Opulent Cottage: Front Porch, Almost Fall

At the end of every summer, we seem to gravitate to our front porch. The pool and backyard are full of falling pecans, and the mosquitoes are rampant. Maybe we’re just ready for a change of scenery. Maybe we’re dreaming of cooler weather, when we can use the vintage chimenea that sits out front. For today’s Makeover Open House, I really just wanted to show you the bench that I redid, but now you’re getting a whole front porch, because I couldn’t stop taking photos!

Our front porch was robbed of its furniture when I redid the back seating area this spring. This is what it looked like a few days ago.

That’s really sad.

This is what it looks like today.

Well, that’s better! I did not even buy a single thing. This whole transformation started with the traditional wood bench that was another big trash day find, in tired, but decent, shape. See that worn-looking bench in the background here? Sorry, that's the only photo I could find.

We just patched it a little and painted it white. I added a super-long pillow that I picked up at Big Lots forever ago, for something like $2, covered with leftover fabric. This corner of our porch has always been an awkward spot to decorate, and it needed this bench to add some coziness.

We have wanted a smaller table for the 3 of us to eat at, and this was a big trash day treasure from last week. I’m tellin’ ya, people throw away good stuff in this neighborhood! It needed some nails, and now a paint job, and then it will look fantastic. And it’s exactly what I wanted – isn’t that crazy?

I painted this white a while ago. My mom gave it to me, and it’s from the 70s, back when she sold Decorama. Does anybody remember that?

The Frenchy (but probably came from south of the border) wire furniture has been around here for awhile. It started out rusty and dark, and I painted it years ago to put in my shop space that I had in Canton. I have never really had a place for it here, so it was tucked into different areas of the backyard as a focal point, but never used. Now that it has some comfy pillows and cushions, maybe we will use it.

We’re ready for a fall fire. We bought this iron chimenea years ago with some Christmas money, and we have used it again and again.

I did borrow most of the pillows from the backyard, but I’ll be making some new ones with fall-color fabrics very soon. Abby has simply forbidden me to begin decorating for fall (meaning Halloween) anytime before Labor Day! So as to not embarrass the teen, I’ll hold off on the black cat holiday wreath and orange plaid throws for a few more weeks. Precocious child. (Just wait. You’ll see what she means. Last year, my neighbor told me he would call the decorating police if I added another single thing.)