A front porch guide by Mike Lewis
Halloween Is Over. Christmas Can Wait.
The World Could Use a Little More Thankfulness.
Create a beautiful, warm, welcoming Thanksgiving front porch in one afternoon, using decorations you already own and a few carefully chosen seasonal additions.
$27 one-time purchase · 89-page digital PDF · No subscription
Why Thanksgiving
Let’s Give Thanks Its Moment.
Halloween gets a whole month. Christmas shows up early and stays late. And in between sits a holiday that tends to get treated like a speed bump.
Yet Thanksgiving may be the one day of the year built entirely around people coming to your door. Not costumed strangers. Your people. Your parents, your kids, your friends, the cousin who always gets lost, the neighbor who has nowhere else to be.
This isn’t about who’s grateful and who isn’t. Plenty of thankful homes never put out a single pumpkin. It’s simply that decorating can be a beautiful way to say it. A wreath on the door and a lantern in the window tell the people you love that somebody was expecting them and went to a little trouble.
You have more to be thankful for than you can fit on your front porch. But it’s a beautiful place to start.
See what’s possible
Make Your Gratitude Visible.
Picture your own front door. A stoop, a shared hallway, or a long porch can all feel warm and ready for company.
Images are illustrative examples of the kinds of looks the book teaches. They aren’t photographs of reader projects, and the pieces in them can differ from the book’s recipes.
A skill you keep
The F.R.A.M.E. Method™
This isn’t one holiday design to copy. It’s five steps that teach you how to look at your own entry and decide what belongs there, so you can use them again in any season.
Find Your Focal Point
What do you notice first from the curb? Choose one star, and make sure it contrasts with the door.
Reuse Your Anchors
Shop your house first. Could you use it next month? Then it’s worth a little more.
Arrange in Layers
Tall, medium, low, from back to front. Put light against dark so that shapes stand out.
Match a Simple Palette
One warm, one deep, one light. Your house is already in the palette.
Edit Before You Add
Remove ten percent, and look from the curb. Empty space is hospitality.
What’s inside the book
89 pages of help you can actually use.
Plenty of pretty pictures, and also the part most inspiration leaves out: what to do, in what order, and why it works.
12 practical chapters
From the morning after Halloween to the last walk-through before guests arrive.
Eight porch recipes
Each one has a shopping or reuse list, a placement plan, a build order, and swaps.
Step-by-step illustrations
Drawn plans and diagrams show where things go, and why.
A decorating schedule
An hour-by-hour afternoon, plus quick touch-ups for Thanksgiving week and morning.
Budget examples
Sample plans at $0, $75, $150, and $300, showing where the money is best spent.
Printable worksheets
A F.R.A.M.E. Method™ card and five worksheets to carry onto the porch.
The eight porch recipes
Whatever you’ve got, there’s a place to start.
The Just-Enough Stoop
Small stoops · Harvest Warmth
The Shared-Hallway Door
Apartments and shared landings · Modern Minimal
The Leftover-October Rescue
Halloween-to-Thanksgiving conversions · Traditional Autumn
The Climb to the Door
Several wide steps · Harvest Warmth
The Quiet Welcome
More formal entries · Understated Elegance
The Boots-Off Bench
Farmhouse-style covered porches · Rustic Farmhouse
The Long-Porch Gathering
Large covered porches · Traditional Autumn
The No-Frost Thanksgiving
Warm-climate entrances · Understated Elegance
Budgets are sample plans for new purchases, and times are estimates for hands-on decorating with supplies gathered.
Reuse first
A Beautiful Porch Without a Big Budget
The first place to shop is your own garage. Lanterns, planters, baskets, mats, and a good wreath base can come back year after year, and the book shows you how to use what you own before you buy a thing.
When you do spend, you’ll know why. The sample plans here show four levels of new spending, and every one puts the money where people will see it.
Your $27 buys the book. Decorations are separate, and the sample budgets are planning examples, not store prices.
- $0Your own anchors, greenery from the yard, and a good rearrangement.
- $75A new wreath, one strong plant, and a few pumpkins.
- $150A bigger wreath, a large lantern, and a second small group.
- $300Better pieces you’ll keep for years, not simply twice as much stuff.
A personal note
I’m probably not who you expected.
I spent 22 years in the military, in the Marines and the Air Force, and I eventually became an Army Warrant Officer flying the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter. None of that is how a guy learns about porches.
That part goes back to my mom.
Growing up, I watched her decorate our home for the holidays and the seasons, year after year. We weren’t wealthy, and she didn’t have an unlimited budget. What she had was a talent for working with what was in front of her. She’d reuse a piece, add a few things, change a color, move something around, and the house would feel special all over again.
I had no idea I was getting an education. What she did by instinct is what I later turned into the F.R.A.M.E. Method™, first in my Halloween porch guide and now here.
When a house has been made ready, the people walking up to it can tell. There isn’t a better day of the year for that.
Mike Lewis
Your front porch is a beautiful place to start
The One-Afternoon Thanksgiving Porch
$27 one-time purchase
- The complete 89-page PDF, yours to keep
- 12 chapters and the F.R.A.M.E. Method™
- Eight porch recipes with plans and build orders
- Budget examples and an hour-by-hour schedule
- A method card and five printable worksheets
Digital PDF. Nothing is shipped, and decorations aren’t included. Secure checkout by Stripe.
Questions
Before You Buy
How do I get the book?
It’s a PDF. Once your payment is confirmed, the thank-you page gives you a download button, and we email a download link to the address you used at checkout. The emailed link works for 14 days.
Is anything shipped to me?
No. This is a digital book, so nothing arrives in the mail. The $27 pays for the book only. Decorations aren’t included.
Is this a subscription?
No. It’s a one-time purchase of $27.
Do I need a large porch?
Not at all. The recipes run from a small stoop and a shared apartment hallway up to a long covered porch, and one is written for warm climates.
Do I need decorating experience?
No special skills are needed. The F.R.A.M.E. Method™ gives you five steps to follow, and each recipe tells you what to place, in what order.
How much will the decorations cost?
That depends on your porch and what you already own. The book includes sample plans at $0, $75, $150, and $300. They’re planning examples, not store prices, and they count only what you buy new.
Can it really be done in one afternoon?
That’s the goal for the decorating itself. For a small or standard porch with supplies on hand, the planning target is three to four hours, and the book’s schedule walks you through it. Planning and shopping happen ahead of time at your own pace. A very large porch may take longer, and times are estimates, not a promise.
Can I print the worksheets?
Yes. You may print the Porch Planner pages for your own home use. They’re laid out to print cleanly on regular letter-size paper.
Can I read it on my phone or tablet?
Yes, on any device that opens PDF files. A tablet or computer is the most comfortable for the full-page plans.
What if something goes wrong with my download?
Go to the Contact page and we’ll help. You can read how refund requests are handled on the Refund Policy page.