The Porch Life

The weather has officially become "porching" weather and we are eating a lot of meals outside on our back porch now!  The back porch is probably used the most because it has shade all the time.  

It's great for our long picnic table that I refurbished last summer.  This year I decided to put a permanent table cloth on it.  So I purchased several yards of the laminated fabric and used my staple gun to attach it underneath.  I also covered some old foam with fabric I bought at Ikea this winter.  It isn't outdoor fabric so I don't expect it to last beyond this summer but I sure love how it looks.  

On the other side of my porch is one of my favorite things.  I love my metal chairs and table.  I purchased the very rusty chair and little table a couple years ago and re-did them once.  But I had done the sanding myself and I wasn't able to completely remove the rust, therefore I was never very happy with the end result.  Then some very dear friends gave me this....

It is a wonderful old metal bench with a very sweet history and they entrusted me with it.  When they gave it to me, it had at least six coats of paint that I could see!  I took it, the chair and the little table to a local man that does some sandblasting and priming and this was the result after he finished!  

 I struggled with what color I wanted to paint the three pieces and eventually settled on glossy black.  I love them so much.  

I wanted to make some throw pillows and when I started digging in my fabric stash I came across some tea towels that I had purchased from Target a few years ago and stuck away for this very thing... and promptly forgot about them!  It was like a gold mine!  I love the grain sack feel that they give.

I also painted this little children's chair while I was at it.  It had been a sort of vintage rusty look and it never quite looked right for my porch.  

I've got a few herbs growing in pots here and there.  This old ammunition box got set here to use for another project and I ended up loving how it looked with the pots on it, so it stayed!

And then there are my old wash tubs and stand that I love so much.  The hydrangeas seem to love this spot.  It is shady and the dirt stays moist.  

Our back porch is not actually complete yet.  We will be putting up railing, stairs, and eventually I will paint the concrete floor.  But the focus has shifted to building a garage/shop and so next year we will focus on finishing porches and doing landscaping.  

I have discovered that 900 square feet of porches requires a lot of thinking when it comes to furnishing them.  We have so many factors to take into consideration:  we are a working farm and we have muddy boots and animals, there is always a good breeze on the hilltop so the furniture has to be sturdy so it doesn't blow off the porches (and the hilltop),  and they require a lot of work to clean so I don't want to constantly be moving junk around.  

As of right now this is the condition of my front porch.  Very, very minimalist and not at all complete.    It is a really long porch with side porches off of each end.   

And we can't put too much clutter on the porches because where would my precious Grand-girls skate and scoot?  

(Our son and daughter-in-law just a swinging')

And finally on one end we have this wonderful hanging swing that I love.  It was given to us by very special friends.  We all seem to gravitate to this swing. 

I do have a lovely metal bed and "sleep porch" on the other side.  That will be another blog post, another day. 

So that is the story of my porches today.  They need a lot of attention and a lot of creative thinking... but with a view like that we don't need much except a swing right?  (Smile!)