pinterest
    323 shares