I’m on the hunt for a new pair of porch planters this year so I thought I’d share some of my finds! Here are some favorite traditional outdoor planters.
I love the simplicity and practicality of having a pair of large planters out on your porch that can be left out year-round and be refilled according to each season. What’s even better is if the planters are classic in style and you can happily repeat this process of re-using and refilling your planters each season for years and years. In the photo above of our side porch, you can see my new square all-weather planters that I bought last year and I think they definitely fit that description. I like to use two-three pairs of planters on the front porch to make it a little more of a focal point for our home – one pair at the bottom of the stairs, one pair at the top of the stairs, and sometimes one pair next to the door as well. Last year I broke one of the concrete planters I’d been using for the top of the stairs, so now I’m on the hunt for a new, permanent pair for that spot. I’m only considering options that I know I’ll have and love for at least ten years, because that’s just my mode of operation these days. Life just seems simpler when you aren’t replacing things constantly. 🙂 I thought it might be fun to share some of the options that have caught my eye lately, in case you’ve got porch beautification on your mind as well!
Beautiful Traditional Porch Planters
This is the planter that I broke last summer. This pair was quite a few years old and they had a bit of cracking already, so that’s probably why this one broke so easily on me. I still have one and I’ll still use it because it’s beautiful, but honestly, they weren’t the best option because it was really best for them to be brought in every winter. I don’t mind one or two special planters like that (like my blue and white planters) but for my permanent planter pairs, I’d rather they be some kind of all-weather, all-season material that I don’t have to fuss over.
I’m still not totally settled on what I want to get for the top of the stairs on the front porch, but there are quite a few options that I’ve saved as possibilities. It could be fun to do a pair of really large blue and white ceramic planters with a lot of presence like these, but I’d probably be annoyed at myself when fall came around and I had to lug them inside to the basement. Also, those are admittedly a little less of an “affordable” option. 🙂 I always love classic square planters and although I already have two pairs of white ones, black ones like these always seem to stately. Imagine them with ferns in them? That would be so perfect. I almost always use secondhand baskets as planters in at least a few places (here’s how I do it), but I love the idea of a more permanent, large-scale option like these woven urns. I feel like these would definitely be conversation starters, if planters could be such a thing. 🙂
If I’m being really practical, these rust-coloured planters are so charming, come in a pack of two, and are a really great deal. These dark grey ones are absolutely huge and would make such an impact. A reader of mine actually bought a four-pack of these a few months ago and alerted me to their existence. I just love their classic shape and I think they might be the front-runners, actually. But then again, I’ve always wanted just a really traditional pair of urns and this could be my chance. You really can’t go wrong there. Love this more modern pair too!
I always get questions about my white square planters whenever they show in my stories on Instagram so I thought I’d share this fun option for that type of planter as well. I have a pair of old wood square planters that I just slather in outdoor paint to try to keep alive year after year, and I also have these all-weather planters that I ordered last year when I realized just how many hours it actually takes me to repaint those wood planters over and over again.
Last year I started filling my planters with perennials instead of annuals and I’ll definitely be reusing some of those same plants again this year. So simple, fuss-free, and just really beautiful too. 🙂
Good luck with all your planter-filling adventures this spring!
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Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.