How to Create a Stunning Farmhouse Spring Porch (Cheap!)

Do you need budget-friendly farmhouse spring porch decorating ideas? Come see how to make your porch look amazing – on the cheap! So much easier than you think!

Last Update: January, 2023

All About Budget-Friendly Spring Decorating

If we were to meet in real life, you’d find out pretty quickly that I’m all about saving a buck. Part of it is my upbringing – we weren’t poor, but we never really had extra money growing up.

Part of it is necessity – if I wanted to be a SAHM when I had my twin boys (which I did), I needed to come up with ways to save and stretch money – and well, be creative and make a lot of things myself.

The good news is that I’ve been getting a ton of practice in coming up with and putting into use lots of creative decorating hacks and ways to save money on decor.

(If you haven’t seen some of my other posts on this, I’ll list them out at the end!)

At this time last year, we had only been in our house about 3 months, and the main focus was painting and furniture. There wasn’t a whole lot of decorating going on. We pretty much moved from NY to TN empty-handed, so actually needed a dinner table to eat at and a couch to sit on.

Well, this year, I’m all about the decorating, and right now, it’s farmhouse spring decor on a budget.

Porches First Because… Well, First Impressions

When it comes to changing up the season, I love doing the porch first. It’s the first thing people see when they come to your house – and even if they just drive by. To be honest, we had some big shrubs in the front of our house, and I asked my husband to trim them wayyyy down so you could see the porch. I felt like if I was putting in all this effort to pretty it up, I’d really like to be seen from the street. Call if vain if you will, but it is what it is.

Spring Porch Inspiration: Flower Market

So, my main way of getting ideas is usually from Pinterest or Etsy, and I love seeing what people come up with. Sometimes, I’ll take pictures in Hobby Lobby or other stores for inspiration for my next DIY.

I was lurking on Pinterest and something I kept seeing was these ‘Fresh Flowers Market’ sign, and that immediately was filed in my brain as a project I wanted to do.

Well, I happened to be in Michael’s one morning, and I saw this beautiful display for flowers that looked like, well, a Fresh Flowers Market. I snapped a picture because I knew instantly that I wanted to use that as my inspiration for my porch.

 

*** Note: The Fresh Market Flowers theme is what I did in 2019. I’m also including pictures from the following years as well to give a few more examples of how I used the same tips in different style spring porches! 

How to Create a Stunning Farmhouse Spring Porch on a Budget

OK, so how do you put all this together? Well, I’ll use my porch as an example, but you really can use these tips for any style or theme you want.

1| Decide on a theme, motif, or color scheme.

Now, I don’t always have a ‘theme’, per se, but I do try to think through the look I’m going for. Do you want bright and bold? Neutral? Soft and pastel? Vintage? Modern? Minimalist?

Is there a theme you’re going with – a farmstand? A garden party? Wildflowers?

This year, I wanted to do a Fresh Flowers Market theme, so I tried to only use pieces that would fit that theme. I loved the tree stems from dogwoods, cherry blossoms, and forsythias, so this year, I wanted to use mostly soft colors but threw in some yellows & periwinkles to brighten it up, but all with a flower market feel to it.

If you need some inspiration for farmhouse spring porches, here are 30 different homes you can look at to give you a ton of decorating ideas!

Update: For 2021, after a tough year with COVID, I wanted to go a little simpler. So in 2021, I toned it town a bit and went with a mostly green and yellow pallet. We had also painted our porch and door in the meantime.

2| Shop Your House (and Upcycle)

Before you go out buying everything, is there anything you have already? Here are some ideas of things you can scavenge from your house:

A chair

A bench

Flowerpots that can be painted and updated

Ladders

A stool

Crates

Scrap wood to make a sign

Vases and bottles

Faux flowers

A straw or sunhat you can hang on the wall

Rain boots

Baskets

Pails

Watering cans

Sooooo many of these things would look amazing in a porch vignette!

So, take inventory for what you have already. Here’s how I used some things I already had:

I lugged that 6-pane vintage window from New York. My husband thought I was crazy, but I knew I wanted to do something with it once we got to Tennessee.

Those glass bottles in the chicken wire holder? I got that from TJ Maxx and have used it for just about every season, everywhere in my house.

That bench? That was free on Facebook Marketplace. It was a coffee table at one point. It recently was a bench at the end of our bed, and I commandeered it from there, chalk-painted it and put it outside. A super-easy upcycle.

So, see what you have on hand already. And see what you can repurpose.

Below is a container from a Grove Collective Spray bottle that I repurposed as a vase!

 

3| Dollar Tree, Girl (and Other Discount Decor)

Do not be ashamed of getting decor at Dollar Tree! They have totally upped their game, and their products used in the right way can absolutely look amazing. If you don’t believe me, check out the Dollar Tree crafting groups on Facebook and Dollar Tree crafters on YouTube. It’s an absolute cult following, I’m telling you.

Those paper lanterns? Dollar Tree.

The ‘Hello Spring’ sign on the wall? Dollar Tree.

