{ let’s imagine } a beach-inspired front porch

As I mentioned in this post last week, I decided to paint my front door {again!} a beautiful blue from Sherwin Williams called Oceanside. I decided to go all out and paint both sides of the door, seeing as the interior side was a bit banged up and needed a fresh coat of paint anyway. I did four coats on the interior side and was up to three coats on the exterior side before I ran out of paint and warm weather. Well, not stunningly warm – I needed temps of at least 10 Celsius, which didn’t happen on Monday or Tuesday. So the paint job is on hold till later this week when it warms up. I’ll post some pics when it’s all done.

In the meantime, I’m thinking about how to decorate the front porch this summer. I usually stick a bunch of impatiens and something tall into a planter and call it a day. But this year, I’m thinking of doing something with a beach theme – the door is Oceanside, after all :-) Although I’m really not sure what beach-themed planters look like. So I did some searching, and this is what I can up with.

This first planter would be easy enough to do, seeing as I already have a similar planter on the front porch. I love the wispy grass and the fact that the plants aren’t all bunched up together, so you can really see and appreciate the different colours, shapes, and textures. The driftwood is the perfect beachy touch, and I could put in one or two of my glass floats too.

Image via Sunset, photo by Rob D. Brodman

Succulents seem to be popular for beach-inspired planters. Hahaha! That reminds me of an exam I wrote back in University. One of the questions was “What is a succulent?” I had no idea {must have missed that class ;-) }, so I almost wrote “the guy sitting in front of me” {he was hot!}. But I decided on “a juicy steak” instead. Anyway… our porch faces south, so it gets a lot of sun over the summer – perfect for heat-loving plants that don’t need a whole lot of water.

Image via Flickr, photo by poppy2323

Love all the pretty colours in this succulent planter.

Image via Apartment Therapy

I wouldn’t do a cinder block wall, but I like the look of a group of single succulents in their own matching pots, maybe combined with some grasses.

Image via Zack Benson Photography

These little concrete planters from FMC Design in Montreal would be perfect.

A couple of ideas for small-scale beachy planters with air plants.

Image via Garden Party Flowers

Image via Completely Coastal via Beautiful Details

This one literally puts the “beach” into a beach-inspired planter! Maybe not so much for my front porch, although the mini flip-flops are seriously cute!

Image via True Blue Me and You

Speaking of planters… I really like the look of square zinc planters, like these ones from Restoration Hardware. I’m hoping there are some crafty bloggers out there who have written tutorials on how to create DIY zinc planters, ‘cause the RH prices are just a bit too steep for me!

I’m really looking forward to doing something different with the front porch this year. I’m pretty sure I’m going to combine wispy grasses and succulents. That means I’ll need to find a place inside to keep the succulents over the winter, but that should be easy enough to do.

Are you planning your summer gardens and planters yet? Do you do the same thing every year, or do you like to change things up?