Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Cute up your front porch--Part 1 (Furniture)

Now that it has finally warmed up around here, I just want to be outside all day long. Taylor and I have decided that nothing promotes outdoor living like cozy furniture and pretty surroundings. We are dreaming of a big back patio some day. Someday. But for now's time and budget constraints, we've successfully cuted up the front porch.

We started with this.

Then, for the jaw-dropping steal of $9 each, we bought two solid wood adirondack chairs.

Taylor and I are big on buying real wood furniture. If you're willing to wait for good deals and fix up older stuff, you can furnish your whole home (and porch!) with wood furniture that will last a lot longer than particle board. (That's not to say we don't own any particle board furniture. It has its place!) If you can't find a source in your area for new (and inexpensive) wooden patio furniture, try thrifting. I recently spray painted my in-laws old, weathered adirondack chair, and it looks fabulous.

Our chairs came disassembled, so Taylor spray painted them before putting them together. We used Rustoleum for both our primer and paint, and we have been thrilled with it.
To finish them off, I pulled my IKEA pillows off my couch (didn't really like them there anyway) and decided they belong outside now.
I love the gray with the green.


Come back tomorrow! I'll show you what Better Homes and Gardens taught me about adding color and texture with flowers to finish off the porch.
xo,
anne




5 comments:

Christina said...

Where did you get $9 chairs?!

We had bought some for about $30 a piece when we were in Nova Scotia from a local guy - I thought that was a good deal! But we didn't have room to move them in our cross-country move and I'd like some more!

Bloom said...

Christina, $30 is a great deal!! The chairs we got were priced at $59 (a relatively good price), then my mom found $50 off coupons in the newspaper. She went to the neighbor's house and got his coupon, so we had 2 $50 off coupons! Classic.

lindsey. said...

I love this! Well done and thanks for the ideas! Enjoy your new cute front porch.

Joan said...

Your Mom is amazing, Anne. WHAT A STEAL!
I'm happy to say I had the pleasure of sitting in your darling chairs not too long ago and man o man are they comfy :)

Malinda Crow said...

You all need to check out this blog. It's called Knock Off Wood. You can get free plans to build your own furniture. It's mostly pretty easy. Take a look.

http://www.knock-offwood.com/