Dreaming of a Screened in Porch

Ok, so most of you probably already know that we live in Florida, and in Florida that means rain....and bugs.  We have a really nice back deck, but it tends to not get used as much as it could because it's not covered.  I dream of the day we can put a roof over it and screen it in to keep out those pesky mosquitoes.  I dream of a cozy but practical space where we could eat dinner on nice evenings without the added insect guests, where I could sip my morning coffee without sitting on a dew covered chair, and where we could sit on a porch swing and enjoy a good Florida thunderstorm.

So, I said all of that to lead up to this.  I was contacted about participating in a Florida Room style board challenge and I agreed.  The challenge was to create my dream room, but still keep some of the beachy feel of a typical Florida room.  I get a couple of these types of request every month and I usually turn them down, but this one sounded like fun.  Partly because A) again, I live in Florida, and B) as I stated, I would LOVE to have a Florida room (a.k.a. the screened in porch), and C) it seemed like a fun challenge to take what is typically a coastal/beach themed room and put my own rustic farmhouse spin on it but without completely doing away with the Florida room style.

I didn't want to create an outdoor living room like you see a lot of times because, honestly, that's just not practical in Florida.  I guess if you had an actual room that was temperature controlled it could work, but with a screened in porch type of a room the furniture would get mildewed faster than chocolate melting in the hot Florida sun.  So I chose to keep it outdoor friendly and practical, yet cozy and comfy. 

Here's what I came up with.

Every great porch has to have a porch swing, am I right?!?  And this basic white one is a great crossover piece for the two styles.  Plants are a great way to add a beachy casual feel to a room, but why not tuck them down into a galvanized wash bin stand to make them more rustic styled?  The chippy aqua table with white lanterns add a great coastal touch, but the red plaid rug underneath lends the cozy farmhouse feel.  Nothing says "beach" like wicker and chairs like this would be the perfect cozy addition to a casual porch made for relaxing.  A cute little grain sack striped pillow keeps it from feeling TOO beachy.  A chippy antique door leaned up in the corner is a great farmhouse style piece, and the soft green sign hanging on it is a great coastal color.  The rustic wooden crates make a great little storage area for books, games, shoes when you come in from the yard, and are also a great place to set down your Mason jar drink or morning cup of coffee.  (And by the way, those red Chucks?  Chucks are my very favorite type of shoe!  I have at least 6 pairs in various colors, lol!)  Another little plant tucked inside brings a touch of the outdoor beach feel to it.  And of course, last but not least, lighting.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE string lights and I would SO hang them all around the room for the perfect evening mood lighting.

So there's my take on how to combine a coastal/beach style with rustic farmhouse style and turn it into a cozy place where your family and friends would love to relax.


If you would like the link to any of these items I've included in my style board you can find them {here}, or here are some great Flordia properties for continued inspiration if this sparked your interest.

                                                                      

Sprucin' Up the Porch

Hello my faithful readers!

Today I'm bringing you a story.  A story of a sad sad little porch, neglected and forlorn, looking abandoned for the entire year and a half that the owners lived there.    

It was home to dirty towels and knocked over chairs, stinky socks left out in the rain by little children that can't stand to wear shoes.  A plastic folding table that sometimes served as a patio table was knocked over in a storm and no one ever cared enough to pick it up again or even to (gasp!) put it back in the shed where it belonged.  

It was empty and cold and no one wanted to spend much time there.  It simply served as a walkway to get from the backyard into the house.

But...in the owner's defense, she had been searching and searching for a nice used patio set with 6 chairs to put on the deck, but after months and months of waiting for a good deal, she had just not found the right one.  New sets were way too expensive, and any used sets that did show up on the local yard sale sites were either too junky, not a style that would fit the owner's taste, OR they were located too far away to be worth it.  So....sad and neglected the little porch stayed.

BUT THEN...........

One Saturday night the owner was on her way to pick up pizza for her family for dinner and she made a quick stop at Walmart to pick up a couple of necessities.  She parked by the garden center (which she hadn't been in for months) and quickly made her way in and out so that her family wouldn't starve before she made it home with the pizza.  But on her speedy trail through the garden center and into the store she spied a cute little patio set that was marked $99.  "Hmmmmmm..." she thought to herself, "my little budget could handle $99, and that cute little set could make do until I can afford something bigger."  

So that very night she transferred some of her hard earned money from her little shop into their bank account and first thing Monday morning she headed back to purchase that little set.  She also perused the clearance plant section and bought some .98¢ plants and a $6 mixed container planter.  That afternoon while her children were having quiet time in their rooms she worked on putting the patio set together. Then that evening once the sun had started to set and the porch was finally in the shade she set to work planting all those clearance plants into pots and buckets she already had.  

She scrubbed up the plastic Adirondack chairs that were scattered around the yard and brought them all back to live on the porch again.  

She brought out one of her much loved crates to serve as a plant stand.

The little $3 yard sale chair that never got painted like it was supposed to actually looked very cute with its new coordinating container plant sitting on it.

And finally....finally the little porch was happy and welcoming and the family began to spend time out there each day, eating breakfast under the cute little umbrella, sucking on popsicles in the hot afternoon sun.  Even the pets seemed to enjoy it better.  And in the fall, when the weather turns cool enough again, the family will probably eat almost every meal out here and will immensely enjoy its new found cheery atmosphere.

The End.

** The funny aggravating part of this story is that TWO DAYS after I purchased the little 4 seater patio set for $99, a nice 6 seater used set finally came up on a yard sale site, in my local town, a nice style, decent shape, for $125.  I just shook my head in defeat.  Oh well, you can't win 'em all. **