The cherry blossom, dogwood, and forsythia stems? Yes, ma’am. Dollar Tree.

The galvanized pails with jute string? Dollar Tree again.

Terra cotta pots? DT again.

For my 2021 porch, the flowers in the mini terra cotta planter is from Target Dollar spot. I have some of the same Dollar Tree stems in the planter on the stool. The stool, by the way, was $5 at Five Below – which I spray-painted black!

 

4| DIY Projects

If you want to save money and do things on a budget, DIY is just a fact of life. But let me tell you, I’m not naturally crafty. I was a high school English teacher for 15 years, so I was the book-smart girl, not the crafty creative. But necessity is the mother of invention, so you learn what you need to learn. And you will just have to give DIY a try for a few things.

Like I said, you can definitely check out those Dollar Tree craft groups and YouTube videos. I do all the time.

The wreath that’s on the window pane? Mostly made from Dollar Tree items. (Here’s the post where I explain how to make that rustic DIY spring wreath– so easy and just $5, mostly from Dollar Tree items!”

(You can also check out 30 other spring DIY wreaths here as well!)

The Fresh Flowers Market sign? That’s a DIY as well. It was a Dollar Tree Easter sign and I just flipped it over and made my own sign (you can get the free printable for the Fresh Flowers Market sign here. And a tutorial for the sign itself is here).

My point is that DIY is your friend when you’re on a tight budget. And you don’t have to be naturally amazing at it. You’ll get better the more you do it. I promise.

(If you want some more farmhouse spring DIY projects, take a look here! So many of these would work amazingly well on the porch!)

For 2021, that wood round is a DIY I made at our church’s ladies’ night! The hoop wreaths were also DIYs along with the wood Fresh Market Flowers sign (which I explain how to do here).

Here’s another DIY wreath I made that I swapped from the inside of the house to the outside the following year afte that!

5| Hobby Lobby 50% off

Sometimes Dollar Tree doesn’t have what you want. I get it. My next stop is Walmart, but sometimes you can’t get it there either. My other go-to is Hobby Lobby. First, they put their seasonal decor on sale SO EARLY! Their spring collection was 40% off almost as soon as winter ended, and their Easter decor is already 40%.

Now, there might be other items that you want that aren’t in these categories. If you didn’t know it already, Hobby Lobby cycles through their 50% off sales. Just wait it out until what you want is 50% off. Those hydrangeas?  50%. The shiny silver pail? 50%. The galvanized mini pails with the hooks? 50%.

Just be diligent in watching their sales, and you can score those discounts. And sometimes, a $3 stem that’s 50% off is now $1.50, just barely more than you’d pay at Dollar Tree.

6| Thrift Stores, Yard Sales, & Estate Sales

These are places you can pick up super-cheap decor! I find yard sales to be the cheapest because most people just want to get rid of stuff.  Think a little out of the box when you’re looking here.

Is there a small stool you can repurpose? Or a big wreath that you can pull flowers from – or reuse the wreath itself? You can always find lots of unique pieces that will give your porch a one-of-a-kind look!

Go back to that list at the top and see if you can find some of those second-hand. 

7| Nature is Free (Mostly)

One amazing thing about outside (and even inside) decor is using real nature. I tend to do this more in the fall and winter because I don’t have a green thumb, and branches, pine cones, and acorns don’t require upkeep.

But in the spring and summer, if you don’t mind watering or changing things up, potted plants and flowers look amazing! You can do so much with terra cotta pots in a farmhouse theme (even if they’re empty). You can cut forsythias, dogwood, and cherry blossom branches, stick them in pails or vases, and they look so amazing!

You can plant flowers in pots using seeds, which are super-cheap, or seedlings, which are cheap as well. I personally don’t do this too often because I’m terrible at watering plants, but it’s a cheap way to go, for sure!

You can also see in the 2021 pictures above, there are some wood slices that I used as risers. That’s another example of free decor from nature! If you have some branches laying around your yard, slice them up and use them as risers!

Farmhouse Spring Porch, Cheap but Stunningly Beautiful

You really can get a fantastic spring porch when you’re on a tight budget. It’s totally doable, and you can have something you truly love.

I would love to see what you come up with for your farmhouse spring porch! Please tag me on Instagram – I’d love to take a look and share on my stories!

And when you’re ready to decorate the inside of your house for spring, be sure to look here – 25 Must-See Farmhouse Decorating Ideas for Spring {mantels, tabletops, entryways, and kitchen/dining areas!}

And if you happen to like the ‘abundance of flowers’ look, take a look at what I did inside on my mantel for a Rustic Wildflower Garden theme!

For light and airy spring decorating ideas, be sure to head here!

More Budget-Friendly Decor Ideas

If you need some more inspiration for ways to decorate on a budget or more DIY projects, here are some of my favorite below!

How to Decorate Your House When You’re on a Tight Budget

25 Budget-Friendly Farmhouse DIY Projects

25 Ways to Decorate Using Repurposed Windows

 

 

Thoughts? I’d love to hear them! Leave a comment below!