A DIY way to add a touch of vintage charm to your fall porch is to assemble mum planters in olive buckets. Includes photos and instructions, and it’s so easy!

Mums are a classic choice for fall porch decor, and placing them in vintage olive buckets adds instant charm. This easy idea is budget-friendly, takes just minutes to assemble, and works beautifully with other seasonal touches. These fall mums in olive buckets were one of my favorite ways to dress up our front porch.

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About the Olive Buckets
Vintage olive buckets can be hard to find. If you live in a large city, they can be found at antique stores, flea markets, and craft fairs. An easy way to obtain them is to do some savvy online shopping. I found my two olive buckets on eBay. I had to pay a hefty amount of shipping, but the day they arrived was so fun! Vintage olive buckets can also be found on Etsy. Unlike the vintage variety, olive bucket reproductions are much easier to find. For an outside planter, reproductions would be perfect. Olive buckets range from 16 inches to 20 inches tall. Mine are about 18 inches tall. My olive buckets do not match, and one is slightly taller than the other. But to me, they are wonderful.

Olive Bucket Sources

Supplies needed for two buckets
- olive buckets (or other similar container)
- pots for inside the olive bucket
- grapevine wreaths
- greenery
- bunches of berries or dried bittersweet
- 2 large mums in a pot

Assembly Steps
- Place any sort of pot inside the olive bucket upside down. I used 8 inch terra cotta pots that I had in the garage. Plastic pots can also be used. These will act a risers to lift the mums over the edge of the olive buckets.
- Place a grapevine wreath just inside the rim of each olive bucket. I totally lucked out with the size of the wreaths that I had on hand. I used 15 inch wreaths, and they fit perfectly inside the tops of the olive buckets. It would be fine for the wreath to sit on top of your container too. It doesn’t have to fit inside. The size of the wreaths depends on the opening of the olive buckets.
- Place your potted mum inside the middle of the wreath, and set it on the upside down pot inside the olive bucket. Place your greenery and berry bunches into the grapevine wreath. You may have to cut the stems apart with wire cutters.
- Stand back and enjoy your beautiful mum planters!

You don’t have to own olive buckets to use this method. It would work with any sort of large pot or planter. I think it would look amazing with terra cotta pots because they are the perfect fall color, and they are very budget-friendly.

Additional Information
- Our front door color.
- The blue doormat is no longer available. This floral doormat is very cute and the same colors, and this geometric doormat would work beautifully too.
- Our mailbox and our address plaque.
- If you’re looking for more ideas, I’ve gathered all my favorite porch displays in one place. Take a look at this collection of 10 Fall Planter Ideas for even more inspiration.


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Wow… those olive buckets are amazing Ann. I love how you have dressed then up for the season with the mums, The wreaths are a genius idea too and I look forward to trying that myself.
Hugs ~ Kerryanne
Ann these olive baskets are wonderfull! What a great way to welcome guests and decorate for Fall.
I loved your idea of using the olive buckets plus using the wreaths as fillers. I only have one olive bucket…so I used my plastic urn type planters from summer and sprayed them bronze….used two wreaths, beautiful yellow mums..and this DIY turned out beautiful!
Ann, the mums in the olive buckets are beautiful! I’ve never thought of adding the “embellishments” to them….definitely going to do that to dress them up a bit more! Your porch is gorgeous!
The weather is chilly and its a perfect time to set out mums on the front porch! Love this idea!!!
Very lovely – everything looks wonderful. Thanks for sharing….
Mary
Love how you styled your French olive buckets Ann! And I love the fact they don’t match. Beautiful fall entrance!
How smart to add the grapevine wreaths! Love your olive buckets!
Ann,
Love it! Using the grapevine wreaths – genius! Thanks for the inspiration!
Thank you for inspiring us. It is always a treat to get your email. Thank you for sharing your time and talents with us.