A Porch Refresh and A Fall Decorated Porch

I have been meaning to write this post all summer and I just could never get to it.  Now it is fall, and I've already re-decorated the porch, so I just decided to combine the two posts into one.  This way you can see what the porch looks like in spring/summer and also what it looks like now in fall.

I have four porches on my house.  This is my side porch, adjacent to our driveway.  This is the porch that we enter/exit out of, where deliveries are made, and some guests use.  The other guests would enter via the front porch which is the in the last photo of this post.

This porch really needed an upgrade.  It was pretty sad.  My old wicker furniture had seen better days and the cushions were a faded, dirty disaster.  It was embarrassing just to have the delivery man see this porch 😁.  I had hoped to completely repaint it, including the floor.  My hubby planned on redoing the rotted posts.  But, as always, time got away from us with other home remodel projects, and we never got around to it.  Anyone else have that problem?  But I did manage to make a few changes, which made all the difference in the world!

The first thing I did was give it a good cleaning.  I used Clorox Outdoor Bleach to wash all the mold/mildew off the ceiling, walls, and trim.  Once it was clean, I didn't even think it needed a fresh coat of paint.  Next, I went to Hobby Lobby where I found the picture on the wall you see in the photo below.  I was looking for something to hang on this large wood wall. I started by looking at outdoor metal wall hangings, but nothing was speaking to me.  Then I saw this indoor picture and I thought "Why can't I hang that on the wall?"  The picture became my inspiration piece for the rest of the porch.

I found this old shelf in my garden shed.  Yes, my own garden shed.  It's amazing what a treasure trove of things are hiding in there.  I painted it with grey chalk paint and then hubby hung it above the picture.  Everything you see in this post is from Hobby Lobby, from the fabric on the seat cushions, to the "Farmhouse" sign. 

I love how I could see the picture and the shelf from INSIDE my house.

I recovered all the seat cushions and pillows with outdoor fabric from Hobby Lobby.  I found the simplest way to recover old seat cushions from Pinterest that doesn't involve reupholstering!  Now that I found this idea, I will never reupholster an outdoor seat cushion again.  The design makes it so easy to remove and toss in the washing machine too!

Here's a little video I made on the seat cushions:

I chose a grey fabric with coordinating daisy fabric for the pillows.

This is the opposite end of the porch showing a loveseat and coffee table.  The same principle for the seat cushions worked on the love seat cushion too, although it was more difficult pulling the drawstring.

There is a little wooden coffee table that actually covers my dryer vent on this porch.  It has to remain open to allow for ventilation, but I cover it with a piece of leftover fabric because it is unsightly.  On top of the table are two plants, a milk can, and a sign.  On the wall is black metal art;  all from Hobby Lobby.

These photos were taken at the end of summer, when the plants really got huge.  It looks more crowded and not as cute as it did in the spring when the plants were small and you could see all the cute white pots.

I bought a new "Welcome" sign that fit both the space and the decor.  I always meant to get around to painting this door, but of course, I never did.

Same Porch Re-Decorated For Fall

I usually love fall decorating, but I loved my newly refreshed porch so much I didn't even want to decorate for fall this year;  but I did anyway.  I started by removing all the spring/summer stuff, and once again, gave it a good cleaning.  

I left the daisy pillows because I didn't have enough fall ones.  I probably need to make another trip to Hobby Lobby to buy more pillows. 😀. 

I added some garland to the shelf, a ceramic owl, a pumpkin sign, and kept the white pitcher but changed out the flowers.

Once again, I loved how I could see the fall decor inside the house too.

I hung a fall floral arrangement on the inside of the door.

I replaced all the flowers in the porch pots with mums and added hanging basket mums too.  Around the door I added fall faux pumpkins and squash, some tall fall stems in the wooden barrel, a fall "Welcome" sign, and a fall pillow on the rocking chair.

