Small Decorative Changes to Your Porch, Deck or Patio Make a Big Impact

You don't have to spend a lot of money to make some fairly significant changes to your outdoor living spaces. You can save some money buy buying seeds for some new plants and starting them indoors right now. This can save you lots of cash this spring and summer. You can create beautiful hanging baskets yourself or huge pots planted with your choice of flowers, greens or grasses. Mix very large planted pots with pots overflowing with bubbling water. Find instructions and order supplies now so these will all be ready to put in place on your patio in the spring.

Plan to buy a fire pit this summer for warmth when it gets chilly at night and to add some ambiance to your outdoor living space. There are rustic styles for cabin decor, lodge decor and western decor and there are contemporary styles for modern home decor.

There are also some outdoor accessories that can add comfort and color to your outdoor leisure spaces.

Few things can make a front porch look more inviting than a colorful assortment of throw pillows in rocking chairs, porch swings and lounge chairs. Not only can they add wonderful splashes of color to brighten your porch, but they look comfortable and inviting. Take it one step further this spring and summer, add some matching or coordinating throws to drape over chairs and other porch seating for a really comfortable look and to keep warm on a breezy day in spring.

Shown left are some examples of tapestry throws with matching pillows. Strawberry Fiels is a great choice for a country style front porch, Fair Weather Sailing throw and pillows would look wonderful on a beach cottage porch, and for the Southwest retreat the Aydin design is a colorful choice. If you have several chairs, think of going for a coordinated look with a few different designs in the same theme to add some interesting differences for each chair or grouping.

Although throw pillows alone are enough to really make a dramatic change to your porch or patio, adding one or two other new features can really make a huge change in how inviting your outdoor space is. If you are decorating a porch or a covered patio, adding outdoor lamps add such an ambiance to your evening enjoyment of your space, making it look cozy and inviting. There are table lamps that can be used outdoors as shown below, and there are even portable post lamps that can be set anywhere on your patio and do not need to be permanently installed.

Adding outdoor rugs to your porch or patio invites comfort under bare feet in the summertime and anchors a seating area making it look more like a living space than a collection of porch or patio furniture.

Finish your outdoor living accessories with an outdoor wall clock, some outdoor lanterns for candles and even a string of outdoor lights to add a festive look to your space.