A shelf for the porch!

Please visit Susan at http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/ for some wonderful Outdoor Wednesday posts!

 An old window converted to a shelf. Found at the annual antique alley sale a few miles from my house. I LOVE JUNKIN!!

Porch Party: Before and After pics

 

 

Welcome to Rhondi’s Porch Party! Please visit her at Rose Colored Glasses for a list of participants. Rhondi did this last year, and it was the second blogging event I participated in.  Thanks Rhondi for doing this again, so that we can all see the great looking porches of our blogging friends-both old and new.

When we bought our home in 2003, it had this hideous red deck on the back. We loved lots of things about the home-mostly the location-but this red deck was not one of them! It was my dream from the beginning to add a screened porch to the back of the house. It didn’t take us too long…we did it the summer of 2005, and were in the middle of construction when Katrina came along. The porch was a great help then since the roof was on and we were able to spend lots of time there since our power was off for 6 days. It was definitely the coolest spot in the house.

This is the outside of the house today with the porch added. The porch includes 2 sets of French Doors, but we screened about 3/4 of the porch and left one area open.

 This picture shows the area that was not screened in. We use this area for grilling out.

An interior view…..

 Another view that shows the wicker. The wicker was originally white or tan, and was bought at different points in time from garage sales, flea markets, etc and spray painted the same green color. The cushions were covered from tablecloths I bought on sale  for $1.00 each at Walmart. I didn’t sew them…took the lazy way and pinned the fabric to the back of the cushions. LOL

 Something I enjoy doing is picking up accessories at thrift stores and garage sales for my porch like this little rabbit in a planter.

 Pillows from the thrift store………………

A cute little ladybug house-found at a flea market.

And this Southern Living at Home basket to hold house plants. One of my favorite spots is the porch. I love to admire the flowers through the comfort of the porch. These purple coneflowers are really putting on a show right now!

A hydrangea planted next to the open part.

A view looking into the woods. I got the tea cup bird feeders ‘free’ at an estate sale…bought enough other stuff, so they were just thrown in! 

I hope you enjoyed visiting my porch! It is one of my favorite spots at my house.

Thanks for stopping by…be sure and visit the other porches on Rhondi’s site!

Diane

Outdoor Wednesday: A Bunny Pic

Susan from A Southern Daydreamer is hosting Outdoor Wednesday! Be sure to stop by and visit her for lots of outdoor posts.


This is a pic of a little rabbit on our back porch last summer. I had to take the picture through the glass because I knew if I opened the door the bunny would scurry away so excuse the funny color of the eyes!

It has been really cold here in the deep south, and I'm really longing for some milder temperatures so I can get outside more.
In the background is a prayer bench from an antique store that I use on the porch for plants, bird feeders etc. I bought this several years ago for almost nothing!

I am thinking of painting it white. But the project is going to have to wait til we have a few warmer days.

Thanks for stopping by!

Fall Porches On Parade

One of the first blogging posts that I did was a porch party post for Rhondi of Rose Colored Glasses. Now Melissa at the Inspired Room is having a fall porch parade. What fun! You can click on the icon at the top to visit other fall porches on parade

We'll start the tour at my front door. Here is a fall arrangement that my daughter Kelli of Sassy Southern Mom created using my Southern Living at Home container.
You might recognize these mums and this sign I bought at the thrift store-I've used them in my header. I've added a coffee can spray painted orange with a pumpkin face.
Here's the Parisian Luminaries I posted about a few days ago on the porch. They really look pretty in the dark.
Now we will move on to the neighbor's houses. When Connor stayed with me last week during his fall break, we got on the golf cart and did another neighborhood tour looking for fall and Halloween decor.

