5 Summer Porch Ideas To Keep Your Space Fresh, Clean, and Stylish

Do you love a front porch? Summer is here, meaning more time spent outdoors and on your porch. But keeping your porch looking its best can be daunting with all the heat and humidity. Here are five ideas for a clean porch that will look fresh and stylish all summer long.

As a lifelong Southerner, I adore a front porch and love the porch sitting in the summertime.

I love filling it with gorgeous flowers and plants, which is another challenge. However, these 5 Summer Porch Ideas have helped me keep my porch looking fresh all season long.

Start With A Clean Porch

It is important to start each summer with a clean porch. As soon as the pollen stops falling on every available surface, we begin by washing the porches with a pressure washer.

We recently received this cordless pressure washer from Ryobi Tools, and it’s perfect for cleaning the porch and around windows and doors. The pressure washer removes all signs of pollen and flushes out all the spiders and bugs.

Keep The Clean Porch Bug Free

Once the porch is clean, you want to keep those pesky bugs away.

When you keep your summer porch free of bugs, your plants, rugs, and cushions will all look better at the end of the season.

To keep the bugs away, I spray the perimeter of the front porch with this Ant, Roach & Spider Barrier Spray.

Spray around all the doors and windows where spiders love to hang out. In addition, it’s important to spray your plants inside your containers, under chairs, tables, etc.

Spiders will love you for adding things like grapevine wreaths, baskets, and flowers to your porch. They will feel safe hiding out, but they will cause a lot of damage by leaving little spots all over the walls and floor.

However, you can end their party time by spraying these areas thoroughly.

I have done this for several years, and it makes a huge difference. I typically spray 3 to 4 times a season, and I don’t have the problem with spiders and ants I used to have.

I’m sure there are several options for spraying. However, I like the clean scent of this bug spray.

The DIY Painted Rug is sealed with a waterproof sealer to protect the finish.

Summer Front Porch Ideas: Add Plants and Flowers

If your porch is exposed to intense sun, you need to consider what types of plants and flowers will survive on your Summer Front Porch.

My porch gets intense sun in the evenings, and not just any flower will stay looking good all summer. I choose to use geraniums for my flowering plant. They bloom all summer long and are much easier to keep looking fresh than other flowering plants I’ve tried.

These geraniums are planted in a larger container that is added to the galvanized tubs. This allows me to move the geraniums to the porch edge or sidewalk for watering when we get a rain show.

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In addition, I use these self-watering spikes when I’m away from home to nourish my porch plants.

Many years ago, a friend and master gardener taught me how to keep geraniums blooming from Spring to Fall, and it works every time.

Ferns Can Take The Heat

Ferns are another great addition to your summertime porch because you can keep them fresh for months.

My favorites are the Asparagus fern and Kimberly fern. They both overwinter well and save me from reinvesting each Spring.

The ferns look great from Spring through Fall with proper care.

I use plastic saucers to collect water at the base of the plants. Ferns love receiving a drink of water from the roots.

In other money-saving news, following these overwinter tips can save ferns and geraniums for next year.

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Summertime Porch Tip – Mix in Some Faux Flowers

I have found that faux flowers work best if you like to place flowers in unconventional containers such as these baskets.

In addition, the quality of artificial flowers has improved greatly, and when mixed with real, it’s hard to tell the difference.

These red geraniums are fade-resistant and will look great for several seasons.

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Use Good Quality Outdoor Rugs

Outdoor Rugs are a great, inexpensive way to update your outdoor spaces. However, not all rugs are created equal.

A fun rug can really change the overall appearance of your porch. Although my porch is undercover, I always purchase rugs that can be used anywhere outdoors, with or without protection, because they will still look great at the end of the summer.

In addition, they don’t have to break the bank.

The rugs can be changed each season to give the porch a different feel.

You can learn more about how to choose outdoor rugs here.

In 2021, I chose this neutral-colored rug for the summer front porch; however, you can purchase this rug in several color options.

Another year the porch is brightened with a budget-friendly pink rug. After painting a new rug for the seating area, the front door area needed more pops of color, and adding a new rug was a budget-minded choice.

I will rotate back to the neutral rug for Fall and the Holidays.

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Summer Front Porch Ideas – Pillows and Seat Cushions

Another great idea for your Summer Porch is to take care of your pillows and seat cushions.

First, I like to use reversible pillows. This doesn’t mean both sides have to be decorative. Reversing the pillows during the week to preserve the decorative side will help keep the beautiful pattern fresh for weekends and entertaining.

Here, you see the flag pillow, which I like to display when I have guests arriving.

However, the reverse solid side works great for weekdays, and as a result, the flag pillow doesn’t fade and looks brand new for the entire summer.

How To Protect Fabrics and Keep Porch Clean

Keeping your outdoor pillows from becoming damaged due to dampness can be a challenge, therefore, I spray all my pillows and cushions with NeverWet Water Repellant for Fabric.

Just give everything a good coating at the beginning of the summer, and no more mildew.

This is especially important if you are using pillows that are not waterproof.

Most of my summer front porch seat cushions are made from fade-proof Sunbrella fabrics and are resistant to mildew. However, I’m always moving pillows from place to place, and to ensure they are protected, they get a quick spray of NeverWet.

Wooden Porch Restore

As a side note, if you have natural wood on your porch and it’s looking old, mildewed, or worse, consider using a wood restorer. We used WoodLuxe Wood Restorer by Benjamin Moore, and our cedar porch posts look brand new.

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Following these 5 Summer Front Porch Ideas and tips will help to make your outdoor spaces more welcoming and require less work. Therefore, you can enjoy being outside and have a wonderful summer.

Resources

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You may also enjoy these porch tours and ideas.

• Spring and Summer Porch Tour 2021
• Best Porch Ideas for Spring and Summer.
• 7 Must-Have Country Porch DIY Ideas
• Patriotic Porch Ideas for the 4th of July
• 9 Best Porch Decor Ideas and More
• How To Paint A DIY Rug

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope these tips will help you enjoy your outdoor spaces.

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