Fall Porch Makeover + Fall Banner Tutorial

This post is brought to you by Home Depot. I received gift cards for products from Home Depot to decorate my porch and one to give away, but was not compensated otherwise. My opinions are my own.

Okay, so I realize the first day of fall was a week or so ago but I'm in Florida and just this week we've finally started to feel the slightest bit of cool breeze in the evenings, in the shade, if you sit really still, and are slightly damp. That totally counts so I'm going with it.  My porch never really gets decked out for any holiday. We decorate, but it's nothing to write home about. I've always wanted that really welcoming, warm, fall front porch you see on Pinterest where you could just curl up with a mug of something and a book your iPhone (just being honest). Thanks to Home Depot, I'm totally that girl this year! They have everything to buy your fall favorites or costume supplies (anyone want to be a minion?!).

Here's where I started. Admire the splendor. While peach wouldn't be my first choice for a front door color, we're renting and I can't change it so let's roll with it.

The first thing I did was make the triangle "FALL" banner for over the door. To make this you will need:

• Thin piece of scrap wood about 12" wide
• Rope (mine was leftover from the Tire Table)
• Chalkboard Paint (I used Rust-Oleum)
• Saw to cut the triangles
• Drill

First off, I got my wood  from this little fun cart at Home Depot. I have no idea what Cull Lumber means (I'm assuming extras, slight defects?) but my piece was only .51 cents! Score.

Step 1:
Make a triangle paper template, trace, and cut your triangles.

Step 2:

Drill holes in the top two corners about the same diameter as your rope.

Step 3:
Paint your triangles with chalk board paint. (The kids did this part)

Step 4:

String the rope through the holes in the triangles.

Step 5:

Write your favorite sayings again and again. Here Kaley is writing her friends' names. I convinced her that "FALL" would probably be more appropriate.

After the banner was done and hung, we went to work adding our Home Depot finds. How fantastic is this potted mum in the "Farmer's Market" basket? Love it! There was a whole selection of these in the garden center.

Also, did you know you can buy giant stalks of dried corn at Home Depot? Corn! I have corn at my front door. Never thought I would say that. I really like how tall they are (we're talking 8 feet!). Very dramatic for very little money.

Another bonus about shopping for fall decor is that the summer decor is on clearance! I got a ton of outdoor pillows to dress up the bench we already had on our porch. All of the pillows were under $5 each. No one ever sat there before the pillows except the frogs... I've been out there a ton this week spying on the neighbors and stuff. It's great!

Of course there are tons of gorgeous mums in every color to choose from as well as a variety of pots and urns.

And plenty of new door mats to wipe your feet.

And quite the assortment of cute scarecrows.

This is the one the kids picked to come home with us. If you're wondering about the halloween signs in the pics, I made those. Another super simple DIY project.

I just purchased wood stakes in the garden section at Home Depot and scrap lumber. Screwed the scrap lumber to the stakes and painted each board with leftover paint. Super easy and super inexpensive.

Of course there are tons of pumpkins available a Home Depot. We chose to do a mix of real and fake pumpkins (Bonus: The fake ones light up). The kids insisted we get this little kit to decorate one of the pumpkins with. I pretty much let them get it because I knew it would keep them busy while I worked, but it turned out to be one of my favorite things about the porch! Look how adorable he is!

And lastly I was going to do a traditional wreath on the door but challenged myself to think outside the box. I opted for this Martha Stewart mirror instead. And bonus, you can check yourself out every time you come home. Well hello there! It's not too heavy either so I hung it using Command Hooks.

So thanks for taking my front porch tour. I don't have any candy yet, you'll have to come back later. I figure after Halloween I can just remove those touches and we're good to go through Thanksgiving. :) Are you ready to deck out your porch this weekend?