Porch Pretties

I know the porch is done, but I still have a last post. This should have been done a couple of weeks ago, but school starting makes me all out of sorts.

We were nearing the homestretch of the porch, and I started to get sad that the porch would be done, but I wouldn’t have anything to put on it because we were out of money. We’d have our porch swing, but that was it. I got a little bummed, and decided to try and outfit the porch on the super cheap.

I found the funky hickory chair at the yard sale, and refinished that, along with the ottoman I found at the salvage yard.

I looked on craigslist for wicker, and found two rockers and a loveseat for $60. The rocking chairs were worth it, but I consider the loveseat a throw in, because it’s in bad shape. But if it makes it a season, then great! I’m not the biggest fan of wicker, but I knew it would be cheap and would do the job, and be period appropriate. So there’s that.

We got the wicker home, and it was in decent shape. Desperately needed cleaning and a new paint job, and a few repairs on the legs. But they were going to work!

This cute little wicker table I found at a local shop for $10. Perfect.

And I also had this telephone / plant stand from a while back that would work well. So I painted it purple.

The loveseat, like I said, is in really poor shape. I’m a tiny girl, and when I sat on it, I was pretty sure I was going to go right through. So, we used really thin pieces of wood to try and shore up the seating.

Doug didn’t want to haul out the sawhorses for a quick cut, so this was his genius solution. I mean, it is kind of genius. But it still seems pretty wrong.

It’s better. But, if you come to visit, still be careful. It’s more of a “Let’s just hold hands seat” than a “Loveseat.”

My completely non-authentic way to fix the wicker coming off of the legs was to wrap them in jute. I figured since I was painting it and it won’t last more then a year anyway, there wasn’t really a point to really getting at it. Call me lazy. It’s OK. I kind of was at this point. But it looks completely fine!

I went shopping for fabric with a gift card, and got small quantities of lots of patterns, because I LOVE LOTS OF PATTERNS. And I found burlap that has been screen-printed with chandeliers. And I swooned.

I got to work plotting and cutting and sewing pillows. Pillows for DAYS, I tell you!

Wanting to recycle everything I could to keep the costs low, I had my friends Stephen and Jordan over to help. We pulled all the stuffing out of the Craigslist cushions, and out of the cushions that were on the porch swing on Jackson Street.

There may have been a lot of stuffing.

And this might be the best picture of all time.

We had fun. Tons of material for the new pillows.

So. Much. Stuffing.

Then we started painting. I may have spent as much money on spray paint as I did on the whole furniture set. But you can’t buy cheap paint when painting wicker. It will soak everything up.

This was after one coat, which is pretty decent coverage!

Doug power washed the porch swing – it was so gross. And then I used the leftover stain from the porch floor to re-stain the swing for the first time in 13 years!

Such a contrast!

I sewed 18 pillows and a love-seat cushion. I thought I was over-estimating, but I used 14 on the porch. So, not too bad. I’m saving the others to use on the balcony!