Summer Porch Makeover

Hey, Friends! Happy Tuesday ( my birthday! ) to y’all! I just got back from a fun trip to Mississippi with my Mom & Aunt Betty. We went to see my Mom’s best friend’s granddaughter’s wedding, and visit some other relatives we hadn’t seen in a long time. The wedding was a beautiful outdoor wedding by a lake…in June…in the South. Boy.was.it.HOT!!! But we had a great time and my Mom, Aunt Betty, and I stayed in a beautiful lake house for 3 days while we were there ( thanks Nita and Frank!! ) Mississippi is where my Mom grew up, and her best friend is Nita. Nita has a son and a daughter who are 2 weeks apart in age from my brother and me.  Her son is the oldest and her daughter the youngest, just like in my family. Crazy coincidence, huh?! Anyway, Leah ( Nita’s daughter ) has a daughter named Alex, and she was the one whose wedding we went to see. It was a country wedding complete with the bridesmaids in dresses and cowboy boots, the groomsmen in  jeans & dress shirts with vests and boots, and fried fish and bottled Cokes at the reception. The picnic tables under the pavilion were decorated with burlap runners and pinky/blue/purple hydrangeas in aqua Mason jars.  Fun idea, and everything was just lovely.The cakes were beautiful and delicious. The brides’ cake was white with coral ribbon and Gerber daisies made out of fondant. It was huge and the details were unbelievable ( pleating around the edges ) The grooms’ cake was a rugged fishing/hunting/4 wheeling one with equal unbelievable details. It looked like a scene in a museum with water and dirt made out of icing and candy detailing for the rocks,etc. I made a new fun friend, Amber, whose Mom and Nita are cousins. We had a blast laughing and talking. And guess who whacked the holy you-know-what out of her head in the ATV riding down to the lake for the wedding? Yes, yours truly. Dang, it hurt. You know I Googled “CONCUSSION” when we got back to the lake house. lol 🙂

 We also went to visit my Mom’s other sister and her husband, my Aunt Judy and my Uncle Roy. They have a farm with chickens, horses, a lake, and vegetable gardens.( I shared a few pictures of our trip on Instagram.) I love it there because it’s so peaceful,and brings back so many sweet memories of our younger years when we would go visit our Grandmother, ride horses with our cousins Dexter and Emily, fish, ride in the truck across the pasture, get tractor rides from my Uncle Roy, and eat garden fresh Southern food. My Mom has such a large family living around that area and there were always cousins to play with and relatives and friends to go visit. Sweet times!

In my last post, I shared a product, Behr Deckover, that we used a few months ago to repaint our 12 year old deck. Today, I want to share some of the paint finishes &  fabric choices I used to update our wrap around porch after we painted it. Here is a “before”  shot of our back porch to show you the old colors.   We had dark brown floors and railing with apple green chairs, and my front door had been a rosy red color for many years. Obviously, we needed to change and update in a BIG way. When we decided on the new gray brown color for the floor with white railing all around the back deck, it was the perfect neutral palette to use more pale aqua which I love. These were much “cooler” colors than we had previously, but it all went beautifully with the siding.

We painted the Adirondack chairs and bench on the back porch in Behr’s ” Mermaid Net ” ( as seen here ) with the HomeRight fine mist paint sprayer, which gives a flawless and beautiful finish to furniture. I found the aqua and tan/white ikat outdoor fabrics that I used for the seat cushion covers and pillows at Joann’s. The soft aqua color is called, “Spa.” I treated all fabrics with an additional coating of Thompson’s Water Seal Fabric Seal. The large chair and sofa seat cushions are Sunbrella cushions that I found last year at Marshall’s. They had enough cushions for all my wicker furniture in a great neutral color, so I jumped at that opportunity. I also added an additional coat of the Thompson’s product on these cushions, and everything has held up really well.

I have plans to repaint all the wicker a deeper gray brown, similar to the front door…just haven’t done that yet with our busy Summer…I found this iron table years ago for a bargain at Kirkland’s because it was missing the top, so we went to a marble shop here in Georgia and had one cut for it. It was easy and inexpensive!

You may remember the post about the driftwood product I used on this table~it made such a difference in the overall color scheme of the porch with its’ gray tone.

Mark sanded & repainted our copper tiki torches that were looking old and rusty. I really love the copper accents with the new paint color, aqua outdoor fabrics, and weathered wood. He made them look new again!

I painted the front door in an old Duron color called “Caribou.” Our HardiePlank is also by Duron in an older color called “Pewter Works.” That was the original color of our house 12 years ago, and it still is a great color. It appears more gray brown sometimes, and other times more tan gray, but it’s such a great neutral that has stayed current with all the gray that has appeared in design in the past couple of years. I have decided to repaint the front door again soon…can you guess what color?! ( update: door has since been updated yet again! Click here for that 🙂  )

I decided salmon and pink flowers would be pretty with the updated colors, and bought these aged pots a few years ago at this great store in Chattanooga while visiting my parents. The orbs came from another store I love in Tennessee called, “Trees & Trends.” It’s alot like a Hobby Lobby, but has alot more home decor, including outdoor cushions, ironwork, fountains, etc. I love going when I visit Mom & Dad.

Love the crusty candelier I found online a few years ago…I have a project in mind for it coming up ( hopefully, I can get to it this Summer )

My little Sadie Blue girl with her intense stare directed at the neighbor’s dog, Taloolah~

I’m so glad to finally have a big project like this deck repainting complete! The new neutral colors really updates our house and makes it look fresh again. I tried to think of this space in each season when I made paint color and fabric choices. What do you think? Can you see shells in the Summer, Christmas greenery & twinkley white lights at Christmas? What about pumpkins and pansies in the Fall? 

Thanks as always for stopping by! Have a great week, y’all. Next time, I’ll share something I’m doing in our upstairs hall to update and add a little pizzazz & interest. Please come back and let me know what you think! 🙂

Til next time,

xoxo