DIY FRONT PORCH MAKEOVER | DECORATING IDEAS | LANDSCAPING | HOUSE PROJECTS (2023)

Introduction

We're finally working on a DIY Makeover for our Front Porch! Our previous landscaping efforts didn't last, so we're doing some DIY Front Yard Landscaping using upgraded products, and sharing my best Decorating Ideas for a Small Front Porch. There's so many satisfying house projects and home improvements in this DIY video, the before and afters are incredible!
Don't forget to subscribe for DIY & Home Decorating videos! @Loving Life as Megan
Megan | Loving Life as Megan

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Power Washer rstyle.me/cz-n/hubdwzc2wkp
Rubber Mulch Nuggets rstyle.me/+sC7PlH9STS4l0lUArRF9TQ
3 pc Outdoor Seating rstyle.me/+k8Q0qBjCrSy1Ms4ANQMqRw
Shepards Hook rstyle.me/+ZZzziC6WG6R8Tci64QhFgw
Ceramic Planters *HomeGoods*
White Rabbit rstyle.me/+z6VThc-25E8ffWHlUYmrhQ
Layering Rug *HomeGoods*
Doormat rstyle.me/+gZj5PckAuoueOE_iCAHpYQ
Lanterns *HomeGoods*
Deck Box rstyle.me/+8-TCSLADvSu52aDWTklLng

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#lovinglifeasmegan #diy #frontporch #decorating

Video

Hey, guys, welcome back for a DIY.

Front porch makeover.

It has actually been a couple of years.

Since we've touched this space last year, we didn't do anything because we were traveling so much.

So there is tons to do.

We wanted to work on some DIY Landscaping in our front flower beds.

And then also set up our front porch, furniture and share some decorating ideas that will make this space, really pretty, but also keep it functional for us and suit the needs of our family.

Of course, I'm going to be potting, some herbs and hanging up some flowers and we're going to try to do everything on a budget, because we didn't want to break the bank for this project.

So I'm going to share that entire process starting with some before shots.

We had spent a few days digging out our flower beds, because we knew we were going to revamp our landscaping and try something new this year.

But before we get started on that I noticed tons of staining on our front steps, so I'm going to grab the power washer and take care of all of this.

Thank you.

Thank you foreign is there anything more satisfying than power washing I, love power washing, even though I'm clearly, not a professional I don't have a professional skill set here.

My ankles are all wrong.

And sometimes I feel like I end up making a bigger mess and I'm cleaning up, but I still have so much fun doing it and I think it's because there's something so unique about this task with this level of instant gratification that you like can see this dirt being blasted away.

And you can visualize the end product in real time.

And so that motivates you to work through the entire project, but also makes you want to just power wash everything within sight, I, don't know, maybe I'm just a weirdo and that's just me and I think the type of power washer that you have makes a huge difference as well.

A few years back.

We tried that 99 one off of Amazon.

And it was horrible.

It broke after two uses, and it was such a waste of a hundred dollars.

But for just a couple hundred dollars more, we got this one a couple of years ago, go and we have loved it.

It was a very worthwhile investment for us.

We use it all of the time, and it does such a good job.

So if you're looking for a really good power, washer I'll, leave the link to ours down in the description box.

But while all of the water was soaking into our flower beds, I wanted to go ahead and spray some weed killer as well.

So my logic behind it and I'm.

Not sure if this is entirely right, I'm, sure it's not.

But this is just what I decided to do.

So my logic was if this water is seeping into the ground, I should put some weed killer in here.

So it can seep down with it and really get down there, because our flower beds have so much Rock in the soil that it makes it really difficult to like till them or dig them up.

And so I feel like no kind of topical treatment ever penetrates the ground as much as we would want it to.

So that was just my logic and reasoning behind it I, don't know, if that's the right way, I'm sure, one of you will tell me if I did it wrong, or if I did it right? But that's, just what I decided to do.

And we did like the weed killer that we got.

