There’s a certain kind of satisfaction in getting the outside of your house looking good for spring without spending a fortune. Every year, as soon as March arrives, I get the itch to swap everything over — out with the dark, heavy autumn and winter bits and in with something that actually looks like the season has changed. And every year, I do most of it with the exact same things I used the year before.
If you’re someone who feels like you need to buy new seasonal décor every few months, I’d like to gently suggest that you don’t. Here’s what I did this year.
The Wreath
The autumn wreath came off the front door, and the spring Easter bunny wreath went straight back up — the same one I used last year. It still looks great. The autumn one is back in storage for later in the year!
Wreaths get a bad reputation for being single-season purchases, but there’s absolutely no reason they need to be. Store them properly over winter, and they come out looking exactly as they did the year before.
The Doormat
Same story with the doormat. The autumn mat went back into storage, and the spring one came out. I bought this mat last year, and it’s held up really well through a full season of use. If you find a mat you like, look after it, and it’ll do another year easily. Nobody needs a new doormat every spring.
The Pots
This is where it got a bit more hands-on. The pots on the porch steps had been sitting through autumn and winter, and some of the plants hadn’t made it. I cleared out the dead ones, gave the pots a bit of a clean, and then had a proper look at what was left.
The geraniums had self-seeded, which I was thrilled about — I left those exactly where they were. Self-seeding plants are one of the small joys of gardening. You do nothing, they just come back. I’ve also been scattering wildflower seeds into the pots alongside them for extra colour through the season, which ties in with the wildflower planting I’ve been doing in the garden borders too.
For the pots that needed filling, I picked up some new bedding plants from Asda — nothing expensive, just a few cheerful spring flowers to fill the gaps and add some instant colour. The whole lot came to very little, and the pots look brilliant for it.
The Result
The porch now looks completely different to how it did a week ago, and I’ve spent next to nothing to get there. New flowers from Asda, wildflower seeds already in the garden, everything else reused from last year. That’s it. I just need the roses to bloom now, which should happen in May/June!
I did this for the first time properly last spring when we moved in — the porch was one of the first things I tackled because it’s the bit you see every time you come home, and getting it looking nice made a real difference to how the whole house felt. This year, it took about an hour from start to finish because everything was already there waiting.
We do want to retile this porch, as well as sand and re-paint the door, so that might be a project we tackle in summer!
A Few Tips If You’re Doing the Same
Don’t throw away seasonal décor at the end of the season — store it. A wreath box costs a couple of pounds and keeps everything in good shape. Though I got my autumn wreath online and just reused the box it came in! The same goes for doormats, lanterns, and anything else you use seasonally.
Check your pots before you buy anything new. Dead plants are obvious, but it’s easy to miss things that have self-seeded or are just waiting for the warmer weather to get going. Geraniums in particular are surprisingly tough and will often come back if you leave them.
Keep it simple. A spring doormat, a wreath, and a couple of pots of flowers is all you actually need to make a front door look seasonal and welcoming. You don’t need to overdo it.
If you’re in the mood for more spring garden jobs, my spring gardening checklist covers everything worth doing at this time of year, and I’ve been writing about the wildflower seeds I’ve just planted in the borders too if you fancy adding some to your own garden this year.
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I can’t wait to refresh my porch in a few weeks as soon as the weather gets a bit better. Amazing ideas, thank you so much.
These are fun ideas! It’s kind of the spring equivalent of bringing out the Christmas ornaments every holiday season.
We don’t do any kind of wreaths or specific decorations, but we do love to do annuals in the beds around the porch.
you have a great porch area. You’ve inspired me to spruce up my own this weekend.
We also have a wreath for every season! I think it’s so fun to change a doormat as well – we do not have much of a front porch or the like.