Pallet for Home: "Summer Social" Guest Project -- Simple Outdoor Decorating {bring your inside style...out}!!

"Summer Social" Guest Project -- Simple Outdoor Decorating {bring your inside style...out}!!

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Hi! Shelley here, from The House of Smiths!

I'm SUPER excited to be guest posting over here on the good ol' TT&;J blog! Jen and I are really close friends, and to say that she has kept me "sane" through this crazy roller coaster known as "the blog world" would be a complete understatement. We're a perfect compliment as friends. Jen's the calm, cool, collected girl...and I'm the wound up crazy (get you into just a liiiiittle bit of trouble) party chick.........believe me, it works. ha!

Anywho, today I'm going to be sharing just a few tips and tricks about outdoor decorating on a budget! If you know me, then you KNOW I love decorating, but when it comes to the outside I get a little hesitant. Not because I don't LOVE the way the outside of a beautifully manicured home looks, but because I live in a place (Utah) where we go through all 4 season and Winter seems to be the loooongest!

This makes it hard for me to justify weekend after weekend of time spent on flower beds and lots of money put into expensive decor. Believe ME, those things are still on my wishlist, but until then... here are a few sure-fire, budget friendly ways to "spruce up" the exterior of your home, by bringing inspiration from the indoors, out!

First things first:

Get Cleaning.

You honestly don't realize HOW dusty and dirty your lighting fixtures, shutters, and doors are, until you start cleaning them. Once you have everything wiped down you can even go back with a fresh coat of spray paint if needed, to really freshen things up for just a few dollars.

I'll be honest, we only do this about twice a year, but it definitely gives ANY house (new or old) a quick face lift.

Because nobody wants caked on dust and cracked, half-peeled-off-by-a-kid vinyl, greeting their guests.

Gussy up the yard.

A quick, simple, and inexpensive way to really liven up ANY yard is to add some contrasting color, and greenery. For us, this meant some cheap black bark, on sale flower boxes and decorative shrubs. We picked ours up at our local Walmart, and about $150 bucks later, we had a beautifully rich looking flower bed and some cute full planter boxes to boot!

NOTE: before putting down ANY kind of bark, rock, or other flower bed covering, make sure that you line your planter bed with some sort of weed barrier. You will thank me later

My last tip is probably my most favorite:

Make your porch inviting for

visitors, using decor!

We don't have a very large porch on our home, so I knew I couldn't go crazy, but I still wanted to bring the elements of a "comfy" welcoming atmosphere into my small space. So we purchased a discounted floor model IKEA bench, some pillows from Home Goods, a second hand Target wreath from Salvation Army, and a $14.00 rug from Walmart into our porch area, to make for a more "homey" feel for our guests!

All of the decor was about $75.00.

So the grand total on our "Outdoor Spruce-Up" was about... $225.00 smack-a-roos!

Not bad!

If you're looking to doll-up the outside of YOUR home but not break the bank while doing it, then start with these few tips and you'll definitely be on your way to a more beautifully inviting home exterior, too!

Happy Summer!