Upgrade Your Boring Porch With A Low-Maintenance Design Hack

Does your boring porch need an upgrade? A well-designed porch can add a ton of curb appeal to your home, whether you're planning to sell or just want to make the outside feel more welcoming. While putting up a door wreath, adding some comfy seating, and hanging stylish porch decor can make your porch more approachable, potted plants bring an unbeatable pop of color and life. But what do those of us without green thumbs do about adding plants to the porch? What if you don't have time for the care and upkeep of potted plants? The answer is simple — you can achieve the look with less effort by using faux flowers. Your fake flowers (or even fake plants) will still need some upkeep, but not nearly as much as real plants.

You'll need fake flowers, some styrofoam or real soil (yes, you can use it with fake flowers), along with a variety of flower pots. Using faux flowers and plants means you can get creative with the pots since they won't need to have drainage holes. Before you start stuffing them into pots, however, let's look at how to make them look realistic and what you should be doing for their upkeep.

Before heading to the craft store, decide on a color scheme and combinations for your porch. You can determine this by season or the color of your home — it's up to you. While shopping, search for flowers that look realistic. You may spend a little more on these, but if you want the flowers on your porch to mimic real ones, it's worth the extra investment. Now, you can opt to put your flowers or plants right in a real dirt-filled pot, or you can get some styrofoam and fit it in each pot to hold them in place. You can also combine both (use styrofoam as the base and just top it with a layer of soil), which will give you a realistic look without using an entire pot of soil per plant. You can even pick baskets instead of a pot, which makes an excellent change for a fall look on your porch. Or, there's the option to create hanging baskets and incorporate lights to give your porch a glow after the sun goes down. You may even want to use some of these DIY decoration ideas for your garden, backyard, and patio.

To care for your fake flowers and plants, simply wipe them off whenever they look dirty or dusty. You can use a UV protective spray to prevent fading in the sun, especially if your porch gets a lot of sunlight. If high winds are coming in, it's snowy season, or a lot of rain is expected, you may want to store your faux foliage somewhere safe so that it stays in great condition. With proper care, you shouldn't have to replace faux flowers or plants very often.