Front porch makeover under $300

I am incredibly impatient to wait another week to find some pots and plants to fully decorate our front porch to show it off, so here we are! I am in love with this little space!! This area has been about five years in the making and took me all of two months to put it together. The best part is that I was able to transform this space in just under $300.

Everything you see in this space, aside from the little white pots, the side table, and the striped pillows is brand new. The biggest money saver was building the bench which would’ve cost me around $800 alone. My biggest tip for outdoor spaces is to wait for the times to go on sale, or shop and stock up on the clearance at the end of the season. Depending on what the item is, spray paint will do wonders on making something look new or into what fits your style.

So, let’s talk about the seating situation. I wanted something practical, cheap, and that fit the space. We surprisingly spend a lot of time on the front porch. It’s a decent sized space and it’s completely shaded during the day. Since we do plan on moving within the next two years I didn’t want to invest a whole lot in a piece that didn’t work with a future space. I turned to Pinterest big time on this and decided to give the whole building thing a try.

I came across this blog post and it was explained so incredibly well and broke everything down which made it so freaking easy!! Plus, the lumber was only going to cost me around $26. I’ll take a $26 loss over a $800. I did purchase a circular saw ($49) for this project only because I built this during quarantine and my Home Depot was not doing cuts at the time. It’s been a good purchase that has come in handy for many projects.

Along the way of sharing things over in my Instagram Stories and then messaging a few of you all, I got myself confused with the original cushions she posted and then what I shared. I for sure thought I got the ones she shared and after looking I remembered I didn’t because they didn’t have them in stock. The first cushions you see below are the ones she links and the second are the ones I got. Either way the cushions were around $150 (now on major sale). I will add that the ones I got measured to fit exact and once I got them in they were a little long. They fit very snug but nobody would know.

I should also add that the cushions are from World Market. As of yesterday they were only doing curbside pick up, but my World Market isn’t open. I was able to order mine to be delivered and that was about a 4 week process. Well worth the wait! They are easy to clean and the cushions unzip so I can throw the covers in the wash when needed.

I have always loved outdoor areas with curtains. It’s incredibly calming and makes the space look so dreamy. I found this sheer curtain from Amazon and got it in ivory. If you’re looking for any type of sun-blocking curtain I would not recommend this. I was more focused on the decor side of the curtains and wanted them sheer for the sun to fully shine through. I purchased them in ivory. I had a really hard time finding the curtain rod I used and would recommend these ceiling mount brackets instead of what I got.

I had a vision of having big beautiful plants on the other side of this space in front of our front door and also some hanging ferns but I can’t keep anything alive so I went with some fake grass. I’m 100% certain that the three little white pots just have weeds growing in them. Haha. I got the faux grass from Home Goods. I have nothing to link for it because faux anything online is so much more expensive.

If you are looking into faux plants to put outdoors make sure that the faux plant can hold up to sunshine. This one in particular is meant to be indoors but because there is zero sunlight that will hit it, it’s okay. Faux plants in the sun can actually turn blue over time so it’s important to get one that can withstand the sunshine.

Adding texture in small spaces really adds a lot to a space which is why I added a jute rug. This one is 4′ and was on major clearance at Hobby Lobby. I have a ton linked below that work for indoor and outdoor areas and are reasonably priced.

If I can find a way to add more throw pillows you bet I will. I got the striped pillows a few years ago and I truly cannot remember where I got them to save my life. They were $9 a piece so maybe TJMaxx? The jute pillow was a HomeGoods find. I have a few options linked below all from Amazon to make it easy. The first pillows linked come in 10+ colors and I actually think I’m going to snag the light gray color.

Future yard plans?

Thanks for asking! haha. We have so many plans! We want to put a privacy fence up by this fall and I actually think we will be doing that ourselves to save some money. We also want to screen off the underneath of our deck and pour concrete down there to make much better use of the space. Right now it’s just full of weeds. I know Kyler would love a shed in the back, too. We have a lot we want to do but it all comes down to how long we’ll be staying in this home and if we do these big changes will we have issues selling out home by out pricing the area. We live in a townhouse that is an incredibly affordable starter home. We’ve also talked about renting this house out when we buy our next one so who knows what will happen!

This post does contain affiliate links where I get a small commission off of a purchase you make that is at no extra cost to you. Thank you for allowing me to put these links in these posts and shopping them.

---

xx – Kendra