Screened Porch Makeover

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



Cute kitty with his Summer Lion's Cut not included!



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

 

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!

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:







playing with new Nikon P&S







Chandelier finished in Lagoon



Side of the room opposite the bar



Here's the finished lamp shade.

 


Look at the awesome ceiling!

 

Spray painted the side table by the chair from
white to black to match the lights and shelf.



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.)

Linking to: 

A Glimpse Inside

Fireflies and Jellybeans

Cleaning Out - By Force

Gross. A few months ago we realized we had a mouse in our pantry. Once I got in there and started cleaning it up it became more clear that it seemed like a mouse family! YUCK.

I've spared you complete exposure of the damage, but here are a few less offensive shots.

If there was food in a bag or box it was devoured - bagel chips, bird seed, cheap cat food for the stray cats that come over.

It was pretty unorganized anyway, but come on.

I had to pull out & sanitize everything - our flower vases, all of our small appliances, even the box that I keep quick access candles and our house flags in! I pulled up the liner and got some contact paper at Target to replace it. It was far too disgusting to just wipe down. While I had it empty, I put out rat poison to make sure they weren't coming back. After a few days of having everything pulled out and ensuring that the mouse/mice had their fill of poison (1 box of that green stuff and one block of it later)....






.... I santized the wood shelves and put down the new contact paper. I wasn't very good at that. Check out the huge 'bubble'. Oh well.



Once I had the contact paper down, I did another few days of emptiness and did the mouse poop check. All Clear. Then I put it all back nice and organized. Now it's defunked and clean but now I'm weary of putting anything in bags (or boxes in there). I also pulled out the "pest deterent" from Sharper Image and plugged that in. It is supposed to make the noises that deter mice and other pests from coming in. Not sure it works, but I'm okay hearing that squeeky little noise. And it's a converation piece when friends come over and ask about the werid little noise.

Much better. And I also had a little time for spray painting the ugly to make it nicer.

OK, OK Bookshelves - Neat, Clean and....

....reduced in numbers by about a box and lid full. [Sorry for the delay, but I had another "project" come up that trumped this one which I'll post about later this week after. It wasn't all fun and I'll spare you the pictures of that part.


These, plus the lid for this full, already in my car because I could lift them, are getting donated.

Anyway, what started out as a New Years Resolution is finally finished. This book case was just crammed full of my books (though mostly organized) and then when the hubs moved in I just wanted to be unpacked and boxless. So, I simply crammed all of his books on the shelves where ever and how ever they fit and they've been that way ever since. Two. Years. Later.
Here's what we started with before the above books were removed.



I guess this project was somewhat delayed since I only told him that "I want to clean the bookcases so let's set the goal of trying to get rid of 10 books each. You need to go through your books." WEEKS later. No movement. Finally, I really wanted to tackle this so I figured a man needs a little more guidance. I made a pile of my books I was removing. Then I made piles of books based on genre: Fiction, Classics, Hobbies, Self Improvement, Home/Garden related, Educational, Miscellaneous. I included his books that I knew he would not part with.

Then, a very crucial step if this process were to continue at this speed, I piled all of his remaining books in a pile on the floor that he had to go through. This took a seemingly daunting task for a male and made it more manageable by putting everything he needed to look at in one place and not dispersed all over the book shelves. Victory! [Short-lived victory, it appears I didn't take any 'during' shots of all of those piles on the floor. Boo.]

So with that done, I then just put them all back on the shelves in their genres trying to keep the sizes and colors together.

Next, I went for a more cohesive look to some of the accessories on the shelves so I took a few things out to the garage and started the Never Ending Spray Paint Project. The book shelf organizing and book ridding was also supposed to leave room to add some organized boxes of art/craft supplies. We got these leather bound minute books at work which came in these fantastic sturdy boxes, which I kept. At Last! I had a use for them. I'd spay paint those white along with bookends and an ugly little brass vase. I viewed this as a great chance to try out the spray primer I knew was in the garage. After about 12 seconds, it stopped spraying. It was super old (like the home's previous owner's), so I wasn't surprised. I knew I would have to get primer at the store so I bought the Rustoleum primer and grabbed another can of glossy white. Lowes didn't have it in Rustoleum so I went with Valspar. The primer went on in one coat over all that stuff, but here it is a week into layer after layer of white and I think I'm finally finished. [Hence the never ending part and my preference for Rustoleum now.]



With the spray painting finally finished I was able to bring in all of my boxes and accessories and put them on the shelves. I realigned things as I went to try for a more balanced look. However, these are bookshelves and we do have books so I knew some of the shelves would be completely full of books. Those shelves I tried to keep lower than eye level and then use books, pictures and decor on the shelves that were more conspicuous. Can you find the items from the garage? (I started trying to get my artsy shots on and ended up with a lot of pics!)


















Here are some side by side comparisons of same shelves (but not exact same shot since pics were spread out on a couple different cards and the camera memory itself) to make it easier to figure out the changes.


BEFORE AND AFTER


BEFORE and AFTER


BEFORE and AFTER

If you have suggestions for making them more cohesive I'd love to hear what you think. As long as it does not involve getting rid of more books!