My Colorful Fall Porch—Authentically Vermont, With Hardly a Pumpkin in Sight

Back in Vermont, fall always seems to find its way onto our covered front porch first. It’s my favorite season to decorate, and because we treat this porch as another room of our home, complete with comfortable wicker seating, heat for chilly evenings, and those mountain views we never tire of—I love finding fresh ways to layer it for the season. This year, my colorful fall porch is taking shape with vintage and thrifted finds, soft sheepskins, quilts, unusual planters, foraged flowers, antique oil lamps, and a few wonderfully simple ideas that feel right at home in Vermont. Hardly a pumpkin in sight just yet, but plenty of color, warmth, and easy inspiration for creating a fall porch that feels like a favorite place to spend a Sunday at home.

I Let Fall Move Into My Colorful Fall Porch

I don’t really start over when decorating my colorful fall porch each year. The wicker furniture, antique tables, old trunks, and favorite vintage pieces are already here, so I simply let fall begin to move in around them.

When we return to Vermont after summer in Maine, I’m always ready for those first familiar rituals: changing the wicker from its summer whites into the blue-and-white slipcovers I had custom-made, visiting the nursery for something colorful, and bringing home a few Vermont favorites for the pantry and an afternoon cheese board on the porch.

The mountain views have always inspired how I decorate our home, both indoors and out, and fall makes that connection even stronger. I borrow from what’s happening beyond the porch—color, texture, flowers, grasses, wood, and wool—and layer those things into a space we already live in and love. Nothing arrives all at once, and that may be my favorite part. I don’t redecorate the porch for fall as much as I let fall move into it.

Starting My Fall Porch With Color, Not Pumpkins

My fall porch usually begins with a trip to the nursery, but this year I started with two old plastic urns I’ve used for years. Originally spray-painted Essex Green, they were ready for a change, so I gave them a fresh coat of Colonial Red to match our house and the vintage red wagon wheel along our split-rail fence. I love that unexpected pop of red—and I’m already imagining it against the Vermont snow this winter.

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Then came the flowers: two big, loose yellow beauties that fall somewhere between a daisy and a sunflower. Against the red urns, they instantly set the color story for the porch. And no mums this year! After years of burgundy, purple, and orange fall flowers, this bright yellow feels completely fresh, and frankly, I’m thrilled to give my notoriously finicky mums the year off.

Corn Brooms Bring Fall Up the Porch Posts

For years, I’ve wired dried corn stalks to the large wooden posts surrounding our covered porch. I love the way they soften all that dark wood and bring fall right up into the architecture of the porch. This year, I switched things up with dried broom corn stalks, simply wiring them to each post and letting their loose seed heads and grasses do their thing. To me, it’s almost like hanging curtains on a window; they frame the mountain views, add movement and texture, and make the whole porch feel just a little warmer.

A Little Witchy—Without Decorating for Halloween

Then I pulled out a few old decorative witches’ brooms I’ve collected over the years. I wasn’t quite ready for Halloween decorating, but I loved the idea of working them into the porch while keeping the look subtle. I tucked them low against just the two entry posts, securing them in the existing wire and finishing each with a simple black velvet bow. Against the dark wood and dried broom corn above, they feel more old-fashioned and autumnal than spooky; a little nod to what’s coming later in the season without rushing fall along.

Layering Sheepskins Without Hiding the Blue and White

One of my favorite fall layers is something you might not immediately think of for a porch: Luxe sheepskins from Rare Sheepskins, which were generously gifted to me and have become some of my favorite pieces to decorate with. They’re wonderfully soft and a little magical wherever they land. The trick for me is all in the draping. Instead of covering my blue-and-white slipcovers, I let a sheepskin tumble over the corner of a chair, lounger, or ottoman so plenty of that beautiful blue still shows. It adds warmth, texture, and just enough curiosity to make you wonder what’s tucked around the next corner.

And, of course, Ella has her own—because apparently even a Bernese Mountain Dog appreciates a good luxe sheepskin. 😂

One Blue Bucket That Changes With the Season

This old blue ice cream bucket is where one of my favorite fall experiments is beginning, and I’d love for you to make one along with me. Choose a favorite vintage vessel, start with just a few stems, and then add to it as you move through the season. Gather grasses on a walk, clip something interesting from the yard, bring home a few stems from the market or nursery, and simply see what it becomes. I’ll be sharing my own foraging outings, Vermont foliage views, and each new addition as my arrangement grows and changes. By the end of fall, we’ll each have a wonderfully unruly dried arrangement—and a beautiful little record of the season we gathered along the way. Explore it all in my What Happens When You Keep Adding to One Foraged Fall Arrangement All Season? post.

