Front Porch Makeover

I’ve been seeing the most darling porches on the blogs! I have a little front porch that I’ve really done nothing with so we washed the whole side of the house and the white wood ceiling of the porch and then I got hubs going to paint the floor of the porch WHITE. Well, here is what happened. He put Bin Primer which is white as a first coat and when I saw the white I really liked it so I bought the white paint as a final coat also. We’ve always had a gray floor out there but I think the white is clean and fresh looking... for now, anyway.

This is the BEFORE: It’s a mess. Do you see the ugly corner straight ahead. I wanted to shield that somehow. There is a big pipe in that corner, too.

One day I was driving in a neighboring town and I saw some white French doors on the side of the road. WOW! I thought to myself as I pulled over to take a closer look. They were so perfect. I called hubs and he said he couldn’t come to help me  -  well, one thing for sure – I WAS NOT LEAVING THOSE DOORS. I’m only 5 feet tall but I found a way to struggle those doors (and they were heavy) into the car, one door at a time. I really don’t know how I did it, but during times of high stress (or avarice) one will find the where with all (strength) to get a job done. :)

I forgot to take a picture of the plain doors so pretend they are single and with no curtains on them.



We (hubs, Mike, and me) put the hinges on both doors .. so they were hinged together.



Here they are hinged together.



Anyway, I set them in front of the ugly corner with the pipe. See how ugly this is?



When I started thinking about redoing the porch I knew I had to do something about this ugly corner. Then I put the French doors and the ugly corner together and  EUREKA! The pretty French doors hide the ugly corner.



Now what?

I spray painted all the white wicker chairs so they looked kinda almost new.

Then the chairs needed new cushions but I didn’t want to spend the money for new ones so this is what I did. I took some old pillows from the couch.



and cut a square of bright green polka dot fabric...



folded it like a present and hot glued it to the old pillow.



I know this looks like a really shoddy job, but I’ve made cushions before and put them on the porch and by the end of summer they are ruined anyway. And this way I haven’t invested much time in them and I won’t mind throwing them out. See? It’s nice and it didn’t take any time at all.



So I get all the furniture on the porch and now it’s time to decorate. Fortunately, Mike (nephew) was there and came up with some good ideas.

A painting hung on one of the doors makes for an interesting piece. I painted this years ago. It’s a copy of an old impressionist painting.



An old hat hangs on the other French door.



I placed the iced tea on the table thinking I’d have some when the work was done. Ice decided to melt before I finished the porch. I drank it anyway.



The little porch from the front.



One side of the porch...



The other side of the porch...



I bought the sombrero at a tag sale cheap. The skirt I used to wear about 20 years ago. It was always too pretty to get rid of so I still have it.






We (Mike) made a little garden pond in front of the porch years ago. The plants will be blooming in there soon.



I sat  and played some games on my cell phone after it was all finished. It was so peaceful and nice and I drank my warm iced tea. Perfect. (Should I mention the ant that crawled on my arm? No? Okay.)

I have to admit that this is one of the more fulfilling projects I’ve done especially finding the French Doors and using them as a screen for an undesirable area of the porch!

Happy Weekend, everyone!!! Hope you have some creative fun this weekend.

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