Whether you’re into Halloween, or just like a little fall decor, there are some fun, kid-friendly ways to jazz up your curb appeal.
Even though trick-or-treating might not be on the ‘to do’ list this year for your family, there’s nothing wrong with decorating your home’s exterior and garden with a little ambiance.
Autumnal Wreaths
There’s no reason you have to limit your wreath creativity for your door and / or windows to the Christmas holiday season. You can use vine branch bases and hot glue on a variety of fall’s natural decorations, to create the perfect wreath. Leaves of all different colours interwoven with acorns, pine cones and a little greenery would look beautiful. It’s a creation that everyone can help with, by finding the perfect leaves and extras.
If you prefer something spooky for Halloween, look no further than your local dollar store for little ghosts, pumpkins, bats and witches to add to a neutral wreath. Imagine a wreath made up entirely of glowing, googly eyeballs? You can even add battery operated LED lights, for a little extra glow.
Floral Delights
There are some flowers that scream autumn, and will add that splash of colour that you might already be craving, as the nights get longer. Chrysanthemums, for example, are ideal this time of year, in pots or in your garden beds, as they add vibrant, natural colour to your design. Other options:
- Marigolds
- Peonies
- Hostas
- Daylilies
- Daisies
- Grasses
- Ornamental pepper plants
Basically anything in shades or red, orange or yellow will go a long way to setting the autumn scene! If you’re planters are sitting empty right now, you can always take some branches and put them in, either all natural or painted with black, white, silver or gold. Add some pretend cobwebs or a fake crow, if you want to add a little spooky to your look!
Decorate Your Front Garden Trees Or Bushes
The trees that are losing their leaves and the bushes that are settling down for winter make the perfect canvas against which to add some seasonal decorations:
- Foam cutouts of bats, witches, cats hanging from your tree will blow around with the wind and look fun in the proces.
- Make ghosts with old pieces of white sheets or cheese cloth, cut into squares, filled with leaves you raked up, tied and a face drawn or pasted on. In a few steps, you’ve got wispy, floating ghosts to hang in your tree.
- Add some spooky to your bushes by taking the cardboard tubes from your paper towels, cutting two holes and putting a glow stick inside the tube: placed in your bushes, it will look like your garden is coming alive!
- Mummify your door by wrapping it with white crepe paper streamers. Add two huge felt eyes and you’re done!
Pumpkin Fun
Instead of the typical jack-o-lantern, particularly if you aren’t planning on handing out goodies this year, you can still take a visit to the pumpkin patch and have some fun with the orange gourds.
How about recreating your family with pumpkins? With three pumpkins per ‘person’, going from larger to smaller, they’ll look like little orange snowmen! Add leaves, acorns and other natural extras to make eyes and hair, and set them out to greet visitors before they’ve even arrived at your front door.
You can also line your front walkway with pumpkins and gourds of all shapes and sizes: mixed in with some potted mums or a bale of hay or two and you’ve got an enchanting path to your front door. Include some jars with LED tea lights in them, and turn the earlier sunsets to your advantage.
Another option is to paint pumpkins, creating whatever look you want and grouping your gourds on the porch for anything from a fun, Halloween look to a surprisingly elegant design that picks up colours from the front of your home, or your fall garden. Here are a few ideas of ways to paint your pumpkin, to get you started:
- A leaf or ivy design, in greens, browns and reds.
- A fun plaid or simple stripes.
- Paint them a specific colour, to enhance what the front of your home already looks like. If you have a black door, you could add a black diamond pattern. Or paint them all black, add some eyes and whiskers and you’ve got yourself some spooky black ‘cats’!
- Gold and silver paint can be extra fun, adding a little shimmer and shine to your design.
If you’re not big on paint, another option is to glue leaves and other garden treasures found in the fall, on to your pumpkins!
A Taste Of The Field
From dried wheat and corn stalks to bales of hay all piled up, adding some elements from a field can lend a down home country look to your front porch and garden. If you want to take it a step further, add a straw filled scarecrow or two, dressed in old clothes and last season’s gardening hat: visitors will walk up to your door and find someone already sitting on the porch!
Hay bales also make great side tables to hold pumpkins, or even to put a blanket on to sit out and enjoy a little of the fall weather. Add some burlap garlands or bows on everything and you’ll have a fully countrified front area, right in the middle of Mississauga (or wherever you are!)
Whether you tie some stalks to porch pillars, or turn them into a garland to surround your front window, there are a lot of ways to add some seasonal decorations that create a cozy, comfortable and inviting look to the front of your home.
