summer porch update.

Published on by Quandie

I don’t know about you, but I’m never 100% happy with the decor at my house.  There are always just one or two things that I’d like to tweak (or sometimes much more).  I showed you my front porch last year …

front porch 1

And it wasn’t until I looked back at the above photo that I realized exactly how much I tweaked!  Maybe we should play one of those games where you pick out all of the differences between the two photos.

summer porch

Well?  How many did you find?

Let’s start with the obvious.  You might be tempted to think that I painted the Adirondack chair, but no, I switched it out entirely.  Ken makes these chairs.  It all started with a garage sale chair that my friend Sue had.  She sold it to nnK.  nnK kept it in her yard for several years, but it was getting pretty rickety.  Thing is, it was super comfortable.  Definitely the most comfortable Adirondack I’ve ever sat in.  So nnK asked Ken to make her another one.  Ken took the whole chair apart, made a pattern, and whipped up a matching chair.  That started an Adirondack chair explosion.  I have two, nnK has two, her brother has two (or maybe four?), my friend Sue has two, my friend Terri has two.  And as of this summer, my sister has one also!  We also sold a couple at the Carriage House sale.

porch adirondack

And now I have three!  The chartreuse chair was always meant to be outside, along with a 2nd chair that matches it.  That color looks great in the garden.  But Mr. Q found it so comfortable that he insisted on having it on the porch.   I tried to make the chartreuse work out there, but it just didn’t.  So I commissioned chair number three from Ken and painted it white.  I also added a black and white pillow from H & M Home.

The next really obvious change?  I sold the little pale green washstand that was next to the chair, and replaced it with the black cupboard that used to be in the Q Branch.

porch cabinet

The black cupboard has a lot more presence than the washstand did.  It is filled with my ever growing collection of vintage cameras.

Another major change was selling the very pretty china cabinet that was on the west end of the room.  Having two glass fronted cabinets so close to each other was a bit redundant.  It was a really pretty piece, but I let it go to one of my favorite customers!  I haven’t actually found a permanent replacement for that spot.  I know the perfect piece will come along eventually, but for now I have a small farm table set up as a desk.

porch desk

porch desk close up

This spot works incredibly well for photos shoots of small items.  Such as my fab two new vintage scales.

porch scales 2

The taller one I snagged at my own sale (much like the blue and white truck from last week), the shorter one was a gift from Sue!

It even still has its tag …

porch scale close up

Another tweak to this room was adding a stencil to the front of the small trunk that sits between the two chairs.  I’d been meaning to do this for quite some time, but just hadn’t gotten around to it.  I picked up this trunk at a garage sale (naturally).

porch trunk before

It came just like this, complete with chippy white paint job and rusty wheels.  And check out the inside.

porch trunk interior

Isn’t that insert just fantastic?  It’s hidden away in there just waiting for me to find the perfect use for it.

But meanwhile, I added a stencil to the front.

porch trunk

porch trunk 2

While sitting on the front porch, you also get a great view of my front window box just outside.

porch window screen

I feel like my porch looks a bit more pulled together and cohesive this year.  Not as cluttered.  I’m really happy with all of the changes I made.  Speaking of which, how many changes did you spot?

15 thoughts on “summer porch update.”

    1. That almost got rid of that cupboard when I redecorated the Q Branch, but at the last minute I decided to keep it and put it on the porch. It’s quite tall, so I wasn’t sure it would work out there, but you can see that I still have quite a bit of room above it. I’m so glad I made that decision!

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  4. It all looks great. Just curious…are the black framed windows the storm windows that come off for the summer? Also, I see you added some curtains…guessing maybe to block a little direct sun for the summer too. I think the black cabinet adds some height to the furnishings and that smack of black anchors the room. Very pulled together.

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    1. Good call Junkie! Yep, those are storm windows that are in place in the first pic, and removed in the second. Normally there would be screens that go on in place of the storms, but the prior owners of our house got rid of all of the original screens, plus all of the rest of the storm windows throughout the house. They replaced them with horrible aluminum storm/screen combos, which I’m sure were thought to be a huge improvement at the time (and probably not cheap!). But in the end, I wish they had kept the originals. As for the curtains, they were actually added to block the view of the junky pickup truck that is parked in the neighbor’s driveway. Sadly, I have a glorious view of that truck from every window on the east side of my house!

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  5. Aw shucks I am late to play the change game…
    I really like the changes though. Love the black cabinet out there. I agree you needed something with that scale/size to ground the space so to speak. Why no photo of front of piece showing your awesome camera collection??? Cute pillow too – I wonder why we don’t have H& M here we have everything else. I am crazy about adarondak chairs while I liked the green I prefer the white. Darling space Linda.

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    1. You are not too late! As for the photo of the front of the black cabinet, I just couldn’t get one that I liked. Not for lack of trying. But I can only stand about 3′ away, and there is so much light out there that I got glare off the cameras that I didn’t like. So … no photo. Maybe next time! As for H & M, try online. I don’t even know where the nearest brick and mortar store is to me, I just order online.

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