I just love pulling up to my house during the Christmas season and seeing the twinkling lights and pretty wreaths and garlands! Unlike the interior, where I use blues and neutrals, I like to decorate a bit more traditionally on the outside. Plus, we have this pretty brick feature in front that really just calls for red and green!
Decorating our Door and Windows
As I’ve mentioned, we live in Buffalo NY. Do you know what Buffalo gets a lot of during the winter? Snow, freezing rain, hail, wind. So, it wouldn’t make sense for us to spend a lot of money on outdoor decor when it could easily get damaged or even blow away!
For that reason, the only piece that cost more than a couple of dollars is the wreath on the front door because it’s protected by our storm door. This one came from Michaels a couple of years ago, and although it’s definitely nicer, I don’t believe I spent more than $15-20 on it! Nevertheless, it’s still protected :). I also added some battery-operated fairy lights that are on a timer.
Now for the wreaths and garlands on the windows, I definitely went cheaper here. I used these affordable wreaths and stacked two together to give them a bit more bulk. I also used this garland that I found and broke it up into smaller pieces. To top it off, I found some bows at the Dollar Tree! I used the big one on top and added the smaller one on the bottom. The combination of the two helps the other to stand out even more.
For the garland, I used a similar method and used these garlands as the base layer. I added more pieces of the pine cone garland, then added little red bows or ornaments that I found at the Dollar Tree.
Decorating the Porch Railing
I use the same affordable pine garland from Michaels as the base layer here, but I also add this layer of garland on top. I do this for two reasons. First, since this is more flexible, I wrap this garland around the other so it gives added stability. But, it’s also really affordable, and it gives the other garland a bit more bulk than it has on its own.
For the decorations, I again use ornaments, ribbons and picks that I found at the Dollar Tree! If you haven’t checked out some of their ornaments, you really should. Some of them are very cute, and work perfectly outside!
A couple of years ago, our outdoor outlet stopped working. We could get it fixed, but the only thing we’d use it for is Christmas lights, and I actually prefer using battery-operated now anyways! I use these fairy lights, which are waterproof, battery-operated, and have a timer. I used a total of three strands, and it gave me a much more balanced look than I ever could get with string lights in the past.
Before, I was always struggling with where to put the cord, since it would go directly in front of the path to the house. Now, I don’t have any cords to worry about! The vendor claims that the battery packs are waterproof, but I did decide to wrap them in plastic baggies just in case.
Full View
Isn’t she so pretty with the snow coming down?
1 thought on “Holiday Home Tour: The Exterior”
The biggest problem when it comes to living in a place like Buffalo is, indeed, the fact that you can only partially decorate your doors or windows as you want. The snow and weather will undoubtedly ruin everything, which is a significant problem.