I absolutely love making the porch look pretty, especially for Christmas! Fairy lights are a given, all year round, but Christmas is the time for maxing out on the decorations!

Two things you might not know about our porch as it looks like it has always been there

1. It was added when we updated the house about 10 years ago. The original door is still there, it’s inside the ‘new’ porch.
2. The arched door was sourced from Ebay. Yep. Ebay. It is old and reclaimed but not original to the house. The pink door (or Dior – a typo that has kind of stuck) has no lock and is purely decorative really, and held open with a stay most of the time. We knew we wanted a church type door and finding one intact with its frame took a while. We collected it (and chose the reclaimed letter box etc) from a lovely guy who had a whole barn full to the brim of beautiful old doors.

The oak frame was sourced from an old barn belonging to friends that was being dismantled, and we designed it with our carpenter. I had quite the pinterest board haha

SO! let’s move on to dressing the porch for Christmas! I used garlands last year and wound them round the oak posts – but actually, you’d need ALOT of garlands to do that as the winding takes a lot of metres, so this year I tried something else and it worked brilliantly! Upcycling the first faux tree we bought, 25 years ago and could never bear to throw away!

It is a really good use of an old faux tree too. If there isn’t one languishing in the loft, it is worth looking at charity or second hand shops as they are really cheap to buy.

You Will Need

An old, unlit faux tree (you won’t need the base) Mine was a 6 foot tree.

Garlands if you have any. (I had 2 plain ones from last year and a couple of old ones that have definitely seen better days)

Cable ties and florist wires.

Outdoor lights Think about where you will plug them in

Baubles as many as you can lay your hands on! I re-used some from last year when I worked with Dobbies Garden Centres, they are shatterproof and meant for indoor use, but I took a punt and they were absolutely fine outside, even in the wind, frost and torrential rain. I would say if you buy them, buy as large as you can. If you have a stash of old ones that you don’t mind sacrificing, use them! But certainly don’t use anything you are really attached to and would be heartbroken about if something happened to them. The sparkles didn’t even wash off in the rain!

Other decorations I used stars that are actually tree toppers – Use what you have – Keep going with the baubles or be creative!

Hammer and nails not essential but handy

Something to stand on 

Here is the porch, bare and ready to be dressed

Here is the dismantled tree shared out in to two piles -one for each oak post

I started at the bottom using the largest branches

Here is a garland – I used garlands for the top arch. I had two plain and two really tatty ones (the red berries you can see at the top of the arch)

I attached the branches to the post using cable ties – making sure they were tied nice and tightly. You can see them in the photo below.

I worked my way up to the top, securing as I went

When I got to the top (and ran out of tree!) I wound the garlands around the top and then filled the rest of the triangle in by weaving the other garlands around and secured it by wrapping individual branches around nails.

Next, I added the lights

I always over cater on the light front. More is more after all! I used two strings of warm white berry lights. (I think 500 in total)

When we had the porch built, we had exterior plugs wired in and they are hidden behind the posts.

I wound the lights around the posts and secured them on nails at the top  (some old ones and some new ones) on the oak.

I wasn’t too precious about any of it, as long as it was all safely attached and looked even (ish)

Once the lights were attached it was time to add the baubles. I used florist wire to secure the baubles to the branches. I wiggled the branches a bit, to fluff them out as I went.

I added the baubles in no particular order and kept standing back to make sure it was looking even enough.

When I got to the top I used wire to add the stars

And then, after many cups of tea & a short break while the boys fetched Sunday lunch from the pub, it was done! Just in time as it was starting to get dark!

A beautiful wreath finished it off nicely! (wreath sent as a pr gift by the hugely talented Alice Strange )

If you create a marvelous full frontal, be sure to tag me!

As ever

Thanks for stopping by!

Love