Porch Progress

Here's what we started with when we moved in.  This picture was probably taken around February 2012.  By summer time, my vintage glider (that doesn't glide) was placed along the railing on the left of this photo.  It was always in the blazing sun every afternoon when I wanted to sit in it.  The dining table was placed on the right side because I feared the cushions would get wet from the rain.

February 2012

By the end of the summer, I was sick of not having a shady place to sit.  So, with the help of my mom and aunt, we worked to rearrange the furniture to make it more functional.  

It was very lacking in the furniture department.  Use your imagination.

August 2012

I found this great faux bamboo chair at a thrift store for $10.  The coffee table is a tree stump that had been rotting in our yard for a year or two.  

September 2012

We moved the dining table to the other side, and with the chairs pushed under the cushions are pretty safe from the rain.  The chairs are covered with outdoor fabric to resist fading and mildew, but I also sprayed them with scotch guard for further protection.  The grill was placed in the far back corner where both sides are exposed to rain.

I've own the glider for over 5 years.  It got painted green way back then, but it's been siting out by the fire pit in all the elements for at least 3 years.  It really needed a new paint job.

I decided I was going to go with aqua and paint the side tables coral.  My other thought was to make throw pillows in the same fabric as the dining chairs, but that fabric was discontinued so I found this as a similar alternative.

After one coat, I realize that this color was way too bright.  You can't really tell from the photo, but I took it back to Sherwin Williams and had them tint it with more umber (it's a brown pigment).  In a side by side comparison, it made a huge difference and was so much better.

The glider got painted solid this time (instead of contrasting squares) because I was planning on adding a cushion to the bottom.  I was lucky enough to find one the perfect size online.  It was around $60, but since everything else came from a thrift store, I figured I could splurge.

Somewhere around this point I started getting very stressed about what colors to paint the other furniture.  All the colors had to be inspired by this cushion (from Pier 1) that I bought way before any of this started.

Enter Photoshop.

Being a very visual person, I needed to SEE the colors before deciding.  This next series of photos shows all the color combos I was playing around with in photoshop.  

I actually painted the above color scheme (with cranberry tables and gray chair) and it stayed that way for the winter.  But I was still on the hunt for throw pillows.  Ideally, Pier 1 would sell throw pillows to match the cushion, but they don't.  The rest of the furniture really needed to draw some of the colors out of the Pier 1 cushion.  I needed some fabric that had yellow or green in it.  And in real life, the aqua with coral, with whatever color pillows I add (like yellow) was looking way too circus (blue, red, yellow).  

So the tables got painted for a 4th time.  They aren't matching tables, but I got them both at Goodwill for $5 each.  I think some kind of stained wood would look nice since there is a lot of painted furniture going on.  But it's too much work to strip them.  I painted them a wood color called "brilliant oak" with a $3 sample pot from Lowes.  Such a calming effect compared to the cranberry color.  If you are still on team cranberry, just trust me on this one.  I bought and tried yellow pillows.  It was crazy-town.

Then something amazing happened!  After looking for the Pier 1 fabric all over the internet, and determining it's not sold anywhere.  A few month later it popped up on Fabric.com under their "just arrived" fabrics for $6/yd.  Made my day!!!

So I ordered a yard and recovered two pillows I already owned.  And found two aqua pillows at walmart for $7/each.

I'm still not totally sold on the white bamboo chair.  I tried yellow but it wasn't working.  I almost tried green, but thought it would be a waste of $5 spray paint if I didn't like it.  White is safe.  White also looks great as a photo prop in a field.

So there you have it.  It took me a year, but I can basically put the "done" stamp on this project.  

Oh, I didn't show you what I found at a thrift store last time I was visiting my parents.  This pair of concrete planters that welcome you as you step up onto the deck.  Classic.

Throw Pillow Covers

Another project I've waited a year to do.  With good reason: I didn't have a sewing machine.  But I got this one for Christmas, so pillows were at the top of my list!

We've been using two throw pillows, one of which was purple and didn't go with anything in the room.  The other was the quilted turquoise one in the photos below, which I got from one of those fair trade things from Africa during the Southern Christmas Show years ago (and I still love it).

We have opened shelving in the kitchen, and italian pottery dishes that are muted green and yellow.  

So, those colors had to fit into the whole room's color scheme.  But since I like bright blues, greens, and grays I added pops of aqua/turquoise to the mix, so our living room color scheme is more like this.

Yellow, green, aqua, charcoal, and white.

It helps that our hand-me-down rug is blue.  There are worse colors.

It was surprisingly hard to find a patterned fabric that had some arrangement of those colors in it that wasn't old fashioned looking or didn't have a white background.  I didn't want a light background because it would look washed out on the tan slipcover.  

I finally found a fabric that had charcoal and green with a little blue in it.  But $16/yard was a little steep.  Luckily I only needed 5/8th of a yard, so I went for it.  I also found yellow duck cloth (canvas-like) that was $8/yard.

One was for a 20 inch pillow, the other for 18 inch.  Pillow forms themselves are very expensive, in my opinion.  Usually $12 for 16in, and $15 or more for a 20in.  I have several bags full of old pillow forms that are still in great shape(many never used).  The larger pillow form is actually from Ikea.  It was a 24 x 20 inch pillow with an ugly royal blue cover on it.  And it was on clearance for $7.  Yes, please!  I got two.

But the rectangular size made them look like bed pillows.  I remedied that by ripping it opened and pulling out a good bit of stuffing and then taking it in 4 inches on one side and restuffing and sewing it back up. 

