Time To Spruce Up The Front Porch On a Budget

Well if you hadn’t heard we received a little rain here in Houston this April and yes a few families were affected. Luckily we were not one of them but I will say when I woke up I was beginning to wonder how much more my street could take and yes several homes in my neighborhood did get water in them and the neighborhood across the way had several water rescues. So, on a side note it may not be such a bad idea even if you’re not technically in a floodplain to carry flood insurance in this great City of Houston, because well things happen and you just never know.

Once the clouds finally broke free and sun came out to play I realized my front porch needed a little TLC. It had a case of the winter blahs, especially after the torrential rain poured through and left its mark! I wanted to make a transformation without breaking the bank though, so here are some nifty ideas I used to help save some of the green stuff, while adding a little color to my front porch!

First things first’s have a plan and a budget in mind and stick to it, it’s so easy to get out of hand quickly. I did have to visit two different stores to find the plants I wanted or that would work for my space. My favorite budget saving tips at both these stores, Wal-Mart and Home Depot was, that even in the garden center there is in fact a clearance center. Plants that need a little TLC, but usually these plants are still in pretty good shape they just need to pruned and handled with extra care for a bit. The bonus is you get them for about half the price of their counterparts a couple of rows over.

I also look for plants that are already in decorative planters so I don’t have to buy new ones. The hanging baskets above have a nice design on them and will not need to be replanted in the near future. Also in these pictures on my walkway with the white flowers they came in a crisp clean white planter, another bonus. Except every time the yard gets mowed it gets super dirty…note to self must remember to pick that up next time!

I did make a splurge on the plants but it was in the potting soil I bought for the two large ferns that did need to be replanted since they needed the most extra care.  Plus I added a bit of the good soil to each of the other plants since it was soil specifically to help retain moisture. They all received some yummy plant and flower food too!

The replanting was the most fun of the project, Alyse thoroughly enjoyed getting her hands dirty helping me re-pot the two big plants! Until she touched the caterpillar living in one of them, EWWWW!!! Dean on the other hand was more of a quiet observer he did however enjoy the watering of all the new plants. He also rearranged rocks from the rock beds, he’s got a flare for that.

Like any other good budget project you have to find way to repurpose items, mine happen to be some wall decor I had in our living room in the last house we lived in. The iron work is perfect for outside. I don’t have an outside welcome mat yet so I’m using an old rug we had but I love that it’s bigger than a standard mat.

I still have a couple of things I would like to do with the porch like add a couple of window boxes to the front windows, I’m researching creative DIY ones now. I never knew how expensive those were, CRAZY! I’m gonna paint the park bench with chalk paint and distress it again. Also I would like to paint the front door, and inspiration struck last night when a friend sent me a picture of her new home, so time to talk to the HOA and get approval!

Whatever your budget is you can make the front porch area much more inviting by adding some foliage and flowers. Do you have any tricks to making your front porch area more inviting tell me what they are in the comments below?