We made sure to get one with this little hose that had a plastic tent around the end to make sure we were protecting our existing plants while still spraying to not have all these weeds popping up all summer long.

So far.

So good, we finished this project this week, and we haven't seen a single weed pop up so I'm, not sure if it's this or the weed barrier that I'm about to put down, but either way we were just doing our due diligence and trying to get this Landscaping done the best way that we could come up with.

Thank you.

Thank you along with the weed killer, I also wanted to lay down this weed barrier.

When we were digging up the flower beds, we had torn out a lot of the old, whatever they had used.

And so we wanted to replace it.

We were really trying to make sure that we were doing this the right way instead of it being an obvious DIY or rushed DIY.

We wanted to take our times and make sure that this was going to be a lasting investment, I feel like Landscaping can often feel like a money pit, but the materials that we decided to use this year made it feel like it was worthwhile for us.

A big part of that was these mulch nuggets that we decided to switch to.

So a few years ago we had dug out a bunch of Red Rock in our front flower beds.

We just we didn't like the aesthetic of it, but we also didn't like how sharp it was our kids run through these flower beds all the time, and as they get older and play outside more and ride bikes and things like that, they were just always tripping over them hurting themselves cutting themselves.

And we decided to switch it out with black mulch at first I loved the look of the mulch, but I felt like it didn't, hold its color.

It had to be re-mulched every single year, which with this amount of landscaping area is hundreds of dollars every single year for it to just last one season, and also it attracted a lot of bugs because it's wood and there's, a risk of it attracting termites.

So this year we just decided to go for it switch to something else.

And we settled on these black mulch nuggets and I love them.

Derek is starting to fill in this front flower bed, but I have this one all covered so far and I just can't wait.

So this is not very labor intensive work.

I could easily do this myself it's.

Actually, these nuggets are a lot less heavy than like bags of mulch and things so he's going to Breeze through this.

But while he's doing that I'm going to start setting up this area that we like use as our front porch area because I just can't, wait so I'm going to set up the seating area do a little bit of planting set up our front step and our front door and start bringing it all together.

So that by the time that he's done with all of this Landscaping I'll have this done too, and we can just enjoy the entire space last year in the middle to the end of summer I found this little outdoor seating set on clearance at Aldi.

It was under 2 hundred dollars, I think it was under a hundred and fifty dollars and I love it.

We got it at that time of year after the summer had passed, and we actually used it for a fall.

Front porch.

Decorating video, I did share that on my channel every fall every Halloween and every Christmas.

We love to set up really big, seasonal displays in this area and I always share that some of my favorite content to film and it's one of Derek and I's favorite things to do together.

But we were so impressed with this seating set it's, very comfortable very, pretty I would repurchase it at full price if I needed to so definitely check your local Aldi.

If you're looking for some outdoor front porch seating.

This set is great and I would buy it.

Even at full price.

I, don't think Aldi has an online store though so you're gonna have to check in store to see if it was brought back I also did pick up some planters this year at Home Goods.

We had some plastic ones for from years before that were just getting really banged up and beat up and I wanted to get some really pretty high quality ceramic and terracotta Planters, but I didn't want to spend the lows in Home Depot's prices because I feel like they can be really unreasonable so I, checked our local Home Goods.

They had a ton of phenomenal deals.

The largest planter I bought was only 35 dollars.

And both of these were under 20 bucks.

So if you're looking for some really high quality Planters, but not wanting to pay an arm and a leg check out your local Home Goods, if I can find the links to these ones on the Home Goods website, I'll leave them down in the description box.

They just they really do it right as far as outdoor decor furniture and just anything you need for outdoors.

I would always check Home Goods first because you're guaranteed to save so much money shopping at those types of stores, rather than the big box retailers at least in my local area.

And in my opinion, okay.

So these are all of the plants that I decided to put next to the seating area in this front flower.

Bed, I, love them, I chose all of the herbs.

My kids chose the flowers and the little bunny and I think it looks so cute.

