A Small Makeover for The Back Porch

                                     

I've been meaning to get all the work done on the front porch that was needed.  It's a slow process because it needs so much work and I mean that sincerely.  I think the last time the porch floor and the chairs were painted was when Katie was still at home about 6 or 7 years ago.  Add to the general chipping/peeling paint just good old fashioned dirt...Well it's gonna be a while yet before I get to show off  the work I'll have done out there.



So I noticed the back porch was awfully neglected.  I'd started to decorate it last Fall and not made much progress.  Partly this was due to the fact that while I had a vision, I couldn't find the items I thought I had.  I'm a make do gal, as you know by now.  Then this past May between our visits to family, vacation and my unexpected illness, well the back porch just sort of went by the wayside. Plants curled up and died and dust settled and there it stayed.

I bought the door mat last year and really used it as my jumping off point for color in this little makeover.

Back in the Spring, I did manage to buy a little white metal tray table for the front porch.  I liked it very much and as I watched the supply dwindle at Dollar General, this orange table remained.  I decided to bring it home simply because I liked the one I had so much.  I meant to use it on the front porch, or even save it as a back up table,  but I set it down here on the back porch.  I noted then that there was orange in the floor mat.  And my inspiration was born to do something with the back porch.

Honestly, I thought I was looking at a one day makeover, a little freshening and decorating and be done by end of day.  Ha!

That bright and shiny new table just sort of played up how badly the rocker had weathered without a proper outdoor finish to shield it.  I'd seen a rocker on the cover of Country Living a few months back that I just loved but I didn't see anything near that color range.  I found a shade I liked at Lowes.  It's a Sherwin Williams color called Landscape Palm.

It didn't look half so bright in the store on the card...I may add some stain to 'age' it a little.  Honestly with the orange table this corner is looking mighty bright at present.  We'll see if I can leave it bright or if I have to tone it down, lol.  It's a departure for me, honestly.

Then I moved to the entry wall...

I had a star already and the baby crib springs which used to be in my Mama's baby bed some 78 years ago. I'd had all sorts of ideas for those springs but in the end they just hung on the wall.  I had a small enamel pan I found in Granny's yard that I was using as a scoop for potting soil and that was all I did for over a year.  I didn't much care for the oxblood color of the star.  The star is actually camouflaging a badly patched spot on the siding. 

decorated at Christmas

 I'd pictured the springs with all kinds of kitschy sorts of things.  .In the end I didn't like anything, and left it bare.  

I'd put some melamine plates I bought years ago out on the front porch, planning to incorporate them out there.  As I came up on the porch one day I pictured the plates here instead.  I knew just what I wanted to do with them, too.  I started with this and ended up with this:

I made the welcome sign from an old plaque I'd had on hand for the longest time.  It was an odd shade of brown and wasn't quite my personality.  Red enamel spray paint changed that and the star as well.   I ultimately decided to stencil in the lettering on the sign in black which I felt was more easily read from the yard. I had a gold paint pen however, and since I bought paint for the rocker and need floor paint for the front porch, I felt it was best to use what I had.   The back door is where most people come to right away, so I felt house numbers and a Welcome sign were appropriate here, more than on the front porch where only the very strangest of strangers ever come.

As an aside, I am so totally nuts over that blue on the "C"...I think I want to put that same color on my back door which is in need of paint and currently is plain old white...But that is another project for another day.

Of course, all that painting and fresh shiny surfaces only played up the dullness of the khaki paint on the table and chairs.  Naturally I painted those afresh as well.  I chose to use what I had: oil rubbed bronze. I like the way the darker color balances the bright ones out here.

I didn't care for the old mosaic of the table. It's not real mosaic and while it was serviceable, it had begun to show it's age.  The khaki/gray/white coloring wasn't really suited to what I wanted with all the color out here either. I tried contact paper but I didn't care for what I had on hand.  Finding anything wide enough for the table was also a problem.

In the end, I purchased another can of Oil Rubbed Bronze and painted the mosaic the same color as the rest of the table/chairs.  It's not half bad looking and it keeps the brights on the other side of the porch and the brights on the wall from looking garish I think.

 I wasn't sure I'd like the table as a 'solid' and looked hard at other paint colors to see if I thought any would work as a compliment but John urged me to do 'just do one color'.  It's not bad.  We'll see if it holds up.  I used a good quality Rustoleum paint that is all purpose for multiple surfaces.

I've shown you the new wreath for the back door.  I am still loving those crazy colors in the center of the old sunflowers.



 I've used the burlap wreath three seasons so far.  I've had the sunflower picks for two years or more.  I used them last year with a homespun fabric as the flower center.  As I dug through my fabric stash I came across this fun print.  It incorporates all the colors I'm using on the back porch and works well with the door mat.

The idea was to purchase fresh plants and complete the porch entirely, but in the end, I didn't get out of the house.

I won't tell you I'm done.  I really wanted to do more out here and I might yet, but it's been two or three weeks working on these two porches and I'm ready to be done for a bit with this one at least.  I have a wooden box where I keep a few gardening tools that I'd like to spruce up a bit and I'd like to make the grill area on the porch a little more user friendly and I want a bench for extra seating...But all of that can wait.  I will likely buy a few fresh plants soon, but in the meantime I did purchase one Celosia which freshens things up a little.

So we'll call it good enough for now.