When Devon Szklennik began decorating her home for the holidays, she did it to recreate for her kids the seasonal magic her own mother had created for her. But in 2024, when the two decided to launch a styling business, the Posh Porch, she wasn’t sure how many people would be as enthusiastic. She soon confirmed she was far from alone. Now in her third year of installing front-step displays overflowing with pumpkins and gourds, Szklennik talks about how she got started and why she thinks this time of year means more than just PSL.
“My mom raised us in a home where every holiday was decorated to the nines. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Fourth of July. There’s something about being little, having a bad day at school, and walking in the door to a house that smells like fall, with pumpkins and candles and garlands. I wanted to give my kids the same thing, so I started decorating my own porch. Neighbors began asking whether I’d do theirs—that’s the genesis of the business.
“[The first season,] we had to become experts on warehouse space, every farm and auction within driving distance, pallet jacks and lift gates, recipes for a natural critter deterrent, how long a pumpkin lasts. And how many pumpkins does a porch actually need before it tips from full to cluttered? Our first [official] customers came from driving around looking for what we called “corner-staple homes”—beautiful houses on high-traffic corners. We’d knock and offer to style their porch for free, in exchange for a sign with a QR code out front. Then it was me, my husband, my mom, and my daughter driving around putting door hangers on mailboxes. We’d park, sprint out in four directions, get back in, drive another 15 yards, repeat.
“One large home that holds a Thanksgiving party every year needed the pumpkins looking their freshest on the day of the party, which meant watching the weather to time the install, [which included] the driveway, the front porch, the interior, then the entire back of the house—around the pool and up the columns overlooking the lake: 456 pumpkins. We get occasional requests for grand-prize pumpkins—the heaviest we’ve worked with was 312 pounds.
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“Almost nobody is buying pumpkins—they’re buying the feeling. People want to be the house that feels welcoming when a friend pulls up, when the school bus goes by. And fall is the emotional new year: The first cool morning lifts people. It’s when families reset—school, sports, the holidays coming.
“At the end of the season, we partner with farms to donate the pumpkins to their animals. It’s really endearing to see the animals enjoying a pumpkin feast. It gives the whole thing a second life instead of a dumpster.”
Amy leads Washingtonian Weddings and writes Style Setters for Washingtonian. Prior to joining Washingtonian in March 2016, she was the editor of Capitol File magazine in DC and before that, editor of What’s Up? Weddings in Annapolis.
