Decorating Ideas For Small Porches, Christmas

This year I find my self decorating a small porch this Christmas! Our new home has a rather small covered stoop at the front door. And I love the challenge of making this cozy area dressed up for Christmas! Here's how to decorate a small porch during this festive season.

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Today is a CHRISTMAS PORCH TOUR! A few of my blogging friends and I are gathering on our front porches to share how we decked them out for Christmas!

A big thank you to Kelly at The Tattered Pew for organizing us!

Head up the walk and welcome to my small front porch dressed up for Christmas!

THE SMALL PORCH

I've learned a lot about decorating a small porch in a short amount of time! So, I'd love to help all my cozy porch friends with a few tips to help you decorate a small porch for Christmas!

I think a small front porch can be a huge focal point of your home! Since you don't have a larger space to spread out you can concentrate on the space around the front door and make is something special.

This is my first time decorating a smaller porch and front door area so I actually had to put a lot of thought into making this space Christmas ready without overcrowding it!

It was a real lesson for me and I hope there are lots of takeaways in this post for you to dress up your front, side or even back porch!

MAKE SURE YOU CAN GET TO THE FRONT DOOR AND MORE!

I know this sounds obvious! But when I was trying to fit the Christmas sleigh of outdoor decorations I've collected over the years on my small porch they just would not all work!

I learned that for this smaller space I had to make sure, number one, that I had a clear path to my front door!

Not all, or even a lot or even some of my outdoor Christmas decor would work any longer! It was all wrong for this porch!

So the second most important thing I learned about decorating a small porch is to consider the number of items you use on a porch!

Instead of two large black planters flanking my door, one worked best! And instead of a planter filled to overflowing with greens and such, I oped for a more vertical profile of a tree that looks like it was just cut from the woods. Vertical space is amazing to use on a not-so-big porch!

THINK COLOR SCHEME

No matter what size your outdoor decorating spaces are one thing you should always consider when decorating for any season or holiday is color scheme.

A color scheme is the best way to make sure your porch has a cohesive look! The tighter the color scheme the better!

Here at StoneGable Tanglewood, I used a black/white/red palette for the front porch. I think these colors stand and can be noticed from the street!

I tried to distribute the red color around the decor on my porch in the bow on the lantern, the bow on the front door wreath and the red boots sitting next to the rocking chair.

Distributing one color around the porch will help our eyes move from one thing to the next and we will perceive this as attractive! Interesting, right?

MAKE YOUR FRONT DOOR THE FOCAL POINT

No matter what is on the rest of your porch, your front door should be the focal point!

ADDING A WREATH

I added a big faux wreath that lights up to the front door. And then put a big, showy, fluffy bow on it! I love love love a good Christmas bow!

A front door needs a bit of help making it the star of your Christmas decorations!

Here are some other things that might look pretty on a front door at Christmas…

child's sleigh
Christmas florals in a basket
ice skates
a Christmas inspired sign
huge jingle bells
a basket filled with greens
trio of large bells

For this bow, I used three different wired ribbons. Red, black and white buffalo check and a red, black and white plaid ribbon with a bit of silver edging. The bow dictates the color scheme!

I also added our monogram to this wreath. You've probably seen this monogram a lot on the wreaths that don our doors! You can never go wrong with a pretty monogram. It's hung with clear elastic jewelry thread.

You can see the MONOGRAM HERE.

The decor on the front door should be the star of a small porch and everything else on it the supporting actors!

ADD THE BASICS FIRST

Here's what I've learned about decorating a small porch…

BIGGER IS BETTER AND LESS IT MORE

Like most decorating, a smaller porch should be decorated with mantra mind!

Yes, I had a pretty sleight to put on the porch and a fun "Merry Christmas" sign and a bevy of beautifully wrapped presents but they did not all fit! AT ALL!

So I took everything except the planter off the porch and put one thing on the porch at a time.

First the wreath, then the rocker. Really I probably should have left the rocker off the porch, but in my world, a rocker is a must on a porch even a small one! LOL!

So the planter, wreath, and rocker made a base for the rest of the decorations. And three things making a triangle is a fabulous way to start any decorating. It's all about what looks good to our eyes!

LAYER DECORATIONS

The next thing I did was to add a Christmas layer or two to a small porch! I added a white lantern embellished with a bow and pretty silver, red and white Christmas balls!

And then thew a tartan blanket over the rocker with my colors in it and finally added a great pair of red wellies!

Who can resist red wellies? I would normally tuck in a few sprigs of greens to the top of the boots but again I thought that would be overdoing it a taddy bit!

LAYER A FUN CHRISTMAS DOORMAT

I think adding a rug by the front door with a festive Christmas doormat is perfection!

I had the black and white stripe rug and used it in the fall so I just traded out the doormat!

Isn't this reindeer door mat fun?

SEE THE REINDOOR DOORMAT HERE.

DON'T CLUTTER

Rember my mantra for decorating a small front porch?

BIGGER IS BETTER AND LESS IS MORE

Here's a word to the wise, when you have a small space guard against adding a lot of little decorations and do-dads to your porch. It will just look cluttered!

A small porch should look clean and the pretty things you put on it should stand out!