This is a DIY post that I just finished and wanted to get it on the blog before I forgot... With my job working at a school I always had summers off - until the pandemic hit. For the past two years I have had to work all year around so with not having my summer off many projects I either had started or wanted to do were put on the back burner. Happy me that I have this summer off and the first project I wanted to finally put together and finish was the side porch.... Over time when we would shop Restore stores, thrift stores, auctions and the 301 Yard Sale I would pick up different things that I thought I would be able to use on the porch. I did not want this porch to be 'matchy, matchy' or to just have a porch furniture set out there and be done with it.... so here are photos of things I picked up for my porch and I will explain as I go along -
First - this bench I picked up a few years back cheap at the 301 Yard Sale NC holds each June. It was painted black and all faded and had paint splatters on it but I was happy it was not dented or broken or wobbly... DH power washed it for me and I used two cans of Rustoleum spray paint to paint it the dark green:
Once it was painted and dry I added rubber feet to it from Lowes. This next project was the pinkish red coffee table that I picked up at the 301 Yard Sale. Did not want to keep the red but knew it was a wooden table so I was hoping under the red I would find a nice table:
The above photo was before it was stripped - red paint, then a layer of black paint and happy to say I used the CritusStripper and it cut through both layers in one pass so that was easy - here is the table under the paint layers:
The smaller white shelf was at a thrift store and no markings are on that. I wanted two chairs to go by my other 301 Yard Sale table find for the corner on the porch so last trip to Restore I picked up this chair:
I liked this chair because it is wood, it had the green on it but it also had white spackling splattered here and there on it. I paid $5 for that and when I got it home I used a wet cloth to wipe the spackling off and that worked and then I cleaned it up for the porch. (Under the seat of this chair is stamped Pier 1). For the white chair next to this table I rummaged through our garage and found it so cleaned that up and it has a home on the porch.
DH had recently gone to a warehouse auction for car parts and tools and such and for $5 he brought home this wooden crate for me:
It was covered in dirt and grime and such so when he got home he power washed it for me and I made a place for it on the porch. Another crate I used next to the bench he picked up and it was full of tools so he asked if I wanted that one too so happy me I have two of them on the porch... At the 301 Yard Sale a couple of years ago I picked up this metal "bag" that is a planter - it was dirty and all rusty but I brought it home and cleaned it up for the porch:
Here it is hanging on the wall and I used greenery and a flower cluster from HobLob to put inside of it. For the pink flowers on the right I picked those up at DollarTree:
Recent Restore find is this glass cutting board that I picked up for $2 and decided to put it on the gray table top in the corner on the porch:
This project has been in the works over a few summers -- DH laid down the new flooring out there I had picked out and he hung all my mini blinds, curtain rods, items on the walls, and my shelves. He also made a shelf for the long wall on the porch to hold all my insulators -- that collection is a whole other story - so a huge thanks to him for helping me bring this all together for the porch I have wanted for over 3 years!
On the coffee table is a metal tray I picked up for 50% off at HobLob and that holds a fake plant and three insulators - I picked up the round gem stones at Dollar Tree to fill the tray:
The flamingo planter was gifted to me by the DSD so he had to be included on the porch:
The floral print over the bench I recently picked up at Restore for $6. For the two prints over and under the Ikea white shelf:
Both prints are from Home Interiors (remember them?) and one I picked up at Restore and the other was at the 301. I wanted them hung together because they both have tulips and the matting and frames are the same. The quirky bird house on the shelf is from Restore, the yellow flowers is a floral cluster from HobLob on sale for 50% off. I draped a piece of their greenery garland on that shelf and then put an old Atlas jar I had and more insulators around the items on that. This small shelf:
The white milk glass vase is from a flea market, white basket is from HobLob, and red pitcher I had in my stash from long ago before the porch was even a thought.... The green ivy in both the crate under the gray table and on the bottom of the small table next to the bench are from Restore. For the ivy under the table in the gray watering can I added a small sprig of pink flowers from the Dollar Tree just to add colour to that ivy.
The valances and four floral pillows are new from Amazon. The rug on the floor I just bought at Ollie's and everything else is this and that from here and there. . . I did pick up a semi gloss clear poly to put on the coffee table and that I will put on tomorrow but I wanted to get these photos posted before I start working on my next project -- which IS a card project and I hope to be posting that soon. All that is left for the porch is to find something really great to put on the gray table but so far I have not found anything that stood out to me... but with summer comes all the yard sales and flea markets so you never know what you will find....
Where to begin with decorating this porch? Three of the four walls are windows and you can see all the green trees outside so I thought I would stick with the green for the base - for the bench, the valances, and happy I had the green birdhouse lamp from my old house to put on the table next to the bench. All the plants and flowers are fake so for the winter I do not have to scramble and bring in all the plants so they will not die with the cold. I also wanted to bring in items that not only do not go together in a matchy, matchy way but to have things with character - DH had brought this pulley home from one of his auctions he shopped:
He hung that next to the outside door of the porch and that is something else you would not expect to see.. Happy this project is done and we can sit out there and not be bothered by bugs... ;0) So the only consistancy on the porch is the green base and then everything else is tied into that or has a history to tell. Happy this project is completed and looking forward to sitting out there....
