How to Create a Bed and Breakfast Inspired Porch Garden Getaway

This post contains affiliate links.
If you were inspired by the breathtaking red, white, and blue flower scape in the porch picture above, you’re not alone. The porch belongs to a gorgeous little bed and breakfast in East Boothbay Harbor, Maine, United States.  The B&B is the Five Gables Inn.  Originally called the Forest House, this seaside piece of history dates all the way back to 1896.
But you don’t have to book a weekend getaway at an historic bed and breakfast to experience a serene porch setting like that. Let’s examine the steps to get a bed & breakfast-worthy porch.

How to Create a Bed and Breakfast Inspired Porch Garden Getaway

Before you get started, you’ll need to take stock of what you’ve got available to you. Our inspiration picture is wide with pillars and an even amount of space on each side of the steps. This allowed them to design their floral landscaping symmetrically on both sides of the stairs.
Even if you only have one side to the steps that has room for plants, you can still design your porch landscape so that the colors and heights make a beautiful statement like the B&B. Maybe you have no space to plant in-ground, but can bring in hanging planters or potted plants on the stairs as they’ve done above. The point is to work with what you’ve got to give yourself the easiest time of creating that bed and breakfast look without having to do a full porch remodel.

1. Get Your Porch Inspiration

Choosing your theme and colors is an important beginning to the porch design process. If you don’t already have an idea in mind, consider an inspiration book like Porch Living by James T. Farmer III, shown below. It has tons of full-color photos of porches of all types and styles to get your imagination going. They’re separated into categories: country and rustic porches, casually elegant porches, sleeping and lazing porches, porches for entertaining, and garden porches.

The most important thing is to decide function.

• Do you want this to be a place to sit and have your morning coffee?
• Will your kids be playing there (needing fewer breakable items and knick knacks)?
• Will you be eating meals there (needing room for a table and seating)?
• Will you use it for napping (needing a way to hang a hammock or room for a comfy chaise lounge)?

Once you find your inspiration photo, it’s important to look closely at certain elements and take notes. Ask these questions:

What kind of furniture do they use?

In our inspiration photo above, they use white metal chairs and a matching 3-legged white metal table to hold a planter as the centerpiece. But if you choose a more rustic theme, you might opt for wooden rocking chairs. Make sure the furniture matches the theme.

What kind of pots or planters do they use?

Our inspiration B&B uses rail garden boxes to hang on the porch rail, and we actually can’t see what material they’re made of. But there are plenty of options available if you need a box planter like that, from wood to ceramic-look to colored plastic.

When choosing your planter material, don’t go on price alone. If you have especially cold winters and won’t be detaching the planter boxes, plastic is likely to crack and break, making it a less attractive choice.

What fabrics and linens do they use?

When designing for an outdoor space, you always want to make sure that you buy cushions, curtains, and other fabrics that are specifically outdoor fabrics. They’ll be able to stand up to rain and the elements better than regular fabric.

Also, think twice about choosing saturated, bright, or vibrant colors. The constant UV exposure from the sun, even on outdoor fabrics, will cause fading and wear. Lighter colors are better. If  you do opt for dark colors, be prepared to flip your cushions and pillows regularly so that both sides’ colors wear evenly.

What are the small decor touches that bring the look together?

A Southwest theme might have small potted cacti or succulents scattered throughout, while a rustic lodge porch might have chainsaw-cut bears or split-log footstools. The small touches really bring together the overall look, so be thoughtful of what authentic decor you can include to tie  your elements together.

Here are a few of my favorite porch decor items on Amazon, to get your brainstorming started:

2.  Choose Your Plant Combinations Carefully

You can get started by choosing what flower colors you’d like to highlight on your porch and what you want the garden design to look like.
Below is a book resource called Designer Plant Combinations: 105 Stunning Gardens Using Six Plants or Fewer by Scott Calhoun. You can use a book like this to help you put together the combinations of flowering plants that will give you both the colors and heights you want.

Notice that in our inspiration photo above, the main planted area contains only 3 rows of flowering plants (short red in front, medium white in the middle, and tall blue at the back), planted in varying heights from shortest in front to tallest in back. Keeping the heights of different plants in mind is important, because a mistake in that part of the plan could mean that no one could see a specific part of your design.

Some Final Porch Design Tips

• If  you’re installing lighting, make sure it’s specifically marketed as an indoor/outdoor light.
• If you’re installing a porch swing or anything else that hangs from the porch ceiling, it’s a good idea to have a contractor check the area first. There are all kinds of surprises that can be lurking inside houses’ exteriors (termites, rotted wood, etc.). You’re better safe that sorry to make sure your wood is healthy and can support the weight of the furniture before your risk anyone getting injured.

Most of all, remember to take before and after pictures of your bed and breakfast porch makeover. In years to come, you’ll love looking back on the contrast as you enjoy your new space!
The photo of the Five Gables Inn bed and breakfast garden was taken by meglet127.