Happy October dear friends and welcome! I am so excited to have the opportunity today to join my friend Laura of Decor to Adore and several other fabulous blogging friends for a fun Fall Porches Blog Hop!  If you are coming over from Emily’s gorgeous porch at Le Cultivateur, or if you are just stopping by, I am so happy to welcome you to my blog where I am now sharing all about our new home! *This post contains affiliate links.

 

 

It’s the first fall here at our 1920’s historic American Foursquare home and I have been so excited to decorate the 44 foot long front porch for the season! Alas, we are still working on renovations indoors and out, as well as sprucing up the yellow brick home to put on the market next week, so there hasn’t been a lot of time to spend on the porch or in the garden this fall. Still, I do at least have some beautiful new faux boxwood topiary urns  dressed up for fall with bittersweet and a few fall flowers and pumpkins to share.

 

 

Having a 44 foot long “visiting porch” with tall ceilings and a massive front door and side lights, I wanted something substantial to flank the front doors that would look good year round with seasonal tweaking. I thrifted some beautiful urns at a yard sale this summer, gave them a makeover and filled them with ferns for summer.

 

 

I loved this look but I still wanted something that would last all year round without having to worry about watering, pruning or insects near the front door.

 

 

 

I have always loved the look of large boxwood sphere topiaries, but they are very expensive and take a bit of care to maintain. I decided to invest in realistic faux boxwood sphere topiaires that will always look fresh. With their large size and elegant design, they are the perfect scale and style for our large front door and long porch.  They were expensive but for the ease, beauty and longevity, I think they were worth it. I did catch mine on sell on Amazon. 

 

 

The topiaires looked great in the urns with the exception of all the negative space around the top of the pot. *Note we are still working on refinishing the interior wood around the sidelights.

 

I came up with the solution to use some styrofoam to surround the topiary and fill the gap. Once again, my amazing husband came to the rescue when I starting having strep throat or flu symptoms on Sunday. He ended up cutting the styrofoam to help me finish up the topiaires so I could still join this hop!  After putting the styrofoam in place I used a little bit of scrap burlap to cover the white completely.

 

 

I only had one grapevine wreath so my husband cut it apart for me and made two smaller wreaths to place on top of the styrofoam  and provide a place to tuck in bittersweet.  Inside you can see one of my smaller DIY boxwood topiaries that used to flank the fireplace at the yellow brick home.

 

 

 

The wreath was cut so that it could wrap around the base of the topiary (like a cuff bracelet) without having to take it out and mess with readjusting the styrofoam. Then I tucked the bittersweet in and around the wreath wildly and randomly, just like it grows in nature. I purchased this bittersweet at a local greenhouse, but I can get more for free just along the side of our road like I did whan I made my The Simplest Fall Grapevine Bittersweet Wreath.

 

 

 

 

I absolutely love decorating with bittersweet indoors too for fall, like this French Fall Vignette with Bittersweet.

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t mind my wet porch! Fixing up the bittersweet urns was messy so I gave the porch a good cleaning afterward with the leaf blower and a quick mop. I had planned to fill in the gaps in the wreath with more bittersweet cut from the neighborhood, but getting sick got in the way of that. I will definitely do that later in the week and post a photo in Instagram.

 

 

 

 

I love the simple and organic elegance that the bittersweet and grapevine wreaths add to these faux boxwood topiary urns for fall!  Later this month I hope to change up the urns by adding some mini-pumpkins and gourds around the base of the topiaries in honor of Thanksgiving abundance.

 

 

 

Adorn Planters

 

 

We adore our new home! The front porch is definitely one of it’s most endearing features. We love sitting outside in the misty mornings with our coffee and watching the birds and deer in the forest across the street.

 

 

I am still loving my simple greenery wreath with a bright plaid bow that I shared on my New Home Fall Tour “Preveal.”

 

 

I just tweaked it a little by adding a few sprigs of bittersweet. If birds end up swooping around our front door to munch on the bittersweet, I may purchase beautiful and realistic faux bittersweet to replace it and bring the real dried bittersweet indoors for decorating.

 

 

 

 

I haven’t really had a dedicated day to spend searching out great pumpkins and fall flowers for styling the porch stairs, but here is what I have thrown together while picking up a few plants and pumpkins when I have just been out to Lowes or the grocery store.  

 

 

 

 

For today’s porch post I borrowed the beautiful fall mixed container in a grapevine basket from our back deck.  The deck will get a makeover in the spring but we are loving it even as is, especially with all the fall colors that have appeared since taking this photo.

 

 

 

 

 

It has a stunning mix of fall flowers and plants with interesting colors and textures. A little bit of leftover bittersweet tucked in adds an even brighter pop!

 

 

 

I am fixing up a couple of cozy fall sitting areas on the porch along with several other fall container plantings and pumpkins that I will share in an upcoming post. 

 

 

 

I hope you have enjoyed seeing my new topiaries dressed up with bittersweet wreaths for fall and a peek of my fall flowers and pumpkins. For more inspiration don’t forget to check out Laura’s porch at Decor to Adore  and all the beautiful fall porches via the links below. 

Please do stop back by soon to see more of my porch and indoors too. I am preparing a fall home tour for November with photos all around our new home, even the unfinished areas!

Thanks for visiting! 

Amber

 

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