Screened Porch Reveal

I’m not kidding you when I say I could overlook all the flaws in the house because it had a screened porch. It’s a smallish porch, but it’s right off the master bedroom serving as a sitting area that connects to the rest of the backyard. The previous owners were smart and had a TV mount installed, with a cable hookup coming from the wall in the master. And in the South, the only time you can’t use a screened porch is in the high intense heat of summer and the really cold weather – but I’d say for over half the year, a screened porch can be used. You can see more of the backyard in this post.

We did very little to the porch when we moved in. We bought some furniture from our friends down the street, tossed that out there with a new coffee table and a few other existing pieces and called it a day. But, after  a year, it was clear that the furniture was not holding up well – it was regular furniture and I thought it’d be fine since it was covered, but our porch gets a lot more rain than I originally thought it would. Also, something needed to be done with the nasty concrete floors. I’d thrown down some cheap gray rugs from Lowe’s (the kind used for RV’s), but it was so dirty! When we moved in, pollen season was in full swing (April) so the porch was covered in lovely yellow dust. I tried to scrub and scrub, but that yucky yellow stuff was ground into the grooves of the concrete. Doing something with the floor would be high on the list!

 

The plan for the porch also included:

• Purchase new seating to seat at least 4
• Update the color scheme to make it brighter and more fun
• Add accessories to make it feel more room like
• Purchase new and bigger rug for under the coffee table
• Add curtains to hide some flaws in the screens (and fix screens at some point …)

Floors:

Originally, I wanted to tile the floor, but decided I wasn’t ready to go there with my DIY skills. Instead, I followed this tutorial from Southern Hospitality from her laundry room. It was the first time I used a chalk line and I’m extremely proud of myself for not screwing up the stripes! I will say that this floor soaked up A LOT of paint – it probably could’ve used another coat of white before I did the stripes but I wanted to get it done in one day (the rain delayed this project by 3 weeks – Mother Nature was not in a cooperative mood). Overall, it looks great and the sealant is doing a great job of keeping grime out of the grooves so all I have to do is sweep and mop occasionally.

Furniture:

This was the most frustrating part of the process. Outdoor furniture is a lot more expensive than I realized! Finally, I decided to go with Lowes, mainly since that’s where I purchased the coffee table last year so it would all match. I ended up keeping the side table (from Ikea years ago) and the bistro set I had to help with the budget. I purchased  a new love seat and two side chairs so that we’d have seating for 6. The love seat was super easy to assemble and I’m really glad I went with this seating arrangement as it provides a lot of options to change things around if I feel like it. I don’t love the color of the cushions, but now that I have them, I figure I can always slip cover them. Because I was ordering somewhat late in the outdoor season, I was limited on what was in stock.

Color Scheme & Accessories:

I hemmed and hawed over the color scheme. I wanted it to be bright and fun and was trying to decide if I wanted it to match our master bedroom. In the end, I decided to go with what I liked and not feel too much pressure to have it match our bedroom – when we have guests over, they typically enter from outside from the living room and not through our bedroom so I figured it didn’t matter that much. I luckily hit up Lowes the day they put all their outdoor accessories 50% off so I was able to score all the throw pillows, the green cushions and the lantern at an affordable price. One of my favorite pieces on the porch is the angel I have on the wall – my husband’s aunt makes these Architectural Angels and they are gorgeous! She presents at a ton of craft shows – would love for you to check her out on Facebook!

The rug and poufs I got online from Target. I happen to find the rug (one sale) and while I’m not the biggest fan of Chevron, outdoor poufs for $30 each in my color scheme were too good to pass up! Plus, one of our dogs loves to use a pouf as his spot so I knew Bogey would appreciate the addition.

Curtains:

I debated what to do with the curtains – do I make some? Do I purchase outdoor curtains? Shower curtains? We had a lot of space to cover and even the cheapest outdoor curtains I found were roughly $20 a panel – I needed at least 7 so that was going to quickly add up. Shower curtains weren’t generally long enough and I had a hard time finding the extra length ones in the colors I wanted. I instead chose to go with cheap Ikea curtains – $4.99 for a pack of two. They aren’t outdoor, but they are machine washable and as bad as this is, my rationale was that at $4.99 for two, I could afford to buy new ones every year if I needed to. The curtain cable system is also Ikea and I love it! It’s thin so blends right in with the porch and I could extend the cable as long as I needed, also a great cost savings. Ikea can stress me out, but you really can’t beat that place for good deals on basic items.

All in all, I love how everything turned out! This is my favorite spot to write in and with our Chromecast, I can watch just about anything on TV out here. It’s definitely my she-cave! And, I was happy that I was able to bring new life to my favorite area of the house!

Shared on Metamorphosis Monday, Chic on a Shoestring Budget & :