But now we're gonna move on to our front step area and I really wanted to revamp this space.

Our old, layering rug started growing mold after a couple of years, no shocker there.

It was time to replace it.

So I found this one at home goods for 16 it's, very neutral, very pretty and oversized.

This was the largest layering outdoor rug.

I could find for the cheapest price.

Everything else I was seeing at like Kirkland's and Target was like 25 and way smaller than this.

So I felt like this was a really really good find.

They did have a couple of different colors and patterns.

So check your local Home Goods, if you're looking for something like this I also found this new front door mat at Target.

And this was a little bit of a Splurge.

It was thirty dollars, but it's a different kind of material than usual.

Front door mat.

So it's made to last a lot longer it's like made out of the same material as outdoor furniture and I thought that made it worth.

It I'll use it for every single season, except probably Christmas is the only time I'll put it away.

So if I can get a couple years use out of it every single month instead of having to change it monthly that makes it worth.

It I also found these lanterns at Home Goods this year.

They are outdoor lanterns.

And their material is also the same as like outdoor kind of faux, wicker, Rattan it's, like that plasticky kind of wicker.

So I thought that they would hold up really well.

I love, the look it's, just a little change of pace from our Black Lantern that we've had out here for quite a few years.

And they were really affordable.

I felt like the price was fair for the quality.

Product I was getting so I just love the way they look.

But anyway, the next thing that I'm going to do is clean this space, I know that I had power washed it earlier, but it is pollen season, and pollen was already collecting so I'm going to use my jaws hardwood cleaner and wipe down the door, all of the wood trim.

And also the glass storm door, I probably should have switched between the hardwood cleaner and the glass cleaner, but I was feeling lazy.

And this worked just as well.

It got all of the mess up and didn't leave any streaks and I guess that's all I can really ask for.

Thank you I found this front door, wreath at Target on clearance, two or three years ago at the end of the summer season, it was only six dollars and I love it.

It has held its shape beautifully throughout the last couple of years I use it at various times of the year and it's one of my favorite clearance finds.

Okay.

This is looking so good so far, but I just wanted to give you guys a quick update on these mulch nuggets in case, anybody is planning on replicating this or using this and wants to know like about how much you would need because we did just run out.

So we got this entire front flower bed area done, and we stopped it right here.

You can clearly see that.

And then of this flower bed, which has like it's, a lot bigger and has a more unique shape.

I.

Guess we got all the way over to here.

And this was 30 bags of the Nugget Mulch.

And it is like it's nice in there, I'm actually really happy with going this direction instead of the wood mulch.

So we got way more coverage area out of it than we thought that we were going to.

And this is just 30 bags, I feel like 30 bags of the wood mulch, didn't even last us this long.

So we still have the rest of this and I would say that that's a little less than this space like it's, definitely not double what we've already done.

So I would say it would take 20 to 25 more bags to extend it this way, which we are going to obviously so it all is cohesive.

But also we want to put our bird bath right there.

And we can't do that until we have all of this done.

So I'd say, we need about 20 to 25 more bags for that direction.

And then over here, on this side area, I would say, four to five bags would cover it.

So we probably need double the amount we got we knew we were going to need more, but 30 was all that would fit in our car.

So Derek's gonna get that when he's at Lowe's too.

But this is looking so good I'm, really happy with it.

I can already tell we're gonna like it so much better than the wood mulch.

It like repels bugs, or like just doesn't, invite bugs in and termites and things like that.

It also keeps its color, a lot better and it's.

A lot more comfortable to step on it's, just like rubber tire material.

So or maybe it is that's exactly what it is a shredded up tires, but it looks really pretty it it.

In my opinion looks better than the mulch.

It'll, keep its color.

A lot longer you won't get splinters.

I would just highly recommend.

We really like it.

But just in case, you're planning on doing this as well I wanted to let, you know that 30 bags covers this amount of area.

So anyway, we are almost done as soon as Derek comes back with the mulch, we'll finish that and we'll put the little plant in here.

