I can feel it, Spring is in the air! We’re supposed to get up to a *balmy* 65 degrees today here in New England in February! I’m going to soak in every second of it today. How do you like to spend your day when the weather gets warm? For me, I love hanging out on our front porch and watch traffic go by. We live across from a football field too so I like to watch all the activities that’s going on, whether they’re practicing football and soccer, or playing cricket. Trust me, I love my dose of being surrounded by nature and quietness but I’m a city girl and I love to hear all the hustle and bustle, too. People-watching is one of my favorite things to do and imagining what their lives are like and what their story is. It’s so fun, and not creepy at all…lol.
Since spending time on the porch is on our agenda, I want to share with you the changes we’ve made to it to make it feel cozy and welcoming. We hang out on the porch a lot in the Spring, Summer and Fall so I wanted to make sure it was comfortable for us. Naps are important, too. And every time we have a party, all the kids tend to gravitate towards the porch. When we purchased the house, the old homeowners used it for a kids’ room and toy storage. That was the route that we were going to take but after living there for a while, I saw some inspiration photos and thought, no, I want it to feel like an adult space but make it kid-friendly and livable. Which is pretty much the way we approach the style of the whole house. I want pretty and practicality, and I think that’s achievable in any space. It just takes time. So without further ado, here is what the porch looked like:
They did a nice job picking out the windows. The laminate floors I’m not crazy about but it’s good enough. Of course I had to change the paint color. At first we painted it Palladian Blue by Benjamin Moore and it was nice but I didn’t love it. After looking on Pinterest and seeing a bunch of inspiration photos, there was one that stood out that made me say, “Yeah, I want it to feel like that!”
I loved the way this room felt…airy, cozy, lots of sunshine, and a perfect place to take a nap or curl up with a good book. It has a farmhouse charm to it that I can’t resist. So with this photo, I set out to recreate something that was similar with what I already had. We have this old brown couch that we had to work with and as much as I wanted to go just buy a new couch that I love from Ikea, now is not the time to do that. So we’re just working with it for now until we can afford to change it out. Even a slipcover for it is like over $200! It’s old and slouchy but super comfortable. We re-painted the walls again to Revere Pewter by BM and painted the trim white, just like my office. I don’t think you can go wrong with this color at all, especially if you’re getting a lot of sunlight in the room. It really helped with making the room feel “airy”. And so, here are the changes for your viewing pleasure!
I like the pop of colors so the room doesn’t seem so washed out and boring. In the summer, we like to string up lights and it makes the room look so pretty. The rattan bins planking the couch and the dresser are used to house the children’s toys and games, (and our karaoke microphones!), so it makes clean up a breeze! I may add some wall hanging lanterns to put on each side of the magnolia wreath (which I got from Michaels) but other than that, the room is pretty much complete. Now all we have to do is wait for Spring to get here and we’ll get to really enjoy it! Here are a couple more photos for you!
What do you think of the changes? Do you think I nailed it? Wanna come join me for drinks and chatter sometime? Haha. Thanks for joining me today, friends. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Stay lovely,
Jeap
List of products used: Couch (bought at a cheap furniture store 5 years ago), rug from Wayfair.com (out of stock but here is something similar), Ikea curtains, Magnolia wreath, rattan bins and silver lanterns are all from Michaels, wooden starburst mirror from Target (I purchased when it was on clearance), dresser that we stained is from Ikea (looks like they no longer carry), bench and coffee table (hand me downs that we painted and stained ourselves), rattan chair from Ikea, crystal knobs for dresser I purchased from Marshalls, striped area rug from Homegoods