Outdoor Fall Décor: Update your Porch for the Holidays

Freshening up your outdoor fall décor can be one of the more fun and rewarding parts of the season – or one of the duller and more stressful, depending on your situation. If you have no idea how to transition your porch and yard décor from summer to fall, it might tend to be pretty dull and stressful. There are certainly a lot of ideas out there, but it’s hard to know how to put them in place – much less how to keep true to your own style (and budget!) while you do it.

Never fear! The Storage Queens are here to sort through the madness of outdoor décor ideas floating around!  We’ve narrowed them down to three core design concepts – and we’re talking more than cornstalks and pumpkins here, people. (Though, TBH, there are still plenty of cornstalks and pumpkins.) We’re talking the big thoughts to think through before you hit up your nearest stores and garden centers: color, dimension, and scale. But don’t worry, we sprinkled in plenty of “get ‘er done and get ‘er done today” tactical stuff too. 

Scroll down to check out our some of our favorite – and most doable – fall outdoor décor ideas divided by scheme, size and spectrum. We ruled out all the ones that required an art degree and/or an unexpected inheritance, to make these as immediately actionable as possible.   

Color Scheme: Keep It Simple, Sweetie

The easiest outdoor fall décor hack of them all might just be determining a color scheme. This you can even do from the comfort of your couch. And the benefits of starting with a color scheme are enormous.

1. It creates a structure for your look. You can’t go haywire buying pretty things at the garden center if you know you have to stick to a certain palette.
2. It looks sleek to visitors and passerbys. No matter how low your budget, if you can pull off coordinated colors, it reads much more expensive than it is.
3. It nearly always looks better than a hodgepodge. Remember those color wheels from grade school? There’s a reason we’re drawn to certain combinations, so might as well take advantage of what we’re naturally drawn to.. 

Speaking of color combinations, some popular ones for fall yard décor this year are the classic harvest favorites orange and green – as well as the updated version: cobalt blue and orange. The classic black and white combo – both on its own and accented with boldly colored mums – is also showing up on porches and doorsteps all over. 

If bold isn’t really your style, you’ll be pleased to know that muted tones, like sage or pale purple, look great as well. You can find plenty of ornamental cabbage, speciality pumpkins, squash, and mums to build out the look.

Cream, light gray and other neutrals are also making a big impact this fall. You can pair them with earthier tones, like deep browns or tans, to add a bit more weight or leave them on their own for a more delicate and ethereal vibe. One of the best examples of this extremely natural look we’ve seen is very light colored pumpkins and other squash set atop earthenware crockery on steps. 

Think Height, Width and Depth

A classic fall yard décor mistake we’ve all made is not take all the dimensions into mind when planning something out. An idea can seem absolutely perfect on paper – until you realize it’s all knee-high, and no one can see it driving by. Or that it’s tall enough, but it completely disappears from the side of the porch. This is why you need to consider your porch update from all angles and walk around it after it’s installed to make sure you didn’t miss anything obvious.

Luckily, there are a lot of interesting options available for building up plants and decor elements both vertically and horizontally. Some of the best, and most reasonably priced, ideas we’ve seen include:

1. Tree stumps (If you can get more than one, try for a variety of heights)
2. Hay or straw bales (aim to buy from local farmers if possible)
3. Simple Shaker boxes (or anything that looks hand-crafted and unadorned)
4. Old wooden crates (either painted to match or left rustic)
5. Rusty bike (or rusty anything if it fits the vibe)
6. Earthenware crocks (these look best on stairs with plants, gourds or pumpkins on top)
7. Wooden ladder (perfect for holding lots of small items)
8. Bench (any size or length can work)
9. Terra cotta planters (turned upside down for additional height)
10. Galvanized buckets and pails (turned on their sides for ornamental cabbage and gourds)

You can use these elements to “architect” your porch any way you’d like. Imagine crates of different heights with pots of flowers on top. A wooden ladder strung with a garland of grapevines and bittersweet. Outdoor lights strewn between tree stumps of various sizes. Consider them the foundation for the plants and other decorative elements.

Play With Scale

Our last core design concept to consider is scale. We love the idea in the picture above because it takes a huge number of mums and other flowers and plays them off the smallest baby pumpkins. You can make a big impact without too big of an investment by doing something similar (minus, perhaps, the huge amount of mums part).

Think about placing similarly small pumpkins on your steps, railings, or ladder rungs. Or a massive garland above your front door and very minimal decoration anywhere else. If you’ve already got a well built-up garden area or well-furnished front porch, don’t feel the need to go overboard on outdoor fall décor. A few artfully placed pieces or plants may be all you need to liven it up.

A quick way to add dramatic vertical scale is with cornstalks. Neatly gather a bunch together, tie them with either invisible wire or a large, visible ribbon, and place them on either side of your door or porch entrance. You can also use them in planters to add a dramatic element of height. Corn husks are also a flashy way to add extra oomph to a trio of glass gem corn, and are quite eye-catching when woven into wreaths. Plus, it’s all compostable at the end of the season.

We hope you feel more equipped to tackle your fall outdoor décor / porch upgrade projects after absorbing these core design concepts. Remember that you want to use your outdoor fall decor to set the tone for your entire home, so be mindful about choosing decorative and natural elements that really encompass the vibe that you want your guests to feel. Also, try to err on the side of “fall” and “natural” décor rather than holiday. It will make the transition into the next season that much easier. If you’re looking for more visual outdoor fall décor ideas, check out The Pioneer Woman, Country Living and HGTV’s take on the subject. They’ve got plenty of incredible pictures and examples of decor for porches of all sizes and shapes. And for general all-season porch makeover tips, visit 10 Easy Porch Ideas to Upgrade Your Space. Let us know which direction you decide to take it by tagging @cubesmart in your Instagram glow-up pics.