design | The CSI Project

Thanks for having me back this week for the the CSI Project Porches, Terraces & Patios challenge! If you saw my tutorial last week for creating a piped bench cushion, you actually got a sneak peek of our screen porch. I have wanted to spruce up our screen porch for 3 years now. Screen porches like Between Naps on the Porch have beckoned me from afar. I always knew I wanted to do something similar to Susan's porch. This is the before picture of our white on white on wood screen porch. The word "bland" comes to mind. For a year, I have been furnishing and decorating the porch with fixtures and accessories that I built, refinished and saved from the trash heap. For example: Ladder Display Shelves, Beachy Coffee Table, Minnow Trap Lights, Bamboo Painted Rug, Dream Big Butterfly Window, and my Garden Bench. My budget for this makeover was next to nothing, which presented a little bit of a challenge. So, are you ready? Here is a tall glass of sweet tea with lemonade. Please come join me on my porch: You would never believe that the coffee table was a disgusting moldy table I saved from the trash? Luckily I have pictures to prove it. The rug was actually very easy to paint. It used to be a bare bamboo rug that I bought at a thrift store. Pillows were purchased from Target and Ikea. Thank goodness for affordable home decor! My favorite spot on the weekend is in the hammock. My Dad gave me this hammock for my 30th birthday and it is still in great shape after 10 years! My semi-famous ladder display shelves that were built from a $15 rickety old ladder. The minnow trap pendant lights add the perfect amount of light after dark. Finding artwork for a screen porch can be a bit of a challenge. A resin coated window will weather the elements and stand in for wall art. Making this artwork was lots of fun. I bet you could make your own Dream Big Butterfly window. The chippy little cabinet is the most expensive piece of furniture on our porch! I paid $85 for it at the flea market. It used to be a table, but someone cut off the legs and nailed boards to the sides and added a door to the front. Our screen porch is such a great spot for catching up on my favorite magazines: Country Living, Better Homes and Gardens and Flea Market Style (the issue Layla and Kevin were recently in.) Can you believe a neighbor was trying to get rid of the little decorator table? I gladly sprinted over to her house to pick it up. Then I draped a clearance shower curtain from Target over it. Yup,that is a shower curtain! The bench used to be a purple garden bench that I built using a Craig's List bed frame? She wasn't weathering the elements being outside, so I brought her in and gave her some TLC by sanding and re-painting. With a new cushion, she is very inviting indeed! Thank you so much for coming over. I enjoyed our time together. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a date with a hammock. Zzzzzzz. Wake me up for the Porches, Terraces & Patios challenge on Thursday, okay?! I can't wait to see your outdoor spaces.