Screened Porch Makeover

 

If you have been following along this week and a bit last week, then you have seen a few snippets of our screened porch makeover.  And I use the term "makeover" pretty loosely here.  There wasn't much to makeover, really.  For the past five years, this room has sat essentially empty other than firewood and, as I mentioned in an earlier post, an alarming number of spiders.  The room sits right off of our family room via two french doors.  

 

We don't have air conditioning, and it can get pretty darn hot up here in the summer, so being able to open those doors up and get a cross breeze through the living room is an extra bonus to finally having done something with this room. 

The very beginning of this project commenced last fall, when my dad helped me replace portions of the screens that had large holes.  We also replaced the rotting wood door with a more durable, plastic-y one (to the right of the chairs in the above photo).  My awesome husband also worked through the fall on laying a gorgeous paver patio directly off of the porch.  The patio was born mostly of necessity - try as we might, we could not grow grass back there and figured a patio would be nicer than a weed pit.  And, boy, is she a looker.  Scott did a fantastic job and it has added so much to the ambiance of the porch.

So here's a look at the finished room!  I have relished throwing the french doors open on the warm spring days we've had so far.  It makes our living room feel so open and airy and has added tons of extra seating to this part of our house.  If I ever actually sat down and read a magazine in the middle of the day, well, this would definitely be my room of choice. 

Here is a look at the empty porch as I was waiting for the thrice-cleaned flooring to dry.  I mopped it once with dish soap and water, once with water, TSP, and bleach, and a third time with just water.  Those were some dirty floors.  But I suppose that happens when you don't clean a semi-outside space for five years...  You can catch a sliver of the very unsightly aluminum storm doors at the left of this photo.  They came down to allow the porch to connect directly to the french doors.  And because they were ugly.

This seating area is to the left as you walk onto the porch from the family room.  To review how I refinished the furniture and made the cushions, see here and here.  The white table was an old side table we had that I spray painted an ivory semi-gloss.  The gold moroccan table was a clearance Home Goods find.  I tried three rugs in the space but ultimately decided on the one you see here.  I liked the black edging with the black furniture and the subtle pattern of the rug.  There is a chevron to it and the dotted black stripes, but nothing that competes with the other color and pattern in the room.  The rugs were purchased from One Kings Lane.

There is a lot of candlelight in this space, but I love the idea of soft flickering light when we're sitting out here after dark. 

This seating area is to the right when you walk onto the porch.  The wicker chairs are from Ikea (Byholma chair) and they are sturdy and solid and a greige color that I loved with the black and green of the other furniture.  I made the two back pillows using the same technique outlined here.  You can see another of the old re-purposed and refinished side tables to the right below, holding a lamp, a small plant, and a tabletop fountain.  I love (LOVE) Moravian star pendant lights (above the wicker chairs) but a new hard-wired fixture just wasn't in the budget for this project so I stole this one from our bedroom.  It holds a little tea light.  The tree between the chairs is a ficus and its twisted trunk and glossy leaves are absolutely gorgeous. 

More candlelight!  Both the bird cages and glazed garden stool, which we can use as both a table and an extra seat, were purchased at One Kings Lane.

And here's a peek at the beautiful patio right outside the screens.  We love weeping trees and chose a weeping cedar (far left) and weeping Japanese maple (far right) for the bed against the house, and then three boxwoods between them.

Hope you enjoyed the peek at our new space.  We are finally supposed to get some warm weather the next few days and you can bet we'll be spending a good chunk of it out here.  Hope you have a great weekend!

*Click here and here to see some updates to the porch!