But the last thing that I wanted to do was put together this deck box.

I just ordered it.

Online I'll, leave a link down in the description box in case, you're interested, but I had seen on Pinterest or Tick, Tock Maybe.

This idea to use a duck box next to your front step for deliveries like, especially in the springtime when it spontaneously rains and things like that.

So if you have like an Amazon delivery or something they can just put it in the deck box, protect it from the weather, not have it on your front step.

So since we don't have a covered porch area, I thought that was genius so I'm going to go ahead and put this together get it set up nestled right in this little corner so it's out of the way, but still obvious for our delivery drivers.

And hopefully this will work out exactly as I hope.

It will so I'm.

Not gonna lie.

When this showed up at my doorstep I was just like there's.

No way that everything is in here.

They must have forgotten part of it it's going to be coming in multiple packages, something like that.

So I waited a few days and nothing else showed up and I don't know what I was expecting when I was unboxing it.

But I was not expecting this to be so easy I've, never purchased a deck box before so I, really, didn't know what I was getting into.

But for some reason I had built it up in my head that is going to require a lot of tools.

It was going to be heavy.

It was going to be hard to put together, and that could not have been further from the truth.

It was so easy to snap everything into place.

There were no tools required at all for the assembly and I got this entire thing put together in less than five minutes, but it still looks like.

It has really good quality.

None of the seams are open like everything is weatherproof.

Groove I was highly impressed with this.

All right.

This is exactly what I wanted that fits in that little corner perfectly without being too much of an eyesore like it doesn't necessarily look out of place and maybe I saw this on the product listing and not on Pinterest or Tick Tock because look, please Place packages in box.

And it has like Amazon, FedEx UPS, the post office it's, a sticker.

So I can just like put this right here or right here, I think I probably probably put it here.

So it's really easy to no I'll.

Probably put it there because even before you can read it, you would see the logo.

So I think I'm going to put it on the front.

And that way it's just super easy.

I don't have to worry about like making a little sign or anything.

This is perfect I love that it came with this.

And then also if you are wanting to like store things like when it rains, we'll, probably put these lanterns, even though they're, outdoor, lanterns, we'll, probably just quickly, put them in here, just to keep them lasting for as long as possible.

But there's, this little combination lock that also came with it I didn't realize it would be coming with it.

And that just fits right in here to keep it secure and keep all of your belongings locked up.

So if you're using this on a patio or a deck, or as any other kind of storage, it's, just really easy to secure your things.

So I, really like that I got this one.

This is a 30 gallon.

And it is way bigger than I thought.

It was going to be also ridiculously easy to assemble no tools required it just kind of like Snapped into place.

Let me show you guys.

You see those little snaps down there, um, I would hear them snap and then try and take it apart.

And it is secure in there.

But this is the 30 gallon.

I also got a 100 gallon to use on our actual patio for like our kids, outdoor toys and things like that we'll be setting that up this week, but I love.

It I think it's great.

This is the gray color in my opinion, it looks a little more grayish, it's, definitely neutral and can fit in with a ton of different Aesthetics.

But yeah, I'm loving this.

So I'm gonna put this sticker on the front right here? Get this cleaned up and I can't, wait to show Derek when he gets back from the store I, really, really like it like I said, I'll, leave this Linked In, the description box in case, you're looking for something like this.

That was the last part of this front porch makeover.

So before I share the final reveal I wanted to remind you of our starting point share these before shots, one more time and where we are right now, I am loving how everything turned out I had so much fun pulling this space together, it's, definitely the most simple setup I've ever had here.

The most simple and affordable decorating ideas, I've shared, but I love that I love this space, I love, how manageable it is it's, beautiful, it's, functional, it's.

Everything I wanted it to be and I hope that you enjoyed coming along on the process with me.

If you did give this video, a thumbs up subscribe, if you aren't already, thanks so much for choosing to spend your time here today and I'll see you in the next one.