How to Cozy Up the Porch for Summer

If you are lucky enough to have a porch, then I bet you are spending a lot of time on it about now.  Our porch is really a breezeway that we enclosed when we remodeled our house before moving in last year. You can see some of that process here.  Ideally, the layout is not that great.  We have to walk right through the sitting area to get to and from the garage.  And instead of the French doors that I love, we had to install sliders because French doors would have interfered with furniture placement.  Sliders don’t let in as much light, but they have screens so we can have a screened in back porch. That being said, I love our back porch.  It is cozy, cool, and relaxing.  It gives us a perfect view of our courtyard, which is almost ready for its close-up.  Plus, we can hear the birds singing and watch them stop in for a drink from the fountain.  I have added a few touches to “cozy up the porch for summer, and these are simple steps that anyone can do.  Let’s take a look.

Love Seat

Almost everything on our porch is recycled from the sunroom in our last house.  We only bought one new piece of furniture for our porch, and that was the love seat.  The space is not large enough for a full size sofa.  A love seat provides plenty of seating for just the two of us.  I mean really……how often do three people actually sit on a full size sofa?

The love seat has Sunbrella fabric on the cushions so we don’t have to worry about spills and stains.

Mixed Styles

We also have a wicker chair that is a different color and style than the love seat.  Just like indoors, it’s good to mix your furniture styles to get a more eclectic and inviting look.  The chair is the same color as the cushions so they play well together.

Pillows

I am using pink and white gingham pillows to match the pink and white flowers that we planted in the courtyard.  Then we added the floral pillows that have all the colors in nature.  Using pillows like this is a nice way to tie the inside to the outside.

Lamps

Now I realize that there is too much gingham when we pair the gingham lampshade with the gingham pillows, but the lamp shade was custom made.  I’m just not ready to give it up yet.  I had two of these lamps, that I made from old water bottles, in our last house, and I love them.  Putting one on the porch to act as a reading light lets me enjoy them in this house.

We also have a lamp on the porch that was in my husband’s office before.  It was made from an old factory lamp.  There is clearly a vintage vibe going on.

Furniture

We have the room, so we are using some old pieces of furniture on our porch to team up with the love seat and chair.  A vintage ice box fits perfectly in the corner.  A trunk that was the first item we ever purchased as a married couple is an end table, and a step ladder is an end table on the other side of the love seat.

We also have our French armoire on the porch.  It’s there for two reasons:  there wasn’t a spot for it in the house, and I didn’t want to get rid of it, and it holds out rain gear, some shoes, and boots. The furniture stays the same in all of the seasons, but we add different accessories for summer.  This picture is from the spring.  The porch looks so much better with the plants and accessories, doesn’t it?

Plants

Another way to marry the outside to the porch is by having some plants.  I love seeing plants on a porch, and they truly do cozy up the space.

I brought these plants to the porch in early April, and they will be able to remain until late October or early November.  They love the outside air and just flourish in the humidity and heat.

Rugs

Rugs add coziness to a summer porch, and the rugs are the only other new thing in this space.  I mentioned in another post that we had to go with dark rugs since this area gets so much foot traffic.  We don’t wear our shoes in the house, but we have to walk through the porch to get to the mudroom where our shoes come off.

The two rugs that we have on our porch are indoor/outdoor rugs by Dash and Albert, and we are happy with them.

One anchors the sitting area, and a runner serves as a door mat.  I really like the look of bright rugs on a porch so much more, but practicality had to win out here.  These rugs also help cover up the brick which was damaged during the remodeling.  We are still trying to figure out what to do with it.

Mirror

A mirror is so nice to have on a back porch because it will reflect the outside and even make a dark spot brighter.  I found this mirror at my favorite consignment shop, and we just hung it this past weekend.  The wrought iron is similar to the wrought iron on our courtyard furniture so it’s a good way to have the two spaces play together.

Accessories

Any type of summer accessories will work on a back porch if they can handle the weather.  If rain blows onto your porch, then that’s a consideration when selecting accessories.  I have just a few accessories since the plants take up most of the display space.  An original water color of summery flowers is the best accent piece that we have.

Porch Ceiling Fans

We added tongue and groove planking to our ceiling and painted it Ice Berg by Sherwin Williams.  Then we added ceiling fans.  Even when it is way too hot to sit on a porch, these fans make it possible.  They provide a soft breeze to cool it down just enough.

 

I am not a fan of air conditioning, and my husband is.  So, you will find me spending a lot of down time on our porch.  It’s one of my favorite places to be in the summer.  I hope you have a porch to enjoy, too.

Take care.