Beach house updates are moving along, and we’ll share a longer post soon (you can also see some photos on Instagram and Facebook), but first: porch news. It no longer looks neglected. I also got a little creative with the bushes so they’ll never die on me again. I don’t have a perfect “before” shot, but imagine a dirty old doormat, dead plants, discolored brick, and cobwebs that were definitely not in the Halloween spirit.
One thing that made the porch’s decline obvious was our annual First Day of School photos in front of the door. We compared this year’s pictures to previous years to see how the kids changed, and the sad progression of the faded doormat jumped out at us. It had slowly been deteriorating until it looked like it needed to be retired.
I bought an extra-wide mat to replace it. If you have sidelights or a double door, I strongly recommend a wider doormat. They’re harder to find and not always cheap (ours is 30 x 48″), but a standard-sized mat looked too small and unbalanced on our porch.
The real transformation came from the two evergreen trees in the black planters. We’ve had a terrible time keeping plants alive on this sunny porch — for most of the past four and a half years, dead plants flanked the door. Every year we’d buy something that would fry in the direct sun, and the sad remains would sit until we tried something new. I tested annuals like creeping jenny and petunias (fried), evergreens like boxwoods and dwarf spruces (fried faster), phone reminders to water, and even the upside-down bottle watering trick. Nothing worked, and it felt like a curse — until now.
These evergreens can’t die because they’re faux. After years of trying to coax something to live in these planters, switching to artificial plants feels liberating. The faux 36″ evergreens I found arrived at just the right time. I worried they might look plastic, but they turned out very convincing.
They need some fluffing after unpacking because they arrive a bit flat, but once fanned out they look realistic. The color and scale are right, and the cost is less than what we’ve spent repeatedly replacing real plants that died. I popped the small pot each tree comes in directly into the dirt of our larger black planters, and surrounding real soil adds to the authenticity.
The final piece that pulled the porch together was a thorough cleaning. We had the pressure washer out for other work, so John sprayed down the front porch brick and steps. We hadn’t pressure washed that area since before we moved in four years ago, so it was overdue. The difference was dramatic, especially on the stone aggregate walkway — just outlining and doing a diagonal stripe was enough to show how much brighter it looked.
So the porch now benefits from our new low-maintenance evergreens, a fresh extra-wide mat, and a stone-and-brick cleaning courtesy of power washing. It already looks much more welcoming and cared-for.
I’m considering a few future updates to the portico, like thicker trim around the gable and squaring off the columns, but for now I’m thrilled it no longer looks like a spider convention is being hosted on our steps. We did add some seasonal Halloween decor because fake spooky things are preferable to thousands of real spiders.
Most of the Halloween items are seasonal, but if the kids have their way, our chihuahua-skeleton (affectionately named Skeleburger) will stay all year. We also added pumpkins and a few whimsical animal decorations — a ceramic white rabbit we keep out year-round, a black-feathered crow, and a floppy black feather wreath — all of which work for spooky season.
People always ask how Burger reacts to Skeleburger. His response is perfectly aloof and unimpressed. He doesn’t strut past; he stops, yawns, and sometimes stretches right in front of the skeleton as if to demonstrate dominance — a classic dog move.
That’s the porch update for now. The cobwebs may return and the mat may eventually fade, but I’m confident the faux evergreens will outlast us all.
Psst—If you’re interested in more outdoor projects and nature posts, check the archives for lots of past posts about the exterior.
*This post contains affiliate links*