Front and Side Porch Redo

I happen to love decorating based on the season and our favorite seasons around here are, without a doubt, spring and summer. So, it was definitely time to give the front and side porches a makeover because of all the outdoor living we enjoy in the summer months. And after uncooperative weather, jumping off the porch, missing and ending up on crutches, it's finally finished! Let's take a look.....

Ahhhh, color! I love it when the earth starts waking up again.

Here is our favorite corner of the porch. There is nothing like relaxing on the porch swing with the people I love. I ordered all the fabrics for the pillows here and made them myself. Notice my fun thift store table here in front of the porch swing. Love it!


Another view...lots of shadows here, it was very sunny!

I scraped the old paint off the porch and repainted with an oil based porch paint called Brownstone, purchased at Lowe's. It looked like a can of melted chocolate and was very distracting, yum! I love the glossy shine it gives the porch. I also thought it would contrast nicely with the lighter colors of the house and shutters, which I also repainted a creamy white.

I made the "beach" sign with weathered wood my hubby found in an old barn and light aqua paint I already had. The old oars were also found by hubby in the same barn and the hanging mason jar candle holders were purchased at Pottery Barn last summer. I love the beachy, comfy feel it all gives the front porch.

Moving on to other side of the porch....After seeing these numbered pillows in a Pottery Barn catalog, I decided to make them myself by printing the numbers off the computer, creating a stencil with freezer paper and painting the numbers on the fabric. Fun and free! I adore these pillows! You just can't have too many of them when cuddling up with your hubby or kiddos on a relaxing spring or summer evening.

Next up, the side porch.....looking at this porch makes me so happy!

The floor was the same boring color as the front porch so I scraped, sanded and removed most of the paint. I wanted to do something fun here so I decided on stripes. What is more fun than that?! First, I painted the entire porch with plain white porch paint purchased at Lowes. Then, after it completely dried, marked off three planks at a time with painter's tape and painted each alternating group of planks with Benjamin Moore Manchester Tan that I already had. To protect it, I put several coats of non-yellowing floor polyurethane. We love it! Something fun and unexpected for a porch!

I've always wanted porch curtains, to add a touch of romance and breeziness to a porch, so, I finally decided to go for it and make a pair. I purchased my usual inexpensive fabric, painter's canvas drop cloth at Lowe's, and sewed a couple of panels, inserted jute rope through the rod pocket and hung on the inside of the porch and tied back with more jute rope. Just a little something special for the corner of the porch. The glider was another found object by my hubby that looked like this when he brought it home

And after some heavy duty sanding with steel wool and a few coats of this...

...it was as good as new, maybe even better. :)

Working on both of these porches has been a lot of fun and the best part was that I hardly spent any money doing it! I think they both turned out lovely and all the hard work has made spending time on the porch with my family much more cozy and comfortable. I hope you enjoy looking at the photos as much I enjoyed making over the space! Thanks for looking, have a wonderful day!