Enjoying Our Porch

Finally, the weather the past week has been glorious! Cool, overcast and perfect for relaxing on a porch and enjoying the fall breeze. So all I needed was a porch to sit on. However, visually my porch looked lonely and quite frankly, a tad ugly.

OUR PORCH BEFORE:

I had a choice, either go sit on someone else's porch or fix mine up. Since no invitations were on the horizon, I knew I had better get busy. I had a few things already: a natural fiber rug, a pair of resin adirondack style chairs in a dark green color, two iron dining chairs, a little cafe table and a few old wood side tables that were in the garage sale pile. (Note to my DH: I apologize I keep pulling things out of the garage sale pile.) However, none of the pieces were the look I was dreaming of, colors and fabrics were all wrong.

IRON DINING CHAIR BEFORE:

Of course, it was the same old story...little cash and a big dream. Wah, wah, wah. I must admit I felt a little discouraged for a while until the usual happened. My undeniable desire for beauty took over and I became resourceful.

PORCH AFTER:

ANOTHER VIEW...

So here's what I did: First I spray painted the iron chairs with a bronze metallic color and then I simply reupholstered the seats in an inexpensive vinyl. As for the resin adirondack chairs, I found a spray paint at Lowe's specifically for resin chairs (who knew?) and painted them black. Easy as pie! There is a great discount remnant fabric store in this city and I found a yard of a beautiful gold damask for $2.00 (!) and recovered the seat cushions. Thank you to my friend Lester, as he gave me the curtains with black fringe ( he had used them for a restaurant party and was getting rid of them). The "head" planters finally found a new home, we picked them up at a yard sale for cheap a year or so ago and the tablecloth is actually just a big piece of vintage fabric.

All said, I spent about $20.00. I re-worked what I had and invested a little time. I know it is not the most beautiful porch but for me, for now, it is just right. Can't wait to show my DH the transformation and sit together for a while with a cool drink....I can almost hear the ice in my mojito clinking. :)