Porch Inspiration & Edgy Love

Southern Style 

I love porches.  I have had some of the best conversations on porches, bonding with my friends and family.  I have had some of my best meals on porches, overlooking Napa Valley or my grandparents backyard in Peoria.  In college, my roomies and I spent lots of time on our porches sipping cocktails and talking about boys. They're some of my best memories.  Someday I would love a house full of porches.

Country Living

Robert Stern via The Enchanted Home 

Country Living 

Country Living

Cathy Kincaid in House Beautiful

via Playful Prep

via Playful Prep

My darling little sissy lives the cutest house in Austin with a big wrap-around porch. She and her roomies affectionately refer to it as Edgy (to do with its location not it's style).  My sissy usually has very good taste.  She's definitely more stylish than I am and she put a lot of energy decorating her adorable room at Edgy.  So you can imagine my surprise when I got the following e-mail:

the outside of edgy (the house i live in) is so plain!

i'm dying for some flowers, but they have to be fake because the immense texas heat and my disregard for plant upkeep won't allow for anything else.

No Ma'am.

No. Ma'am. You may not decorate your porch with fake flowers.  I will go ahead and chalk up her momentary lapse in good taste to the fact that she's in college and her head is a bit foggy from all of her ... uh ... studying.  So I've decided to help her liven up her porch.

Edgy

Aside from the obvious landscaping issue, the first thing I thought of when I saw this big gorgeous porch, is ferns.  Lots of ferns.  

Southern Living 

French Quarter 

Ferns are classic and southern, inexpensive and pretty easy to care for.  Here's a nice article on types of ferns and how to care for them.

For a more festive look, they could go with paper lanterns.

Big Hat Books in Indiana

Or they could add a cluster of pink poms over their porch swing.

Pretty in Pink Poms via Etsy

They can also add more color to their porch with a colorful doormat and pillows for their porch swing. 

Woodland Garden Rug from Urban Outfitters 

Greek Key Pillow 

Bubble Gum Pink Sunbrella 

Crate and Barrel 

Yellow Ikat

And maybe one little pot of real flowers next to the door. 

Crate and Barrel

Crate and Barrel

Here it is all together! 

Lots of color, college budget friendly and college party friendly, very little upkeep.

One last tip:  Like my sissy, I do not have a green thumb.  Luckily my husband does so we can actually have plants at our house.  My advice to her for dealing with the ferns is to name them.  Seriously.  It's hard to neglect something you've named, right? Might I suggest the members of O-Town? Jacob, Ashley Parker Angel, Erik-Michael Estrada, Trevor and Dan.