a little back porch update.

Hi there friends!

After reclaiming our porch from Pip the squirrel (who’s still happily living in our backyard), and getting to add a couple of fun touches for my Mother’s Day gifts, I decided to take some pictures. David and I realized the one of our favorite features of having a blog is documenting the way our house evolves over the years.

If I waited for each room to feel completely finished before posting pictures, we wouldn’t have any! So here’s our porch at the end of spring, 2020.

 

 

Several of you have asked about our furniture. It’s the IKEA SOLLERON series, here’s the link to the loveseat, and you can poke around and assemble the layout/pieces you want. I did a lot of research and price comparison. Are they as comfortable as a $1200 loveseat and $800 chairs? No. But we’ve spent a lot of time on them and are pleasantly surprised with the quality and how solid they feel.

 

 

David sealed the beadboard ceiling this winter, and the next step is to hang string lights (see what I mean about never being completely finished?). We’ll probably wait until fall now, when things cool off and daylight savings is over.

 

 

In case you haven’t noticed, I love tropical plants and succulents. And they love our very sunny porch!

 

 

Now for the fun additions: that table is new-to-us from David’s dad’s former office, and it’s much nicer than the old IKEA table we had there previously (see this post). This table is sturdy, and can easily fit our family of six for a meal.

I also ordered a rug, which makes it more homey. My goal is to make the porch feel like a room in our house.

 

 

The rug colors felt a little bold to me — I usually choose things that are more muted — but David said that space needed a splash of color, and he was right.

 

 

We still have the trusty carpet ball table, which gets played with occasionally. Mostly by visiting friends!

 

 

I was excited to get a shoe organizer, yet for some reason, I had to pick all the shoes off the porch floor and put them on there for this post.

 

 

My Mother’s Day gift from David and the kids was the Bear Lake print. Not that I didn’t like the gigantic squirrel cage that was there before, of course.

 

 

I love the memories it brings back from our epic road trip (here’s our Bear Lake hike). I also love The Landmark Project, where we bought it, and highly recommend their shop. They’re Greenville-based, so you’re supporting a “local” business!

 

 

 

We’ve been enjoying the porch all spring long. Now it’s getting pretty hot and sticky by noon. We’ve considering hanging a couple of bamboo shades next to the table to block the late afternoon sun, but either way, I think the porch will be mostly used in the spring and fall. David and I tried watching a movie out there last night with the fans on, but gave in when we found we were both sweating. South Carolina summers aren’t for the faint of heart.

That’s okay! We’re so thankful for this beautiful, inspiring space.