Antique Oil Lamps Are Back on Display

My antique oil lamps have made their way back onto the porch for fall, scattered across tables and tucked into little vignettes wherever they seem to belong. Some I’ve turned into unexpected flower vases, filling the glass bases with fresh flowers, while others still do exactly what they were made to do: glow on the porch as the evenings grow cooler. I love mixing the two together; flowers by day, flickering lamplight at night. You can see more of my favorite ways to decorate with antique oil lamps, including how I turn them into flower vases, in my post, Antique Oil Lamps Are Back on Display: Nostalgic Ways to Style an Old Favorite.

A Pair of Denim Overalls Becomes Colorful Fall Porch Decor

I was inspired by the idea of using a pair of denim overalls as fall porch decor, and now that I’ve hung my first pair, I’m hooked. Fill the pockets and bib with colorful foraged leaves, flowers, little pumpkins, or gourds, then add a scarf, hat, or whatever you happen to find along the way. Mine even got a little orange scarf I found at Sage Farm Antiques tied around the waist. Now I’m thinking those thrift-store overalls I usually walk right past may become a new fall collection—one hanging from each of the porch beams, styled a little differently and changed as the season goes along.

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She’s Got Her Eye on the Porch—and We’ve Got Ours on Her

She may not technically be on the porch, but Moxie Mae has quickly become part of our colorful fall porch view. Standing out in the garden in her thrifted blues, picking her blooms with the mountains behind her, she’s got her eye on us—and we’ve definitely got ours on her. She’s my newest addition to the fall scenery around here, and I love how her denim blues carry the color of the porch right out into the landscape. Meet Moxie Mae and see how I made and styled my mountain fall scarecrow here.

The Pieces That Never Really Leave the Porch

Underneath all the changing flowers, sheepskins, brooms, and whatever else I happen to bring home, there’s a collection of vintage and comfortable pieces that gives this long, narrow covered porch its personality year-round. They’re the reason I can simply let fall move in around what’s already here rather than starting over every season.

• My vintage cobbler rack stays loaded with terracotta pots and old baskets for now—the warm clay colors are too good with fall to put away just yet. Before winter, the terracotta will head indoors, and I’ll find something new for those shelves.
• The vintage wallpaper table gives us a real dining area, surrounded by four chairs gifted to me by my friend Bernadette of B Home With Bernadette over on Instagram. It’s one of those pieces that reminds me how much I love decorating with things that have a story behind them.
• All-weather wicker furniture and antique trunks make up our main sitting area, including one trunk I refinished myself. I love trunks on a porch—they’re beautiful, useful, and make wonderful coffee and side tables.
• A little cupboard my father made gets a new look whenever the mood strikes. This year it’s Essex Green, and I especially love it alongside all that terracotta.
• Heat, fire, and even a television are what let us really live out here. We have our Timber Stoves pellet heater for chilly days, a heavy stone tabletop fire piece I found at a market, and our newest indulgence: a portable outdoor television.

This porch has never been about setting up a pretty scene and then walking back inside. We eat here, entertain here, watch television here, warm up by the fire here, and spend an awful lot of time doing absolutely nothing here. The decorating simply gets to come along for the ride.

Bringing Movie Night Out to the Porch

One of our favorite additions to the porch was actually a Christmas present to ourselves last year—a portable television (KTC MegPad) that’s really more like an oversized tablet. Now we can bring movie night right outside, and on a rainy fall evening, it’s pretty hard to beat. We start the fire, pull out the quilts and sheepskins, settle in with Ella, and watch a movie while the rain comes down around the covered porch. It’s such a simple thing, but it makes this space feel even more like an extension of our home. We don’t just decorate our porch for fall—we really live out here.

Turn up the sound—this is a rainy fall afternoon on our Vermont porch.

Fall Is Just Getting Started

Phew! That’s a lot for my first week back in Vermont after our summer in Maine, but I couldn’t wait to get started. Fall is my favorite season here, and I want to enjoy every bit of it as the days grow shorter, the mountains begin to change, and our porch keeps changing right along with them.

And we’re definitely not done. There will be more foraging walks to fill that old blue bucket, scarecrows and Halloween fun, evenings around the fire pit, mountain walks, Vintage Market Days around Vermont, and yes, I’m sure a few more pumpkins will eventually sneak in too.

So grab a bucket and forage along with me! Choose a favorite vessel, start gathering a little fall color of your own, and subscribe to follow along as we enjoy everything this Vermont fall has in store.

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