Fall in the Country – Our Front Porch

Happy October! This week I’ve joined some lovely ladies I’ve met on Instagram and we’re all sharing our front porch decor for fall. Be sure to check out Skye Cecilia Design and Pearls & Lattes‘ posts from earlier this week and Marcy Mussari tomorrow. Decorating our porch is one of my favourite ways to celebrate the changing seasons here at Cloverhill Farmhouse, and it was fun putting this “Fall in the Country” look together. 

This year I drew inspiration from the colours of our Cloverhill Flowers field this time of year – lots of rich yellows, oranges, reds and pinks. 

I picked up a few fall classics – like potted mums and a trunk load of pumpkins from the local patch. One of our summer ferns was still holding strong, so I kept that in an old stone crock too.

Our porch looks so different compared to when we first moved here (you can see the progress here). Next up is replacing the porch ceiling and I can’t wait to see how it looks once that is done too. 

We have a new addition to the porch furniture – our vintage metal glider. I mentioned on Instagram this summer that I was on the hunt and a friendly reader spotted this one for a steal at $25 (Thanks Mona!!). My dad helped me fix it up enough that it will rock, but we still need to do a few more repairs and give the old girl a fresh coat of paint next spring. It’s already become the spot that everyone wants to sit with a cozy blanket and enjoy the crisp fall air. 

This fall my mom/business partner and I taught a class on how to make a dried floral wreath and it gave me the itch to make one of my own for our front door. All the dried flowers in this wreath were grown by us this year! We have been hanging them to dry in our new flower shop down by the field, and after a few weeks of drying they were ready to use. 

I pulled together some fun bright colours from the field with magenta gomphrena, purple statice and jewel toned strawflowers. For a neutral element, I used wheat, german statice and one of my all time favs from the field – bunny tails! I attached everything to a grapevine wreath form from the craft store using wire and hot glue. (I also have a tutorial on making a Dried Floral Wreath if you’re looking to try one yourself)

It’s fun to have a little of the flower field greeting visitors to our home. We’re so busy throughout the season using our flowers for floral designs for our customers, that sometimes I forget to use them in my own home too! 

We tried to grow our own pumpkins like we did last year, but they didn’t grow this time. I’m pretty sure the chipmunk back there ate most of the seeds, ha! Thankfully we have a good pumpkin patch nearby and I was able to pick up a bunch for the porch and for carving closer to Halloween. 

As soon as I started taking pictures of the front porch, our nosy chickens came by to snoop. They were checking out every pumpkin and plant. Nothing gets past them around here, ha!

We’ve been letting them go free range more often now, as they love to forage around for plants and bugs. They’ve actually been quite helpful with pest control down in the flower field and the vegetable garden. I’m sure the neighbours get a kick out of driving by and seeing the chickens all over the porch and front lawn. What a change from my old apartment days, eh? 🙂

The flower field has been winding down the last couple weeks as the cooler weather has rolled in. The season always goes out with a huge bang, when we do all our Thanksgiving Pumpkin Arrangements and workshops next week. It’s pretty much non-stop pumpkins and flowers until Thanksgiving next weekend. And by then I won’t want to see any pumpkins unless they’re in a pie! (Speaking of which, this is my fav Pumpkin Pie from Scratch recipe.)

Thanks for joining me for a little tour of our front porch all dressed up for fall. Be sure to check out my friends at Skye Cecilia Design, Pearls & Lattes and Marcy Mussari too.