Yard Plotted to scale, promise

Under The Tree · Narrow Shallow with Porch

Under The Tree layout for a Narrow Shallow with Porch

Presents, everywhere, at the wrong scale. Stacked boxes, oversized bows and baubles the size of beach balls, so the whole yard looks like the floor under the tree on Christmas morning.

your narrow shallow with porch, 40′ × 26′ 5 of 9 spots filled
To-scale site plan for a Narrow Shallow with PorchA to-scale overhead site plan of a narrow shallow with porch, 40 feet of street frontage by 45 feet deep, with the house set back 15 feet from the front sidewalk. The street runs along the top of the drawing. 5 of 9 marked positions are filled. Filled: the star; sidekick, left; sidekick, right; path and porch edge lights; porch and roofline. Left empty: under the porch roof, along the eaves, porch posts and rail, the front door. STREETDRIVEHOUSE40'Amax 9'Bmax 6.5'Cmax 6.5'DEPmax 8'TRWmax 6.7'

Drawn to scale. Everything is measured in feet from the front sidewalk, and your front door is 80″ tall if you need something to check against.

this theme on this shape

Under The Tree fills 4 of this shape's 9 marked spots for free, and 5 of them once every budget is unlocked.

With everything unlocked, four spots stay empty because this theme has no piece written for that kind of spot: under the porch roof, along the eaves, porch posts and rail, the front door.

The one nice thing version comes in at $298.66 against a $500 ceiling on this shape, which leaves real room for a second run of lights or a better centrepiece.

Not your yard?

Same yard, different look

first, the deal with your yard

Read this before you buy anything

There is no room to back up, so everything gets seen from about 20 ft away and the porch is doing the heavy lifting. That is good news. A covered porch gives you a lit frame at eye level that a flat lawn can never match, and it keeps everything under it dry. The catch is scale. A piece that looks reasonable in a big-box aisle will swallow a 15 ft setback whole, and the neighbors are close enough that anything blinking is now their problem too.

Who's looking, and from where

  • Straight up the walk from the sidewalk, which is most of it
  • The oblique from a few houses down
  • Out a car window at 25 mph

The classic mistake

Buying one giant inflatable that fills the entire yard and blocks the porch. The porch is your best feature. Do not park something in front of it.

Check this one thing

Check whether your sidewalk strip is actually city property before you stake anything into it. On older narrow lots the public right of way often runs a few feet further into what looks like your lawn.

same yard, four budgets

Pick your number

Every version below was worked out against the map up there, and nothing gets a spot unless it physically fits. Footprint and height both. The Do it yourself version is free and complete, so you can go do that today. The other three are the paid guide.

Every price below was checked on or after 27 September 2026, and each item carries its own date. Holiday pricing moves weekly.

Do it yourself Free

stays under $250
$109.67 $140.33 to spare

One weekend, a sheet of plywood and some string lights. Costs almost nothing and still stops traffic.

The Do it yourself plan: every piece, its spot on the drawing, how big it is, how many and what it costs.
Spot What to get How big How many Cost
A Stacked Plywood Gift Boxes Build it
The star. On the lawn to the left of the walk, halfway between the sidewalk and the porch steps, not straddling the path itself. The left side is the bigger piece of lawn here: the driveway eats the right one. Nine feet is the ceiling. Anything taller and people have to crane their necks back to take it in from the sidewalk, which is only 15 ft away.
 2' 9" H 1 $32
B 20 in. Lighted Bows, pair (opens in a new tab) Amazon 2 pieces
Sidekick, left. Tight to the left edge of the walk, about a foot off the concrete. You do not have the room to spread these out, so keep the pair close and let them frame the steps.
 1' 8" H 1 $26.99
D Solar Path Light Stakes, 10 pack (opens in a new tab) Amazon 10 pieces
Path and porch edge lights. Both sides of the short walk, then carry the line along the front of the porch. On a yard this size the lighting is doing most of the work.
 1' 3" H 1 $24.69
E Warm White Incandescent Mini Lights, 300 count (opens in a new tab) Amazon 300 pieces
Porch and roofline. Outline the porch roof first, then the main roofline above it. Two stacked lines of light is the entire trick on a shallow yard.
 2" H 1 $25.99
the plug situation

2 things need an outlet, about 1.1 amps all together. That all fits on one 15 amp circuit, you are fine. Outdoor GFCI outlets only, and leave a drip loop in the cord at every plug so rain runs off instead of in.

You will also need

The cord is the part everybody forgets, and stores run out of them at the peak of every season. Outdoor rated only, and plugged into a GFCI outlet.

About $31.96 of hardware, on top of the $109.67 of decorations. Buy it once and it comes back out every year.

still figuring these out

A couple of spots do not have a pick at this budget yet, so the plan leaves them empty for now:

  • Nothing in Under The Tree fits spot C (Sidekick, right) at this budget yet.
Print this version (opens in a new tab) build plan included
Image prompt for this exact list
Photorealistic evening photograph of a one-and-a-half story craftsman bungalow house on a narrow shallow with porch, 40 ft of street frontage with a 15 ft front setback, photographed from the public sidewalk straight up the front walk, so the covered porch and the full width of the small front yard fill the frame, camera height 5.5 ft. The yard is decorated in a under the tree theme. Presents, everywhere, at the wrong scale. Stacked boxes, oversized bows and baubles the size of beach balls, so the whole yard looks like the floor under the tree on Christmas morning. Decorations, in position: 1. The star: three hollow cube presents of decreasing size stacked into a slight lean, each wrapped corner to corner in glowing light strands with a wide ribbon cross and a bow on top, 2.8 ft tall. On the lawn to the left of the walk, halfway between the sidewalk and the porch steps, not straddling the path itself. The left side is the bigger piece of lawn here: the driveway eats the right one. Nine feet is the ceiling. Anything taller and people have to crane their necks back to take it in from the sidewalk, which is only 15 ft away. 2. Sidekick, left: two oversized red ribbon bows with long tails, edged in warm light, 1.7 ft tall. Tight to the left edge of the walk, about a foot off the concrete. You do not have the room to spread these out, so keep the pair close and let them frame the steps. 3. Path and porch edge lights: a line of short stake lights glowing softly along the edge of a walkway, no cords running between them, 1.3 ft tall. Both sides of the short walk, then carry the line along the front of the porch. On a yard this size the lighting is doing most of the work. 4. Porch and roofline: a dense run of tiny warm white bulbs following a roofline, close enough together to look like a continuous line of light, 0.2 ft tall. Outline the porch roof first, then the main roofline above it. Two stacked lines of light is the entire trick on a shallow yard. Shot at dusk with the sky still faintly blue, every lit decoration switched on and brighter than anything else in the frame, warm light spilling onto the lawn. Palette: #C8102E, #D6A419, #2F6E52, #F2EDD8. Nothing floats; every piece sits on the ground at the stated distance. Scale reference: the front door is 80 inches tall.

see it first

The other two prompts

Each budget above has its own prompt for the finished yard, because each one is a different list of things. These two do not change between budgets: one for the empty yard so you have a before picture, and the negative prompt that stops every image model on earth from burying your lawn in snow you did not ask for.