By Julie Ranee, Houzz
Good friends Charlene Miller and Merry Munk enjoy sharing and showing off their salvage style on their central Ohio porches. These two can often be found scouring flea markets, auctions and garage sales in search of their next treasures. Their finds all eventually succumb to the extreme Midwestern weather, but the resulting patina is part of their appeal.
Whether you’re looking for ways to perk up your porch or repurpose a secondhand find, let these photos inspire you to dress up your home’s front this fall.
1. Charlene Miller’s Porch: Finds From Farms and Markets
This inviting seating area is on Miller’s porch. The chipping paint on the table and chair confirms their history. The table, sans legs, came from her aunt. The wagon holding gourds in the flower bed was saved from a metal scrapyard.
Corn stalks pulled from Miller’s family farm make her doorway welcoming in an autumn country way. Her extended family grows corn and soybeans on 500 acres in Madison County.
Related:Dress Up Your Front Stoop With Decorative Door Mats
She plans to swap out the corn stalks for narrow lit Christmas trees this winter and hang a pine needle wreath. In addition, the windows will get wreaths, and pine garlands will wrap the posts.
Homegrown gourds fill a toolbox Miller bought at an auction. She’ll fill it with greenery for Christmas and flowers in the summer.
To grow the gourds, Miller discarded last year’s gourds in her garden, let them compost over the winter, then tilled them into the ground at the start of the growing season.
Miller divided her porch into sections, creating several seating areas. The wagon with the star cutout, far right, was a gift from her friend Merry Munk.
Related:Create Separate Seating Areas With Another Set of Patio Chairs
Petunias and mums add a burst of color to this section. The iron Ferris wheel, discarded by a friend, now makes a good holder for miniature pumpkins and gourds. Miller made the “Fall Blessings” pillow using felt letters ironed on with fusible webbing.
Decorating lessons from Miller’s porch: Decorate your porch like it is a room inside your house. Don’t worry about the weather. Patina gives a warm welcome.
2. Merry Munk’s Porch: Country-Living Style
Thirty minutes away, in a nearby town, Miller’s friend Munk has her own patina style.
Munk uses her porch as a creative outlet for her love of decorating. To achieve full and vibrant hanging baskets, Munk purchased plants in moss baskets and fertilized them daily.
Related: Window Shutters in Rich Fall Colors
This area of Munk’s front porch boasts a beautiful antique cabinet and bent-willow furniture. Munk stores seasonal decorations inside the cabinet, keeping them within reach, since she changes the decorations on her porch each month.
The birdcage is from the Springfield Antique Show and Flea Market. The “Home Sweet Home” banner is from a barn sale at The French Hen Farm.
Munk swaps out the decorations on her porch each month to coincide with seasonal celebrations. November will have a Thanksgiving theme, December will be Christmas and January will feature snowmen.
Although Munk lives in a housing development on a small lot, she decided to grow her own pumpkins in her front flower bed. The broad leaves make a nice border in summer and early fall. She uses the pumpkins as part of her decor, as jack-o’-lanterns and for pumpkin pie.
Pumpkin growing tip: Start with good soil, fertilize regularly and water twice daily on hot days.
Munk thoroughly enjoys her porch, using it as a place for socializing with neighbors, relaxing with a lemonade on a hot day and waiting for the school bus.