10/6/08

Porch Pleasures

One of the things I enjoy most about the American home life, is the tradition of decorating the porch. Some might consider it a little 'twee', but I grasped the concept with both hands from the moment I moved here and ran with it.

In the UK most homes really don't have a covered porch that lends itself to be decorated. But here many people take real pride in their porch. I love driving down residential streets and seeing their personally designed porch displays. I am often amazed at how original and inspired they are, I am still a novice relying on Hobby Lobby and Garden Ridge for inspiration.

Our porch is a public extension of our home, it reflects our personalities and our pride in our home. So I embrace decorating it for all the holidays and seasons of the year, I am always on the lookout for ideas or things to add to 'our look'.

We enjoy using our porch to sit quietly and enjoy a beautiful day or just discuss life. We have the modern version of a porch swing, the glider swing, comfortable and practical with somewhere to set your drink. The flag stays all year round and is our personal tribute to the country we are proud to call home. I love to see the patriotically decorated porches and the show of national pride the owners are happy to put out on public display.

Having adjusted to 'porch life', I would now never consider a home without a porch to sit on. I think for a foreigner the American porch and it's swing, is like the white picket fence, a slice of the American Dream. We use it all year round to welcome our guests, on sunny days for shade, stormy nights for shelter as we watch and christmas nights to spread cheer.

Do you have a porch and do you decorate?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd love to have a front porch. We have a little covered space by the front door, but not large enough to sit on. Yours looks so nice and inviting!

I just tagged you for a little meme.

Tess Kincaid said...

No porch on the manor. I mostly stick with just the Christmas wreath for the holidays. I used to do more of the fun seasonal stuff when the kids were young and we lived in a neighborhood.

Cute porch! :)

Anonymous said...

I agree with you, I totally embraced the whole decorating the outside of your house for the holidays when I moved to America. I just love it. I don't have a porch that is big enough to sit on, but I definitely decorate! Your porch looks brilliant.

Mary (Bookfan) said...

I have a covered front porch. I keep a flowerpot and a red Adirondack chair on it (sometimes 2 in summer).

Daryl said...

We dont have a porch .. some apartment dwellers decorate their apartment doors ... wreaths at Christmas and Indian Corn/Maize in the fall ... or put carved pumpkins in their windows .. I dont do any of that but I do decorate my blog with pix that are fall like and pumpkin/Hallween themed as many times as I can during Oct. combining that with Breast Cancer Awareness ... so its Pink and Orange time for me

I love love love your decorations!


:-Daryl

Expat mum said...

We used to have a porch, but now we have a "stoop". The Chicago equivalent to hanging out on the porch is sittin' out on the sttop. Basically we have five steps leading up to our front door, and then a little "landing". People call it a porch but it isn't covered.
We are about to cover our front railings in that pretend cob-webby stuff so I may post a photo when we're done. (With a 5 year old, I can get away with a lot!!!)

Anonymous said...

Love your porch decorations! So cute!

Victoria - Florence and Mary said...

I'm actually looking forward to my mum decorating our porch this year as we have my sister in law's halloween baby shower at our house and there are even bales of hay on order!!

Victoria x