I kept the black metal art work on the wall, but changed out the white accessories and florals for a bucket of fall flowers, a faux squash, and a scarecrow doll.

Here you can see my fall hanging baskets of mums and an "Autumn Greetings" sign.

Also along this side garden is a "Harvest" rake sign.

And this is my front porch.  More potted mums, hanging baskets of mums, a "Happy Fall" and metal pumpkin sign.

I hope you enjoyed my porch refresh, and fall porch.  Hopefully next year we will have more time to finish the job, although I doubt it since we didn't even finish our summer landscaping job.  Here's a photo of what that monstrosity looks like now:

Aye, yai, yai, a homeowners work is never done. But, when you always do all the work yourself, and never hire contractors, everything takes a lot longer.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

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My New Screened-In Porch and a Video Walk Through of My Vegetable Garden

I am so excited to show you my finished screened-in porch!  It has been a project that has taken a long time to finish!  The deck and roof were added to the house not too long after we moved in, but last year we decided to screen it in.  I had to really push my hubby to screen in this porch because he did not want a screened-in porch.  He thought they looked ugly from the outside and obscured the view from the inside.  But I really wanted a bug-free environment plus I was sick and tired of having feral cats and other critters getting on the porch and making a mess.  So I said to him "This porch is on the back side of the house, so no one will see it.  It's not like those houses where they screen in the front porch, those are ugly.  Plus, we have four porches on this house, why can't we screen-in just one of them?"  We really do have four porches!  Every side of the house has an open porch.  

So, hubby finally relented, and screened in my porch for me, and guess what?  He LOVES IT and thinks it's one of the best home improvement decisions we ever made.  Oh, why didn't he just listen to me sooner?  Doesn't he know I always know what is best for our home? 😁

The screened-in porch was finished last year when we finished creating our first vegetable garden.  I didn't take any "before and after" pictures, but you can see a couple of pictures on these posts HERE  and  HERE.

The construction took so long, that I did not have time to paint and decorate the porch till the following spring;  and then it took me a LONG time to paint it. The ceiling paint was flaking like crazy, so I had to first remove all the old paint before I could put on a fresh coat of paint.  That was not easy.  Then painting all the wood work, plus the floor took a long time as well...in addition to spring gardening chores...so you can imagine how busy I was.  I think I finished just a few weeks before my kids and grandkids came for a week long visit in July.  And it was perfect timing, because we lived on this porch while they were here.

Well, let's begin the tour shall we?  My house is built into a hill, so the basement and sunroom is at ground level.  This porch is on the south side of the house and can be accessed from the sunroom, front, and western part of the yard.  This corner is the first thing you see when you step outside from the sunroom.

I placed the largest rocking chair and footstool in this corner, plus an end table.  I added a shade loving plant to the table and hung a candelabra from the ceiling.

This is the view if you were just stepping onto the porch from inside the sunroom.  The vegetable garden is both directly in front of the screened-in porch and to the left in front of the sunroom windows.

I chose to paint the floor back for a variety of reasons.  Number 1, it's a super trendy color right now.  Number 2, the floor was previously painted red so I needed a dark color to go over it.  And Number 3, it's a nice contrast color to the red and white already on the house and trim.

The black paint does show a lot of dirt and gets scuffed up easily, but any dark color on a deck will do that.  I just sweep and mop regularly.

In the far left corner I have a large hibiscus bush.  This bush is inside the sunroom in the winter,  I bring it outside every summer.  It could really use more sun than this, but every time I put it in my yard, the deer eat it down to nothing, so it's safer inside the porch.

This is the view looking down the post to the west.  This is the seating area we use the most as it seats at least four people.

The view from the main seating area.

When my husband came up with the idea of creating a vegetable garden right off our porch, I knew it had to be pretty because I would always be looking at it!  So I hung lots of flowering plants and decorations like the stained glass butterfly.

