Southern Blue Ceilings: A Porch Update

If any of you are like me, mosquitoes are your worst enemy. I love being outdoors, but those annoying bugs make it a little difficult to enjoy a book/the sun/a cold drink when I'm being eaten alive! So, one of my favorite favorite parts of our new (old) house is the screened-in porch in the back yard. Honestly, it may be one of my favorite rooms in the entire house! Unfortunately, it hasn't gotten the attention it deserves and it's got a long way to go before it becomes the perfect outdoor getaway. But we're okay with slowly making some minor tweaks here and there. Hey, they always say the tortoise wins the race....

If you haven't checked out our House Tour, here are some of the "before" pictures of our coveted porch:

That's right... not so coveted by the previous owner. In fact, I think they considered it a storage shed. As soon as we moved in, we pressure washed the porch clean and added a new coat of paint to the wall against the house (if you can even believe it, the former owners painted this outdoor wall with indoor paint, so it was incredibly moldy and gross). David even redid the screening with fresh, new screen and a new door since the other screening was filled with holes and some panels were even missing.

Ahhh, no more holes! We do still need to paint the trim on the new door though.... I also pulled in some of my Charleston lowcountry roots and painted the ceiling of the porch a fun light haint blue color. Here's a little historical lesson on "Haint Blue" for those of you who are thinking "what the heck is she talking about?!"

And here is the up-close shot.

 A few weeks ago Cost Plus World Market (in my opinion one of the best home decor stores around- I can't go in there and walk out empty handed!) put all of their outdoor furniture on sale. All summer long, I've been eyeing a couple of sets, so when they marked down their summer gear, I was ecstatic. I headed over to my local store, armed with a 15% off coupon I received via email, and walked away with a beautiful new wood patio set.

Drumroll please....

Isn't it gorgeous?! And yes, those are the throw pillows from our bed. Like I said, we've still got a long way to go with decor out there. :)

David and I were super excited about this find. And the best part? The four piece set was originally priced for $399 and we walked away with it for $120. Go us. And it doesn't hurt that the little decor we do have out there was inexpensive... the green bottles are recycled San Pelligrino bottles and the lanterns were under $2 each at Ikea. Gotta love cheap!

So what am I doing this weekend? I'm pretty sure it will involve a good book, a mint julep, and this porch!

Linked to: Saving Money, Living Life