Front Porch Ideas For Summer

Simple and fun ways to decorate your front porch for summer

Hey, look at that, my front porch got another little makeover. This year’s word for my summer front porch is “minimal”. Or one might actually call it “lazy”

Just kidding…but I did find myself adding less to my front porch this year than I normally do.

My front porch and mantel are tied for how many times I have changed them since we lived here.

They are two of the easiest things for me to change though so why not. I don’t go too crazy when I do a little redecorating and most times I just shop my house. I am constantly moving stuff around. Nothing is safe.

I think the last time I gave my front porch a mini makeover was in the fall. It all started because we got a storm door and it completely changed the look of our front porch.

I was forced to paint my pretty blue door black. I still miss my blue door. (You can see it here)

But you know what makes me happy and has helped me to get over the loss of my blue door? Lemon trees…actually faux lemon trees (because I cannot kill those)

(This post contains affiliate links. You can see my full disclosure here)

I found these faux lemon trees at Hobby Lobby. I have had my eye on these lemon trees for years. Every time I would go to Hobby Lobby I would circle them like a shark wondering where I could put one (or two) in my house. Welp, I think I found the perfect place

Plaid Rug//Similar Welcome Rug

And for the life of me I cannot find similar ones anywhere online. I linked almost similar ones below but they are slightly shorter than mine.

I put the lemon trees in black planters (that I also found at Hobby Lobby) and covered the plastic pots with rocks from my yard. If you live in a pretty windy area you might want to put a few bricks in your pot too. Ask me how I know this.

Once these trees found their home on my front porch, I felt like that is all my front porch needed. I tried to jazz this area up with other planters and flowers and I really just liked the simplicity of just the trees.

Plaid Rug//Similar Welcome Rug

But I couldn’t resist a little planter full of peonies from my yard. I can’t get enough of peonies. I wish they would last all year.

I also (for a hot second) considered changing my layered rugs on my front porch, but I just couldn’t find anything else I really liked more than what I have. I still really do love this this plaid rug layered under my welcome coir rug (similar). So it stays for now. We’ll see what happens in the fall.

Plaid Rug//Similar Welcome Rug

(If you are looking for any outdoor rugs I listed some of my favorites here)

And because I couldn’t resist, I brought out my ol’ faithful plaid rug again. This rug is still out of stock everywhere but once it comes back in stock I will be purchasing a back up. I had it on our back deck and I can’t decide if I want to keep it on our front porch. Oh, the decisions I have to make.

Two years later and our Aldi rocking chairs are still rocking it (see what I did there?)

Similar outdoor pillow//Similar Rocker

Side note: If you have an Aldi near you then you really need to go check them out, if anything, for their home decor. Every once in a while I find the cutest stuff. I found my outdoor rug for our sunroom there and I really believe I could have paid triple for what I really paid for it.

I’m having a hard time finding these rockers for you online but, again, I tried to link similar ones.

I also am putting my black thumb to the test and planted some flowers in my planters this year. Fingers crossed I do not kill them. I am usually a big fan of just grabbing a few hanging planters or ferns and plopping them in my planters on my front porch. It’s easy and the work is pretty much done for you but this year I wanted to challenge myself and plant my own flowers.

Similar planter

So far, they are not dead. But it’s only been 10 days. You can see more planter ideas for your front porch and what I planted here. I also found some cute planters for you in that post and I will link some below too.

I also added a few plants and flowers in planters out here too.

My peonies are blooming and fresh flowers on my front porch always makes me happy.

Like I said, I was forced to paint my front door black. I know there are worse things but I loved my blue door on my front porch. I added some wood beads to my wreath on the door to break up all of the black.

Someday I am secretly hoping for a new door….and new shutters. We had our house power washed a few weeks ago and alot of the paint on the shutters came off so I had the pleasure of giving my shutters a little touch up. And if you ever had to paint your shutters you will understand how unbelievably annoying they are to paint.

Every spring I have to give our stair risers a fresh coat of white paint too. Another annoying project but one I am so glad I did. I really do believe in the power of paint.

Here is what our front porch looked like shortly after we moved in.

And here it is today

Similar planter

It’ll change many more times I’m sure but it’ll mainly be cosmetic. I really do love playing around and decorating out here. It’s the first thing guests see and the first thing I see.

And the question that has been on my mind…can I keep those lemon trees out here all year round? I can’t imagine putting them away for the winter. See…I’m already mentally redecorating my front porch for the winter.

I have problems. And I switched out the planters already. I found those white ones on clearance at Target recently. I think mums would look so cute in the little planters for fall.