Hello everyone! I hope you are all having a great week. I have spent the past few days recovering from the Holiday Home Tour as well as prepping and throwing a holiday craft party last night. Phew. I am about crafted and partied out. However, now all my holiday hosting obligations are done and I can sit back and enjoy the rest of the season…oh, after I finish all that shopping that still needs to be done 🙂 After being away from the computer for a few days, I was eager to sit down today to share pictures of the next stop on our Virtual Holiday Home Tour…our front porch!

The vignette on our front porch ended up being one of my favorite spaces I created for the holidays this year. I actually had different plans for our yard – a big DIY/construction project to make our own wooden trees that would then get wrapped in lights – the idea didn’t prove to be as cute or successful as I was hoping. So instead of wasting our time, we kicked the project off our to-do list, and I started from scratch.  Let me show you everything I did, starting with this fantastic REJOICE sign!

I have been really, really eager to do a painted subway-style sign in our house but just couldn’t find the right spot for one! When I needed a big “wow factor” for the porch, I knew this would be just the ticket! The wood was already this size and was sitting in our garage (leftover from the ottoman project). I started by spray painting the wood white. I then cut out the REJOICE letters from vinyl, using the Winter Wonderland cricut cartridge. After applying the vinyl letters to the plywood (and making sure they were stuck down really, really well), I covered the entire board with 2 good coats of bright red spray paint. After it was dry, I pealed off the letters to reveal this fantastic sign. It really took very little time and effort to make, but the impact is huge! (Oh, and I paired the sign with a tabletop fraiser fur in a big metal bucket).

On the other side of the door, I created a little vignette using some found items around the house as well as some new purchases. I found these adorable white lantern at Marshalls and scooped them up right away. I placed them atop of wooden crate from Michaels that I painted red to match the REJOICE sign. A silver wire star and a bright red poinsettia in another metal bucket completed the display.

I always grew up with fresh wreaths, so I wanted to do the same on my front door this year. Although a more modern wreath would have been better suited, I couldn’t pass up the nostalgia of having this type of wreath. I adorned mine with some red balls, silver bells, a big red star, and a bow. The splash of colors on this wreath help tie the whole porch together!

Over on the left side of the porch, we re-positioned our red garden bench (again!) on the diagonal to create an inviting display. I surrounded the bench with white and red poinsettias at varying heights to give it a garden feel – I love that we have warm enough weather to keep these plants outside!

The final touch was a quick pillow I made using this felt ornament cut out from the Dollar Store. I simply ironed the ornament onto cheap white fabric using heavy duty Heat’N’Bond, and then made an envelope back out of black chevron fabric (which you can’t really see from these shots 🙁 This pillow was made using only materials I had on hand and provided just the right touch of pattern and whimsy to our porch!

Although our original plans for the yard/porch fell through, I am super pleased with our final result. All the elements work so well together to create a very festive display with just the right amount of traditional and whimsey for our household!

How’s your holiday decorating coming? I have a few more rooms to show you on our virtual holiday home tour, so be sure to pop in and see me next week! Have a great weekend!

See You Soon!
Megan