Front Porch Entertaining: Wine on the Porch

Front porch entertaining is the epitome of easy, casual fun. There’s no hurrying around to pick up, vacuum or dust the house. Spills are outside and can be washed away with the hose. Your neighbors feel free to arrive or depart at their convenience. And if kids are involved, they are kept outside playing.

My neighborhood has an early evening, summer tradition we call “Wine on the Porch”.  It started when our kids were little.  All the adults would grab a folding chair, a glass and their favorite beverage to share and head down to my front porch where we would chat while the kids ran wild in what we affectionately called “the hood”.  Our street is a long cul-de-sac and my house is the low point so kids on scooters and loose basketballs have a propensity to show up here.

The kids loved Wine on the Porch nights and would beg us to have them.  Maybe they loved them because us parents would get so engrossed in conversation we wouldn’t notice them climbing the redwood trees or rolling in a mud pit they made with the hose. Maybe it was because I served them all the otter pops and s’mores they could eat.

Unfortunately, as the bulk of the hood kids hit high school, sports took over everyone’s weekends. Otter pops became less interesting, climbing trees became less challenging, and our “Wine on the Porch” nights became less frequent.  

We haven’t had a “Wine on the Porch” night in years, which is weird, because most of us no longer have kids at home to shuttle to and from weekend commitments. It’s a shame too because front porch entertaining is easy and everyone really enjoys it. 

With July half way over, I’ve decided not to miss another summer of opportunity and to resurrect Wine on the Porch.  

A front porch get together is by nature very casual. You don’t really need to do anything but invite people to BYO chair and drink. Unless your porch is as filthy as mine was. Then you might want to do a cleaning.

I got out my pressure washer and got to work.

Pressure washing alone took far less than an hour of time, yet the results should last for several years of front porch entertaining. I like that type of return on investment when it comes to my time and energy!

After pressure washing the cement and hosing off the furniture, I went inside and shopped my own home to find a few items to spruce up the porch.

Several years ago, I purchase a 4-pack of pillow inserts from Amazon specifically to use outside. The price point was low enough to risk having them not last more than a few years. However, they have been going strong for about 4 years now. I chose the chenille pillow covers because the green echoes the ferns and right now I don’t have any greenery behind the furniture. So the pillows fill in for the lack of plants. The chenille of the pillows also brings just the right amount of texture for summer.

I accented the pillows with throws. The turkish towels bring color, but are also practical. They are nice to wrap around your legs in the evening to protect from mosquitoes.

The mango wood cutting board is a call back to the cedar siding on the house, but can also function as a giant coaster for wine bottles.

Lastly I put out some short strings of fairy lights. Their warm glow matches the vase of flowers. If I were going to buy fairy lights specifically for this project, I’d get longer strings. I’ve included links to the ones I used and to a set of 33′ lights with a remote control. The remote would be really nice to have.

Ultimately, I spent $0 and a little over one hour of time to get my house ready for front porch entertaining.