We added cottage curb appeal to our front porch with new shade loving bedding plants and a few inexpensive decorative essentials!
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It's that time of year when the nice weather draws us outside and we are motivated to spruce up our yards! Our Texas farmhouse needed a little more curb appeal, and today I'm sharing how we added that with a front porch refresh and new bedding plants.
Let me show you our home. Here's a picture taken in October 2016 just after we moved in. I know you're staring at our gorgeous Golden Rain Tree...but take your eyes off those amazing blooms for a sec and look at our front flower beds. See those hedges? Ew! They were FULL of spider webs and just did nothing for the curb appeal of our beautiful home! I believe they were intended as a privacy hedge, but we never sat on the front porch because who wants to look at spider-infested bushes? NOT ME!
So a few weeks ago, Mr DIY and our son dug them out! I stayed far away during that little project! They also removed the azalea bushes that never bloomed and planted them in the back yard where they'll get more sun. 🌺🌺🌺 Which meant that the beds were basically empty and we were left with a blank slate!
The challenge in our front yard is the shade. We have two huge trees that provide shade almost 100% of the time. And yes, a new mailbox is in the works too 😉
Front Yard Before
We have had some beautiful yards in the past, gardens too, but I don't consider us to be gardening gurus...we needed some help! We did some online research, and even spoke extensively with the owner of a local nursery to find out what plants would do best in our yard! We are fairly new to Texas, so we weren't sure what would grow in this spot or if flowering plants would even be possible!
We saved a ton money by purchasing small plants! They will grow and I cannot wait until they fill in! We also added black mulch to the flower beds, which makes such a difference.
Here are the beautiful results.
Front Yard After
It looks so much better! I'll share a list of the plants we added below, but I just want you to enjoy the change!
Once the plants reach maturity, it will provide some privacy for the porch, and I can't wait until we have lots and lots of blooms!
Porch Refresh
After the wet winter that we had, our porch was a mess! Mr DIY took the pressure washer to it, and then we made it look pretty for summer with a few simple additions. For my birthday in April, the kids and Mr DIY bought me hanging ferns and ivy for the openings between our porch posts and my son planted them into hanging baskets with coco liner for me. I love the leafy look!
I shared in my Christmas porch tour how I had found the black rocker and table at the curb one day! Woohoo! But they looked a little lonely on our 30-foot porch, so I started watching Craigslist and FB Marketplace for porch rockers and found this white pair for only $50! Some outdoor cushions from Target add a little more color.
Last year I painted our side door blue (my favorite color) in just 30 minutes using a paint specifically for exterior doors , and knew I wanted to emphasize that color on the front porch too!
I purchased 2 12-foot outdoor runners to draw your eye away from the concrete! Initially I wanted to paint the porch floor, but no one in the family was in support of that idea...😕 These are the exact runners I purchased, and I couldn't be happier with them!
The runners are easy to hose off and I love the additional pop of color against our white home!
We added shade loving flowers to our pots, like these gorgeous double begonias and geraniums. If you follow me on Instagram, I shared the makeover for this white chippy plant-chair in the fall.
And a new flag banner was a simple afternoon DIY project that will hang up all summer!
Here are the plants that we used for our front flower beds. They get a little afternoon sun, but are in shade for most of the day. I'm linking to them so that you can see what they look like. I recommend shopping at your local nursery for plants native to your area!
Shade Loving Plants
- hydrangea
- jasmine (this is a beautifully scented vine that we're training up the trellis at the side)
- camelia
- viburnum
- several varieties of hosta
- vinca minor (love this blue shade!)
- foxtail fern
- several varieties of coleus
I hope this post is helpful for you. A home with curb appeal and a welcoming front porch is SO NICE to come home to! I still want to change out our mission-style lights to something with cottage style, and I've always wanted a porch ceiling painted haint blue...so we'll see if I get to those projects this summer or not. The heat and humidity have started climbing into the stratosphere, and early morning/late evening is the only time it's cool enough to sit out on the porch with a glass of iced tea.
This Canadian girl is turning a little Southern, eh? 😍
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