July 4th is coming, and I have some great patriotic decor ideas for you. Fortunately, red, white, and blue look fantastic together. When you add a vintage patina to red, white, and blue decor, you get a sweet style called "Americana". Americana mixes perfectly with a preppy, vintage porch decor scheme.

The front porch and outdoor living rooms are perfect places to gussy up for Independence Day. They're they places where you are liable to be doing your July 4th celebrating. You don't need to remodel your whole porch to give it a touch of holiday decor. Small touches of red, white, and blue will do the job fine.

Old fashioned pleated full flag fans, like the ones featured in a Hometalk post by blogger Front Porch Ideas and More, are equally at home in New England, the South, and the West Coast. They're super patriotic, without being aggressive. They say, "Hey, I am proud to be American, but I am not the kind of neighbor who would erect a full flag pole with a flag that clanks in the wind." At around $15 a piece, pleated flag fans are a relatively small investment that can function alone to give your front porch that touch of Americana. If you don't have a front porch, they look equally nice hung under windows.

Colonial style pull-downs can flank your front door. (They are long, narrow Betsy Ross flags). They look so festive and beautiful on the Victorian house photos that Fairfield House posted on Hometalk. Use alone for a subtle July 4th look, or go all out by combining with pleated full flag fans.

Give your outdoor furniture a pop of patriotic color. Outdoor cushions and outdoor cushion covers offer some flexibility when it comes to porch and outdoor living room design. Virtually Staging Properties (an Atlanta-based home-stager who works with painters in Atlanta) posted a lovely photo on Hometalk of wicker chairs with blue and white ticking stripe outdoor cushions, and red accent pillows. Quite a few companies sell outdoor cushion covers. It's a quick way to change a porch's color scheme to red, white, and blue.

Accent a classic porch with mini flags and throw blankets. If you already have a table for drinks or vases of flowers on your porch, dress it up with simple mini flags. Debbie Ward Kennedy, a blogger, put her mini flags in a vintage glass Coke bottle. She also accented her white porch furniture with a blue and white throw blanket.

Small touches of red, white, and blue can really bring your porch or outdoor room decor into the spirit of the season. You can go with full-on flags or with touches of the colors of Old Glory!

Chaya Kurtz writes for Networx.com.