I love porches. I have had some of the best conversations on porches, bonding with my friends and family. I have had some of my best meals on porches, overlooking Napa Valley or my grandparents backyard in Peoria. In college, my roomies and I spent lots of time on our porches sipping cocktails and talking about boys. They're some of my best memories. Someday I would love a house full of porches.
My darling little sissy lives the cutest house in Austin with a big wrap-around porch. She and her roomies affectionately refer to it as Edgy (to do with its location not it's style). My sissy usually has very good taste. She's definitely more stylish than I am and she put a lot of energy decorating her adorable room at Edgy. So you can imagine my surprise when I got the following e-mail:
the outside of edgy (the house i live in) is so plain!
i'm dying for some flowers, but they have to be fake because the immense texas heat and my disregard for plant upkeep won't allow for anything else.
No Ma'am.
No. Ma'am. You may not decorate your porch with fake flowers. I will go ahead and chalk up her momentary lapse in good taste to the fact that she's in college and her head is a bit foggy from all of her ... uh ...
studying. So I've decided to help her liven up her porch.
 |
| Edgy |
Aside from the obvious landscaping issue, the first thing I thought of when I saw this big gorgeous porch, is ferns. Lots of ferns.
They can also add more color to their porch with a colorful doormat and pillows for their porch swing.
And maybe one little pot of real flowers next to the door.
Here it is all together!
Lots of color, college budget friendly and college party friendly, very little upkeep.
One last tip: Like my sissy, I do not have a green thumb. Luckily my husband does so we can actually have plants at our house. My advice to her for dealing with the ferns is to name them. Seriously. It's hard to neglect something you've named, right? Might I suggest the members of
O-Town
? Jacob, Ashley Parker Angel, Erik-Michael Estrada, Trevor and Dan.
