Sunday, March 13, 2011

Come sit for a spell. Spring Cleaning on the porch!

Hello all. This is a makeover I’m so happy to share. Lately our furniture refinishing and Andrew replacing an engine in our 16 year old’s car have taken over every spare second and every square inch of our carport. I was beginning to feel that I lived on Sanford and Son! In other words, my house looked like a junk yard. Last Sunday I had finally had enough. I told Andrew that we were cleaning that mess off and that I was “refinishing” our carport. Spring has sprung in southern Alabama, and this porch needed to reflect that. THIS is what finally pushed me over the edge:

Nice huh? And this is AFTER Andrew had starting moving some stuff. Sad huh? I was embarrassed every time someone came to my house!

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I decided that I wanted our carport to be more like a porch. I never pull in anyway. It just feels too close for me. I didn’t have any a lot of money to spend on this, so I just got creative and used what I had. The only things I bought were 3 cans of spray paint and some flowers. I already had everything else. This is what my new porch looked like this morning. :)

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A much more inviting entry wouldn’t you say? I’ll share some individual projects from this redo later, because almost every item you see has been painted or SOMETHING. :) I repainted the red table and added that little aqua knob. The planter was painted aqua as was the umbrella holder by the door. That old wooden carrier was actually a magazine holder, until we took the divider out.

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I love the green fern against the aqua planter.

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Another view. Those double windows are on the far end of my living room. That birdcage on the red table has a little fern in it, and that cute sign is something I’ve had for a while.

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This porch makes me wanna drink something frozen and YUMMY!

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The magazine holder was painted, distressed, and lined with plastic. It now holds these polka dot plants.

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My umbrella holder also houses a little plant and has hooks for anything else that needs to be left close by.

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This is BY FAR my favorite area on the porch. The bench was a freebie and was actually an old piece of office furniture. I made new covers for the cushions and pillows. Now it’s the perfect place to sit and read a book.

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Another old planter got a fresh coat of red spray paint. I love the red and aqua together!

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More plants and flowers….

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Another view of the door. I also added the piece of metal above the door.

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Another sitting area:

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The view from my kitchen door: Much better than the one from last Sunday!

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I’m in serious love with my bench.

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This is the front view of our cottage. :) It’s a REAL cottage (with a huge modern addition), and I love it.

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I’m not embarrassed when people come to my door anymore. :)

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I want to hang something on the porch windows but can never decide what. Any suggestions?

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So let’s recap.

This:

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To this:

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I’m happy. :)

Since I finished the porch last week I added some new plants. I found those planters at THE DOLLAR TREE! $1 for the wire hanger and $1 for the coconut liner!!! RUN to your Dollar Tree!

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love and hugs…

Linking to:Visit thecsiproject.com

Metamorphosis Monday


My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Weekend Bloggy Reading

10 comments:

Cassie Bustamante said...

wow!! that looks utterly amazing!!! wonderfully done!

Lenore @ Lather. Write. Repeat. said...

What an improvement! It looks amazing, love all the attention to detail. Your visitors will enjoy stepping into your home.

XO
Lenore

Lou Cinda @ Tattered Hydrangeas said...

AWESOME!!! LOVE the aqua! It just POPS! Beautiful job!

Lou Cinda

Simone @ Doberman's by the Sea said...

Much improvement. Good job.

Unknown said...

So so so cute! Love those planters.

Alison Agnew said...

i think that's the perfect way to use that space...nice shady spot for relaxing and entertaining...love it!

blessings,

alison
stuff and nonsense

Megan said...

It looks great! I'm going to go see if my Dollar Tree has some of those planters today!

Tru said...

Visiting from My Repurposed Life. Very nice. I love that Polly sign!

Amanda @ Serenity Now said...

You know I featured you, but I wanted to say thanks for linking up with me this weekend. :) Great post!

Kathy @ Creative Home Expressions said...

Hey Loulou! To answer your question, what about a cafe curtain type treatment on those windows. Sonya at Beyond the Screen Door blog has some nice examples. I know you probably have some nice fabric you could use and you just use clip rings on the rod. Also, Denise at Bella Dreams blog shows a picture in this post:

http://bella-dreams.blogspot.com/2011/03/forever.html

of one with sheers and fabric at the top. I think that would look great and I'd love to try this type of thing in my dining room for Spring/Summer.

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