I followed a blog tutorial for a envelope pillow cover.  It really was as super easy as they say.  You cut one long piece of fabric and fold it around the back, instead of cutting two pieces.  I wasn't ready to try my hand at zippers. 

Here is the back side with the opening.

Applique pillows are all over Pinterest.  Animal appliques are all the rage and I almost did a rabbit or fox.  After browsing I found some naturey shapes like branches and leaves that I liked.  All I did was free hand a design just by looking at the picture.  I drew it straight onto leftover drop cloth fabric.

Cut it out and pinned it to my already hemmed, but not folded around envelope pillow.  Then sewing in a contrasting thread (gray).  This was the time consuming part.  I haven't yet washed it to let it fray completely, but I did try and fray it with my fingers.

This was my inspiration photo.

(photo credit: http://www.etsy.com/listing/81113489/handprinted-rustic-hessian-hare-cushion?ref=usr_faveitems)

The last pillow actually wasn't planned out like the others.  I just wanted to make a t-shirt pillow because they are so soft.  And I had a stack of t-shirts that were going to goodwill.

I used this blog as a reference, but also just winged it.

Seriously SOOOO soft and cuddly.  I really need to make more!

Trim and Door Choices

Often I have to refer to my catalog of inspirational photos when building our house or making decorating decisions. This time it was for window and door trim and doors.

I hate the "typical" trim that is in most houses(like ALL the houses I've lived in). It looks wimpy and cheap. I love the trim that is in old houses. Large, but not ornate.










I love how it give a new home an older craftsman look. And yes, it does cost more. But this is the one thing I can't/won't upgrade at a later date(not like a light fixture or faucet). And with a big picture window in the living room with our couches centered in front of it, I'll be staring at the trim everyday, either loving it or hating it. So, while we are pinching where-ever possible(lighting, plumbing, flooring, cabinets, countertops, rugs), I decided it was worth a little splurge to really upgrade our house into something really special looking.

As for interior door options, our supplier had these:


I liked the simple clean lines of the circled one. Again, I really don't like the typical 6-paneled doors. General rule-of-thumb: If everyone has it, I don't like it.

Since it was the "smooth skin" kind, I searched for pictures of doors in my inspiration rooms, so see what those people had in their houses. Funny part is, no one takes pictures of their doors. So it was really hard to find a door photo in a real home. I did find one picture of something close to this door. It has the smooth skin(instead of that fake wood grain texture), but ours has raised panels. I prefer the one in the photo, but ours are fine too. You can barely see it in the far right of the photo.




So, this is a larger version of our door selection(already installed in our house):


We actually only have 3 doors(master bedroom, bathroom, and pantry). We're not installing a door in our walk-in closet. I'll hang a curtain to save space. We really don't want to be fighting a door in our small room. The second bedroom doorway is a double wide(accessed through the master), which we are keeping opened for now. I love how much light it lets it. It makes our bedroom feel so much bigger and you are surrounded by windows. Lastly, the laundry closet needs bi-fold doors which WILL be the standard solid 6 panel doors because our style door doesn't come in bi-fold style.

Selecting the exterior door(our front door) was not so simple. I had a few functional requirements. The main one being that there was a window on the top, low enough for me to see out of on tip toes, but not low enough for people standing outside the door to see in. The door is positioned in the hallway in the middle of the house, so say one of us is in a towel in the bathroom or even living room and there is a knock on the door. Well, you have to walk past the window to get to the bedroom for clothes. Not good.

I found several from the vender that I liked. Three with the proper window, two with bigger windows.




I love the two on the end with the larger window, but I don't think I can live walking past that window all the time(and the stairwell is hidden, so there won't be any sunlight coming in anyway). So out of the first 3 I like the 2nd one best. I even made a little diagram showing what it might look like next to the bi-fold closest door(they're right next to each other in the short hallway).



Ok, now I like the 3 panel even more. I told our contractor to order it.

Then, he found out the price and told me....

$500

Um....no.

They are all $500.

So they all got scrapped and we are getting el cheapo from Lowes with the yucky arched window.



















It's fine. It's normal. So I don't like it. But it's $200, so it's ours. In reality it won't be seen that much and won't show from the outside from the outside of the house, so it's not worth the extra moolah to get a fancy one this go-round. Save that for our next house. So much for all that time and thought.

Blackout

We lost power last night during a rain storm. I guess a tree fell or something because it wasn't a big storm. It was nearly bedtime, so it didn't inconvenience us too much. Actually, I was quite excited because you know what a power outage means: Whip out them candles!

When my mom came to visit a few weeks ago, she brought me a gift from her favorite antique/junk store. It was these hurricane candle sticks:























What's so exciting about these candle sticks? Well, you can walk around with them without holding a hand behind them to shield them from the wind. And they have a convenient handle! For the most part, they sit on a table and occationally get lit. But last night, we got to use them in their full glory! Fun!!


















Praise the Lord that the power outage didn't happen the night before when I was home alone! I don't think I could have gone to sleep!

I got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell...I mean CHAIRS!

I know I said the last orange chair was a keeper, but I may have found a new love. I'm a sucker for old wood finishes. Up close you can see the beauty of this antique wood and you'll never guess where I found it!! GOODWILL! Yes, I know it doesn't have a seat, but that's the fun part because I wouldn't have kept the seat that was on there anyway.



















I imagine some old repurposed piece of fabric, like this quilt, but not so much white. That's just to give an idea of how you need to keep with the original style of the chair and find a fabric that looks as old as the finish. A search for the perfect fabric could take a while. I hope it will be one of those "know it when you see it" moments.