What I've Learned About Porches In The South!

For the last couple years, since moving into our house, I've had a number of comments and emails from readers asking me for a big reveal post on our wrap-around porches on our house.

I've actually stopped responding to this question because I know that I must get some strange looks and eye rolling when I tell people I'm having a hard time with my porches.  I give myself some eye-rolling and a stern talking to every time I complain too, believe me.

I have a love/hate relationship with my porches.  

I really, really love the view.  I love the wonderful breeze that keeps things cool and comfortable on the hilltop all summer.  I love sitting on the porch in my rocking chairs or porch swing.  I love napping on the porch bed.  I love looking up at my house from the road, way down below and seeing the wrap-around porches.  I love the beadboard ceilings on my porches.

  I dislike the spiders, bugs, and mud dobbers that love the beadboard ceilings.  I dislike the concrete floors that I can't keep clean.  I dislike the worms that love crawling up onto the concrete after a rain.  I dislike the wind in a rain storm that blows all my porch furniture and cushions down the hill.

A couple weeks ago on a beautiful sunny day I began the task of spring cleaning my porches.  I scrubbed walls, windows and floors.  I killed spiders and removed webs.  I scraped off mud dobber nests out of the corners, and worms off the concrete floors.  And it took me three days.  

We have over 900 square feet of porches and that is a lot of porches to clean, believe me.

So here is a tour of our porches, just exactly as they are with no prettying them up.  I'm going to share with you the ideas that I had for these porches when we picked our house plan... and the reality of what it really is!  Including mud boots, no landscaping, and farm messes!  It's called "life on the hilltop reality".

I'm actually kind of okay with our back porch.  We do plan to put a railing on this porch to pretty it up a little bit.  And of course we will eventually have flower beds up to the porch and a lawn.  I don't know if you can tell, but the beadboard ceiling is a very light blue (called "haint" blue here in the South) and I really love it.

The back porch is great because it is a little wider than the other porches so there is a lot of room for a large picnic table that comfortably seats about 10 people.

I also love this chippy old wash stand with my Hydrangea bushes in it.  There is just enough sun, shade and protection that these bushes love it here.

Another favorite is my old metal chair, bench and little table that I redid.  They are comfortable and just heavy enough that they don't blow off the porch in a storm!  

We also have room on the back porch for our large natural gas grill that I use just about every single day.  As well as my outdoor canning station.  So the back porch is functional, comfortable and since it is the door that we are continually using, it is a great porch for dropping our shoes as we head in the door - I guess you could call it an outdoor mud room most of the time!  The back porch faces South so it is a little warmer in the wintertime and shady and lovely in the summertime too.

Next we have the side porch off the dining room.  I had originally envisioned that I would have a picnic table here, as it is right off the dining room so is very handy to the kitchen.  BUT, the setting sun beats on this side of the house about 5:00 every evening - the time you would like to be sitting out on a picnic table!  So that idea went right out the window.  

As for now, we've hung our porch swing (which was a special gift to us when we moved in) and we love where it is.  We will keep it here.  Not sure what I will do on the rest of this side porch.  But one idea I have is a long trestle table with benches that would fit under it and scoot up to the wall.  We could use the table for breakfast because the mornings are beautiful on this side of the house!  The table would look pretty and would be heavy enough it wouldn't blow off the porch in a storm!

We love the swing, it is Eldon's banjo playing spot in the evenings!  

Moving around to the front of the porch.  This is the really long porch and it faces North.  Yes North. Now, if we hadn't been placing our house a certain way on the hilltop for the view, we would've never had this porch facing North.  But it is such a lovely view that who cares that you can't step outside the front door in the wintertime?  Smile!

I have literally done nothing beyond placing black rocking chairs and a couple junk tables that work great for setting my glass of ice tea during the day and my coffee cup at night!  I do love having the rocking chairs and eventually Eldon will build some nice tables to match the trestle table he is going to build on the dining room side!  (He doesn't know this yet!)  

This is looking down the length of porch from the other end - facing West.  And yes, that is a sunset you see in the distance.  We get some of the most amazing sunsets up here on the hilltop.  

Here's proof!

Then walking around the corner of the porch we come to the "sleep porch" on the East side of the house.

So here is the deal on my sleep porch.  I envisioned that it would be this really cozy little corner.  It is private since there are no windows on these walls.  I was going to hang outdoor curtains on the open part of the porch to close it off when we wanted - kind of  like a darling little outdoor bedroom.

I bought the bed off of Craigslist, made the pillows, repurposed an old quilt, hung the wooden flag that I made and painted, and then started looking for curtain ideas.

Then in a wind storm the wooden flag was torn off the wall, the pillows blew off the porch and if there had been curtains they would've been shredded.  

So plans for the sleep porch kind of changed!  However, that is okay because I still love it.  I've actually been known to sleep out here at night and it is lovely.  

  

And why would a person want curtains when you have a view like this?

And this is what I've learned about beautiful Southern Porches:

In real life they don't look like the ones on the cover of Southern Living magazine.

You cannot be afraid of spiders and bugs.  Seriously.

Porches on a hilltop that always have a lovely breeze in the Spring, Summer and Fall have strong winds in the Winter.  You'll be chasing furniture and cushions down the hill.  Make your furniture heavy and your pillows washable.

When you clean your porch ceilings and walls, don't use bleach in the water.  (Or wear waterproof gloves.  I learned the hard way.)

Don't have too much furniture and stuff on your porches or you'll be cleaning around them forever.

You know that song all the little girls in the world are singing - Let It Go?  Yep.  When it comes to trying to keep your porches perfect... just let it go!   And sit in your chairs, nap on the porch bed, swing in the swing... and let it go!

Thanks for coming along on the real life tour of porches on a hilltop farm!