How to Decorate Your Veranda on a Budget

Outdoor spaces such as your veranda can be a relaxing and usable venue for entertaining guests or simply a place of solitude where you can sit down to enjoy your morning coffee. You can decorate it to reflect your style and personality while providing comfortable areas to sit or lounge.

The veranda, a variation of other types of outdoor living space extensions such as the patio, porch, balcony, terrace, and lanai, can be described as a larger porch that often wraps around the house. It’s located on the ground floor with a bit of elevation from the ground and is enclosed by railings. Surrounded by a lawn or garden area, the veranda creates a picturesque seating or dining area and can accommodate more people, compared to a balcony or a simple porch. That said, you can apply a lot of the same design principles to all of these outdoor areas as well.

Decorating outdoor spaces doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg, too. There are plenty of sources online and offline for furniture pieces such as chairs, tables, couches, accessories, and decorations at bargain prices. And if you’re really crafty and creative, you can even reuse your existing pieces for your decorating project.

Let’s talk about how you can decorate your veranda and have fabulous results without breaking the bank.

Consider the Weather

Decorating outdoor spaces requires a different set of considerations from interior decorating, the most important of which is the weather outside. Since the furniture pieces will be exposed to more sun and wind, and possibly rain and snow as well, you have to be mindful about choosing pieces made of materials that can withstand the elements.

Selecting pieces that are specifically built for the outdoors is a must to ensure that they last for a long time. Some examples of high-quality but low-cost furniture frame materials are powder-coated aluminum, powder-coated steel, stainless steel, and resin, while for fabrics, these can include acrylic, polypropylene (olefin), and polyester. If you plan on putting a rug to define the space, also consider getting one that uses any one of these synthetic materials. That goes the same for the pillows and cushions. As for the filler, you should make sure it’s resilient against molds and mildew, so choose a filling material like polyfill. This filler is an excellent choice since it’s both affordable and outdoor-friendly.

Clean and Measure Your Space

Before buying any furniture, take time to clean your veranda. Measure the space and map it out with precise measurements so you can pick out furniture that fits right onto your intended spots. You can draw the design with an overhead view to lay out the furniture pieces within the space. See if people can navigate around without bumping into furniture. Doing all these may eliminate the chance of buying oversized or undersized furniture that won’t fit the scale of the space.

Determine Your Space’s Function

Think about what you would use the veranda for. Would you like to use it as an extension of your dining or living area? Would you use it for entertaining guests? How much seating would you need? As with any project, laying down the objectives can help you focus on your goals and outcomes. This can help eliminate unnecessary costs and non-essential purchases.

Make a Shopping List

Do an inventory of your current furniture pieces. Find out if you have pieces of furniture that are underutilized in other areas of your home, and see if they would work well-being part of your veranda instead. If you have an old ancestral home, there may be pieces of furniture hidden in the attic or basement. It’s worth checking out if you want to save money.

Also, if you need to do some upcycling and minor refinishing, list down the materials you’ll need. Listing things down eliminates impulse buys that you may regret later.

Buy Secondhand Furniture

While you might be wary about buying pre-loved furniture, there are some pretty good finds out there. Check out reputable vendors of secondhand furniture or home decor online. As you are wont to do with any kind of online purchase, always check the reputation and reviews of every seller to gauge their credibility. It’s a good idea to transact in an online marketplace whose sellers are thoroughly vetted and verified so that you can avoid shady merchants.

If the prospective seller happens to have a brick-and-mortar shop near your place, go there and check out the items you’re interested in. It can be helpful to physically inspect any item you might want to buy, after all.

Watch Out for Warehouse and Clearance Sales

If you’re fine with waiting for the right furniture at the most affordable price, follow your favorite furniture shop’s official social media pages and wait for them to announce warehouse or clearance sales. You may find great deals on new but out-of-season furniture pieces and home decor.

Get Versatile Furniture Pieces

Even with a large veranda, you can’t go wrong with furniture pieces that serve more than 1 function. You can save space and money using versatile pieces such as an ottoman with storage space or a bench that’s convertible to a picnic table.

Reuse and Reinvent Pieces for Decorative Items

Arguably, the most fun part about decorating a space on a budget is using your creativity to refinish or remake furniture and decorative pieces for your veranda.

These days, all it takes is a search on YouTube for fun and imaginative ideas to add artistic touches to your space. For example, you can reuse old bottles as votive candle holders or as charming chandeliers. Reuse old ceramic pots as planters or old tires as seating areas. There are endless ways to reinvent your old things and make them fit your new space.

Makeover your veranda according to your style, needs, and budget. Using your creativity and resourcefulness, you won’t need a lot of money to achieve your vision for your space.