{"id":39070,"date":"2018-06-17T14:52:38","date_gmt":"2018-06-17T19:52:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=39070"},"modified":"2018-06-18T18:59:40","modified_gmt":"2018-06-18T23:59:40","slug":"our-summer-porch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=39070","title":{"rendered":"Our Summer Porch"},"content":{"rendered":"

I absolutely love the porches on our house.\u00a0 We love to rock in our rocking chairs on our front porch, and sometimes I will move out to the cocktail porch and work there during naptime.\u00a0 Now with Little Miss, we love to grab a pile of books and read on the sofa on our back porch and relax there with friends, too. We have done a few things to our summer porch this year to make it more cozy and attractive.<\/p>\n

\"Back<\/p>\n

(the porch last year)<\/p>\n

We purchased the sofa<\/a>\u00a0 and the most comfortable swivel\u00a0chairs<\/a> from Home Depot<\/a>, and both of these items are on major sale! The indoor\/ outdoor rug was from Target last season, but they still have a great selection of others here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We Bought the Right Furniture<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This table<\/a> we purchased from World Market, and it is actually on sale, as well.\u00a0 We continue to love it.\u00a0 We are still happy with these purchases, and many of our friends have commented on the looks and comfort level of our table and sitting area.\u00a0 All of this furniture is holding up great, and we are still thrilled with the dining table and sitting area combo.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This year I wanted to make our back porch a little cozier.\u00a0 I didn’t want to go overboard, and I didn’t want to spend a lot.\u00a0 I made some small changes that I wanted to share with you.\u00a0 Plus, these are easy changes you can do for you own porches and outdoor areas.\u00a0 We are thrilled with the cozy factor that adding some outdoor curtains and plants made.<\/p>\n

Curtains Add Coziness<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The first thing I did was add some outdoor curtains to our summer porch decor.\u00a0 I have wanted to have outdoor curtains for some time, but I just didn’t do it.\u00a0 The other day I was at World Market, and\u00a0 they really do have some cute outdoor things. They had some neutral and reasonably priced outdoor curtains.\u00a0 I purchased these<\/a>.\u00a0 Online you can get multiple\u00a0lengths, but I opted to not buy the longest because as much as I love the curtains that puddle on the floor, it wasn’t as practical for this porch. Our dog Gracie loves to enter and exit the porch on the side of the sofa, and that says it all.\u00a0\u00a0 These curtains not only soften the porch’s look, but they also have a practical purpose.\u00a0 They block the afternoon sun and keep the sofa area cooler on those hot, southern days.<\/p>\n

Texture From Baskets<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This little hurricane candle holder<\/a> was another World Market purchase. It is also on sale and adds some more texture to our summer porch.<\/p>\n

Plants for Our Summer Porch<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I also decided to add some plants, both real and faux, and that really made a difference in the cozy factor.\u00a0 I haven’t had the live plant that long, and I am not sure it is going to last.\u00a0 I am also tempted to try a lemon tree.\u00a0 I found the basket at Ikea and cut out the bottom because it wasn’t exactly flat, and it kept tipping over.\u00a0 Now it works great.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

If it doesn’t survive, I still have this faux plant that adds some nice greenery.<\/p>\n

A Lamp Adds Coziness<\/h2>\n

\"DIY<\/p>\n

Another simple addition is the lamp.\u00a0 I moved some lamps around and then had this one as an extra.\u00a0 It is so nice at night to use our string lights and this lamp.\u00a0 It has such a good feel to it and is cozy.\u00a0 When we had friends visiting for Memorial Day weekend, we didn’t sit in our living room once.\u00a0 We spent our time in our outdoor living room.\u00a0 It was awesome.\u00a0 When we purchased this home, we said the porches would add extra living space, and they sure have. The lamp really is a nice touch at night.<\/p>\n

Inside Accessories Work Outside<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Bring inside accessories out.\u00a0 I brought out some books and another plant that I had on a table indoors.\u00a0 It just adds another touch to make the room feel more like a summer breezy living room instead of just a blah porch.\u00a0 With each thing I added, I couldn’t get over the homey factor feel.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I have thought about screening in the porch due to mosquitoes and a snake that happened to come up on the porch one afternoon.\u00a0 I didn’t really want to spray our lawn for bugs but found this handy little lantern<\/a> which does a great job with the mosquitoes.\u00a0 You light it and it is by far the best thing we have used to not get eaten alive.\u00a0 You do need to light it about 10-15 minutes prior to being outside.\u00a0 We have gone through a lot of the refills, but it works and we feel we have been outside a lot more than usual. Oh, and it acts like a little light as well.\u00a0 Win, win all around.<\/p>\n

Colorful Art<\/h2>\n

\"DIY<\/p>\n

The final touch is by far my favorite.\u00a0 The art work created by Little Miss.\u00a0 You can read how she did it here<\/a>. It just adds some fun to our outdoor space.<\/p>\n

I hope these are some tips and tricks you can use for your own summer porch.\u00a0 If you have any to share, please let us know in the comments!\u00a0 Thank you so much for stopping in.\u00a0 Let’s make this a great week.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cheers!<\/p>\n

Affiliate links in post<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Linking to Our Soulful Home<\/a> and Stonegable<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I absolutely love the porches on our house.\u00a0 We love to rock in our rocking chairs on our front porch, and sometimes I will move out to the cocktail porch and work there during naptime.\u00a0 Now with Little Miss, we love to grab a pile of books and read on the sofa on our back […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[13,12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39070"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39070"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39194,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39070\/revisions\/39194"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}