While everyone is posting beautiful pictures of their Christmas decorations, I'm still working on finishing touches and finding time to shoot pictures of it all! This week and last week have been super busy at work.
In the meantime, I finished updating an empty room that only took until this August to finish, having started around LAST August! Then I just took pictures of it in September. If blogging was strictly about real time I'd be worse than I already am!
Anyway, here are some before, during and after pictures with brief explanations of all that went down during our screened in porch makeover. It is located through the french doors off of our breakfast nook in the
kitchen with a small deck directly off of that.
These are the shots I grabbed but the movers had already unloaded this stuff. On the deck are the matching lounger and loveseat. Those felt more 'outside' than inside so we kept them out there and pulled the bar inside.
Since we did not have a screened porch in our old place, we had no furniture for it except for the bar and stools. We ordered a Martha Stewart loveseat and chair from Home Depot, delivered to the door. #gottalovedelivery
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| Cute kitty with his Summer Lion's Cut not included! |
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| Mr. NW&TOH showing his furniture building skilz. |
I found this cool chandelier at one of my local consignment stores and thought it would work for this area as a non-electric one. There are already cool laterns on either side of the french doors.
I also added a little trim to this shade I got at the same consignment store.
Then I did a little LOT of sewing (spread out between last summer and this summer) to make pillows and cover an old love seat cushion as well as cover the pillows that came with our loveseat. There is one lesson that can be learned here regarding online ordering. NO Matter how close something looks in the pictures, it is usually NOT the same. The pillows that came with the loveseat looked exactly like the fabric I got by the yard at the Home Depot (did you know you could do that?), online. However, when it all came, they were not the same. Though you would have to be really paying attention to notice AND they'd be on the loveseat on the deck, I covered them anyway. #callmeOCD
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| A pattern created from graph paper |
Using two coordinating fabrics, I made pillows for the furniture and then made cushions for the bar stools . I ended up with back cushions when my attempt at seat cushions using poly-fill were too thin. That's about the time that winter hit allowing me to set this project aside. Then Spring hit and we realized the downfall of a screening in porch (other than not being able to use it in the winter): POLLEN can get thru the screen!
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| See the too thin 1st attempt at seat cushions. |
Enter Spring/Summer of 2012 and the nice weather had me craving a cold beverage on our porch. After emptying the whole room and hosing down everything from furniture to candles and anything that was out there to the room itself, we began again.
Since the bar furniture was clean and sitting in the yard I stained it and the matching loveseat and lounger. It had been a few years since it was given attention so it was time.
Then we put the furniture back in the room, I ordered a lounger cushion since it was cheap and easier than trying to cover the old one, and headed back to the sewing machine. There I created new seat cushions for the bar stools using 2" foan instead, created a cover for the loveseat and covered the 2 pillows original to the new furniture. Then finally took pictures of it all!
Here is the deck directly off the porch, then shots of the porch:
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| playing with new Nikon P&S |
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| Chandelier finished in Lagoon |
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| Side of the room opposite the bar |
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Here's the finished lamp shade.
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| Look at the awesome ceiling! |
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Spray painted the side table by the chair from
white to black to match the lights and shelf. |
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I love the orange accents spotted around the room
and on the deck. |
I really love this room. After using it for a couple of seasons I think I'll order the ottoman that is still available at the Home Depot come Spring. I'd been holding out for an orange pouf or a ceremic garden stool, but I have not found a good enough deal to do it. We will add a small mounted flat screen in the corner above the bar next year.
We would also love to get panels to put in the window openings but they are crazy expensive. We may go the trailer trash route and put up the plastic ones that use a hair dryer to seal them to the wood. At least it would keep it usable for longer and keep the pollen out this Spring. (There may be a bigger reason, like this is where we would like to set up the bar for our Christmas party next weekend. Yes, there's that.)
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