Spruce Up Your Porch for a Great Summer Gathering Place

You can stripe it up with lanterns, add color with citronella, get comfy with pillows, and bring the inside out.

Start out by cleaning up the clutter.

Begin with striped Japanese lanterns from the 99 Cent Only Store, Dunlap suggests.

To keep the mosquitoes at bay add bright citronella torches, Dunlap writes.

She needed some bright pillows and says she found some that couldn’t have been easier to put together.

Dunlap finished her “new” porch by bringing some unused elements from her house outdoors, she says.

“A home’s front porch is like open arms ready to embrace family and friends,” says Sherry Karasik. “The American invention was a symbol of the sanctity of family, openness to community, and connecting with nature.”

Porches add beauty, value, and security to the home.

Traditionally the front porch has been for gatherings of friends and rear porches for family privacy.

A front porch adds architectural interest, charm, and curb appeal to the home.

Warm up your porch with a porch swing, decorative doorbell cover, and plant stands.

Buy door knockers at outdoordecor.com.

Now that your front porch is so great by day you may want to sit out there in the evening, too.

Decorating this area is a family affair at The Ritters, something everyone can do.

In the shank of summer there are few places more inviting than a shady front porch, particularly one located near a body of water.

“The function of a front porch is to provide a welcoming entryway to a home; the entryway will ideally present the overall mood of the interior of the home as well,” said Sarah Van Arsdale, a decorator.

“With a shift away from pedestrian communities to an automobile lifestyle, we’ve nearly forgotten how important it is to treat the front porch as the foyer to our homes,” says Debra Prinzing, a home-style writer. “Yet in many communities in the Northwest many home owners are beginning to return to their front porches.”