This little house had the most Halloween decoration and she has added to it since we made this picture. It is really cute at night.There are little orange lights all over the shrubs that light up the area.
I really liked this one. The scarecrow is a quilted hanging. Notice the unique pumpkin on the left. The man of the house came out when we snapped this pic....I was kinda embarrassed and had to tell him what we were looking for! He said it was okay!
This is another one that is really special at night. The door is outlined with orange blinking lights. I thought the scarecrow couple were adorable!
Then we got in the car and drove across town. The next three pictures are of a house that really went all out on the Halloween decor! The entire yard is full of Halloween inflatables! We are going to have to make it back by there at night before she takes all this down!
Hope you enjoyed a few of the fall porches in area! I'm looking forward to visiting the others. Please go to The Inspired Room for others on the tour. Thanks Melissa for being our hostess!
Diane

Out of the Black Box Party

I love reading Joy's blog at Joys of Home. She takes stuff from thrift shops or garage sales and creates the most wonderful treasures out of someone's trash. She uses lots of black spray paint in her transformations...and you can blame her or thank her for many of my black spray paint projects I've posted recently. She has inpired me to see the potential is stuff!
She is hosting a blogging event today. The idea is to post something we've spray painted but not black! I have lots of projects I wanted to do, but it has rained all weekend, so spray painting outside hasn't been possible.
So, I'm going to show you some pics of the wicker on my screened porch. I have sprayed a total of 6 pieces. The color is Willow by American Accents. The wicker was all different...some from flea markets, some given to me, and some bought at yard sales.

This is the couch and coffee table The couch was white, and the table natural before painting. The little green tool box was bought at a flea market and was already this color.

Here's a former white rocker and in the background a former natural wicker plant stand.

And this piece was brown at one time. I bought the little table at a thrift store, and it was already this color.

It's fun decorating and reviving something with spray paint...I get lots of compliments on my wicker...some people think I bought it that color! And if I get tired of it...I'll just change the color..with spray paint of course!

Please come back by tomorrow....I'm going to post a Decorator's Challenge. I have a frame that orginally had a mirror in it that I got for $1.00 at a garage sale this weekend. I would love to have some input on what to do with it! I'm sure you talented bloggers will have lots of ideas.
Thanks for coming by. Have a great day.

Tour of Homes

Julia at Hooked on Houses is hosting a Tour of Homes. I always love to go on tours of homes when they are available locally. Click on this icon to see a list of all the homes featured. I'm looking forward to seeing the homes on this cyber tour!


On the tour, I'll show you the outside of our home and an addition we made after moving here. The cottage style house is about 13 years old. We sold our other home when the area we were living in went commercial, and a campground trailer park was put in right in front of us! We found this house when it first went on the market. It has been a 'fixer' upper...we have had to do lots to it! But I liked the style and the view from the porch from the beginning. As they say...location, location, location! And the house is in a great location!


The front porch is almost the length of the house . Here is a closer view of one side of the porch.
I made this picture while sitting in one of the rockers. We are across from the largest of seven lakes. The house sits at an angle on the one acre lot.

Before I show you the addition made to the back, I want you to see a before picture. Look right past the cute little redhead and you will see what was behind the house. When we bought it, there were 2 sets of French doors that lead out to the most hideous red deck you can imagine! Before we even signed the papers, I knew that we would have to do something about the deck! I wish I had a better picture of it so you could see how ugly it really was!


We decided to add a screened porch. After getting several estimates, we found a contractor that we liked and decided to go ahead with the project. This is one view of the screened porch added to the back of the house.
Try to overlook the huge elephant ears (a gardening mistake LOL) and you can see how the contractor tied the porch in by adding a roof line that matched the one already there. I really enjoyed working with this contractor. He understood what we wanted from the beginning.

The porch addition actually has two parts...a screened part and a part not screened in. This picture shows that part.
I like the curb appeal of this house, and have enjoyed living near a lake. There are lots of little things I would change about the house, but if we had it to do over, we would buy this house again....mostly because of the location and views!

The inside of the house has been a real challenge...I'll show that another time when I have a chance to get together the before and after pictures! Thanks for stopping by.