The screened-in porch also accesses our above-ground basement.  And old green wreath hangs on the ancient door.  The house is built of brick and has a field stone foundation.

The best part of above-ground basements is that you have natural light.  I love this big picture window!

This seating arrangement has two chairs with a large coffee table in between.   An outdoor rug grounds the area together.  I hung another decorative candelabra above the coffee table.  This one was a decoration in my daughter's wedding.  It should be noted that I only purchased two decorative elements to complete my porch.  I used a lot of items I already had from other areas of my house.

The clock on the wall is an outside clock, but I'm not sure if it's broken or just needs a new battery.  I replaced the battery once this season already, but it stopped working again.  Ugh!

I hung three macrame hanging baskets inside the porch, plus I added this cute wicker plant stand.

In the far western corner of my porch is a potting bench.  This was handmade by my husband for me as part of my Mother's Day gift.  He used all recycled materials to make it.  I was so excited!  This potting bench has been such a help for me for my yard is built on a hill.  I have a "Potting Shed" (the red building you often see in my flower garden pictures)  in the lowest portion of my yard to hold all my tools and such, but it is a real pain walking all the way down there every time I need something to work in the vegetable or upper flower gardens.  So I was keeping a lot of "junk" in this corner (like duplicate tools, totes, pots, soils) and it was very unsightly.  Hubby decided to clean this corner up by make this bench for me.

The potting bench is both decorative and practical.  I keep all my "pretty" pots on the shelves, plus a few decorations.  I only purchased two decorative items (the "farm" tins), everything else I already owned.

The shelves below the counter hold more practical things like bushel baskets for harvesting vegetable and galvanized tins for holding potting soil.

The counter was the only part of the bench that my husband had to buy, and it's not a counter at all.  It's a steel door that he found in the "scratch and dent" section of a home improvement store for $20.  It works perfect as a counter because it is super strong and wipes clean so easily.

I found both of the "farm" tins at Hobby Lobby for 50% off.  I love the "Farm House" caddy to hold my garden tools.

This corner has a nice view of my western flower garden.  I hung two house plants inside the window in macrame hangers.  I love the light this corner gets in the afternoon.

The western corner in front of the potting bench has two screened doors.  The one directly in front leads to the vegetable garden.  The door on the right leads to the front of the house.  If your wondering why there is an old milk can in this corner, it's to keep our cat Jackson from scratching at the doors to get out.

Speaking of Jackson, he is allowed on the screened porch and in the enclosed vegetable garden, but we don't let him into the yard because there are too many feral cats and other dangerous animals around that could hurt him.  I love him too much to lose him.

This view is looking down the porch, the opposite way.

The porch ceiling is bead board.

I can not even begin to tell you how much we love this porch and how much more we use it now that it is screened-in.  I love to sit in the chairs, with a cup of coffee in my hand, and just look at all the beautiful flowers and hear the birds singing.

Jackson loves it too of course!  He was never allowed outside at all until we built the screen-in porch and enclosed vegetable garden.  He looks forward to going outside every morning.  He loves to be in the garden with me.  If I'm outside, he's outside with me.  He is always by side.

I picked up this stained glass butterfly years ago.  I tried it in the garden, but the wind would always tangle it up.  It works nicely on the porch, where there isn't much wind.

And now I'd like to show you a few pictures of my vegetable garden.  My best friend dropped by for a visit and she took these pictures.  Everything has almost doubled in size since you saw it last in THIS POST,  In the picture below, I am holding my broccoli heads that I just picked.

And here are my tomato plants!  In my last post I think they were only half way up this fence, now they are almost to the top; and this fence is 8 feet tall!

My squash has gone absolutely crazy.  It's actually very frustrating because it has taken over this garden and is suffocating other plants.  I think my husband and I figured out a solution for next year;  although, I may not get any peppers this year.

And finally, here is a eleven minute video of me walking through the entire vegetable garden.  Enjoy!

 Have A Great Day!  Amy

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