Cost Saving Approach to a Festive and Welcoming Holiday Porch

Merry Christmas! 

Today, I'd like to share some tips on how I keep holiday decorating costs from getting out of hand.  Every year, I create a festive display on our front porch. This is one of the areas where I splurge and spend most of my holiday decorating budget. There are some ways in which I'm able to cut down on the expense without sacrificing style.

For instance, I love to use fresh greens at the entrance of our home to welcome guests with the scents and live textures of the season. Instead of heading to the local nursery or the tree farm,  I grab these small, fresh, table top trees from the garden center at Home Depot ($15.99 each). They already have a plastic base attached to them which fits perfectly inside my existing porch urns. 

To keep them standing up straight (even through a blustery Michigan winter storm) I bury the plastic base in a $5 bag of pea rock. 

This year, I purchased a gorgeous set of faux greenery from Potterybarn that includes a wreath and pair of decorated garlands. This was a bit of an initial investment, but I will reuse them for many years which cuts down on the re-curring annual cost of decorating. 

I wrapped the base of my fresh trees with the garland and secured it with a large wire twisty tie. 

Then, I added inexpensive white lights to finish them off. 

I like to have a big, oversized wreath on the door, however as you can see in the image below, the wreath I purchased from PB was on the small side. 

To dress it up and to make it appear larger, I added fresh greenery. In the past, I would purchase a large, fresh wreath from the nursery to attach to the back of my faux decorated wreath, but this year I found a way to cut the cost in half. 

I noticed a plain, undecorated 31" fresh, mix-green wreath cost $49.99 (yikes!). However, a 50' strand of mix-green garland was the same cost. I grabbed the garland, cut it in half, looped it into the shape of a 31" wreath and tied it around the back of my PB wreath with wire twisty ties. I was able to use the other half of the garland to decorate my foyer!

Here is a look at the wreath after I added the fresh greens...

The size and scale is much more dramatic. Not to mention the fragrant and textural mix-green garland added to the faux wreath takes the entire look up a notch. 

Here is a peek at the foyer that I decorated using some of the remaining garland...

Okay, back outside on the porch...

A few years ago, I made a hand painted sign to personalize my porch decor. It was very inexpensive, I just used a piece of MDF, black chalk paint and Sharpie Paint Markers to make it. Since then, my holiday decor colors have changed from red and black to gold and black. To save the cost (and time) of making another sign, I simply painted over the red paint with two coats of gold. 

I brought a few indoor elements outside to make the porch look warm and cozy. My indoor/outdoor pillows and rug do great in the Michigan elements. An inexpensive scarf from Walmart, a bunch of fresh greens (clipped from around the yard) and some bricks placed inside wrapped packages dress up my little wooden deer on the cheap. 

The final element was absolutely free, snow!

I hope you are all enjoying the season.

Peace to all who enter my home and yours! 

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