Looking to add some festive fun to your porch? With these tips you can create a beautiful porch with things you can find around your home and garden.

Decorating the holidays doesn’t have to involve ladders, expensive lights or spending hours untangling cords. As beautiful as lighted displays are, you can dress up a small space like your front porch for a big impact using natural materials from your garden

That's Laurel Shortell's mission. She's the owner of South Shore Farm Stand and has turned her love of seasonal decorating into a fast-growing part of her business. Decorating front porches started off as a small project this fall but quickly took off. Laurel hoped to decorate a few porches, but she ended up dressing dozens of homes across Long Island.

Laurel is bringing the same magic for the holidays with her custom front porch decorations. Laurel brings all the materials to your home and does the decorating. You don't even have to be home for the install, and her porch packages are customizable so you can go big or small.

Here are few ideas to add your own creativity ton your porch:

1. Reuse your fall pumpkins, but with a holiday twist!

Instead of tossing out your pumpkins, give them a fresh life by painting them metallic gold, cranberry, or winter white. Laurel repurposes her fall porch pumpkins this way, and the result looks stunning through Christmas and even into New Year’s. It’s budget-friendly, and you can use natural clay or milk paints if you want to compost the pumpkins afterward and avoid waste.

2. Go big with hand-tied garland

Garland instantly transforms a porch, and the secret to making it look professionally done is hand-tied wired pieces. You can use evergreens like pine, yew and arborvitae around your yard or buy premade garland in the stores. Choosing fresh is best because you can compost these afterward.

3. Create seasonal containers using reusable whiskey barrels

One of the easiest ways to elevate your porch is with the same planters you put your annuals in. Laurel fills hers with pine, cranberries, sticks and pinecones - these stay fresh through the winter.

Every home is different, and that’s what makes Laurel’s work fun. She brings everything right to your door, you don’t have to be home during install, and you can customize with lights or extra greenery. It’s a simple way to make your home look holiday-ready, and you can keep all the supplies afterward.

Send Laurel a message on Facebook or Instagram for more information or visit South Shore Farms. NOTE: South Shore Farm Stand is relocating. Their Oakdale farmstand at 1392 Montauk Highway is open through Nov. 26, offering Thanksgiving pies, cider, baked goods, and gifts. Then they’ll reopen at 171 Montauk Highway in Blue Point, on Dec. 12.

Happy gardening and happy holidays!