Party in our porch

Soo....it's 11:55pm, I've had two too many iced coffees today (that means 2) and while I'm on a mad cleaning spree waiting for the laundry to be done washing, I decided to do a long post about a porch you haven't seen yet.  It's the one you can see in all my patio shots:

I haven't shown it to you, because it usually looks like this:

Except add about 10 times more crap and put Shaun's big orange kayak on the ground.  Quite embarrassing.  Before our summer party on Saturday, we wanted a nice clean porch to enjoy with our guests.  We were pretty far from that. 

The structure of the porch was obviously an add-on sometime after the house was built, and I don't think it's been maintained since then...it is a series of wood grids that (33!) removeable glass panels fit into. 

The wood and glass inserts were hopelessly dirty.  We had to remove all the glass, number the (33!) panels, and set them aside for a good cleaning.  Of course, each opening is a different size!  And there are 33!  Did I mention that?

BAH!  That is what I say to moving all these heavy things about a million times.  The ceiling also hadn't been painted since we moved in. 

Dingy!  The chandelier I actually put up when we moved in, there was a weird recessed light in here, the medallion is covering the hole and the light is swagged to center on the table without blocking the french doors.  The ivory paint I used on the chandy looks yellow now.  Of course.  

So...Shaun shopvacced (yeah, it's a word now)

We cleaned/sanded everything, caulked around the bottom, and then we both painted - even though there is no photographic evidence of me painting, I assure you I still have it under my nails. 

I spent an exorbitant amount of time trying to mix up the perfect light blue/aqua for the ceiling using old blue paint Boozie left behind, the green in our guest room, the teal I have throughout our house, and white.  I must've gone up and down the stairs 35 times trying to get it right!  I will never work for Benjamin Moore.

I did end up getting it right, and the rest of the room came together after I re-sprayed the chandy and all the glass was Windexed - yep, also a word.  It looks much more blog-worthy now, don't you think?

The only things I bought were the four new pillows from Home Depot, on clearance for $5 each....and the 6x9 jute rug from Pier 1 for $140.  Considering the old ugly rug was free, I was willing to spend a little coin for one I loved.  Coincidentally, the big red lantern and dining table set are from Pier 1 also.  I got that table used for $150 when we moved in.  Curtains are $15 Ikea specials that I already had.  Here's another before:

And after:

I know what you're thinking...does this girl bleed aqua and red?  Why yes, I do. 

Not just for cups

I love cup hooks.  They are holding up my curtains in both of our porches, and they do it so well.   

Add the cup hooks to some 3 foot, 1/2" oak dowels from Home Depot, cut in half with the miter saw and primed and painted white:

Pick up some cheap 1/2" dowel caps from Hob Lob and prime and paint white:

Use your smallest drill bit to make the holes in the ceiling.  Screw cup hooks into the ceiling and WALAH.

You have a mini curtain rod that cost you a few bucks. 

And if you even want to take them down, you only need a little spackle to fill those tiny holes.  LOVE.

I think I may have put this picture on the blog 17 times by now.  Who cares, it looks nice.  Here is the naked end again, just to be fair. 

I think the dowels cost 2 bucks each, the dowel caps were $1.50 (2 packs at half off) and the cup hooks were a couple bucks too.  Curtains are from Ikea, they were $15 for two - so $30. 

Total cost, around 35 bucks!  Does anyone actually use cup hooks for cups anymore?  Shouldn't they come in cute colors and be marketed as rod holders?  I think I may have found a good business plan.  Good thing I just advertised it on the internet.  Dang.   

Trash to treasure

Ok, our free loveseat was not trash.  In fact, it's a very nice solid piece of furniture that is currently sold for a lot more than 'free' on This End Up's website.  When our neighbor a few houses down was giving this away in their driveway, Shaun made me proud and TOLD ME ABOUT IT instead of shielding my eyes and talking about ice cream to distract me. 

By some stroke of luck, we actually had my parent's truck that day, so we drove a few houses down and picked it up.  They even had a couch to match, but it was gigantic and our porch was, uh, full of crap.  So I turned it down and now I'm kicking myself while staring at my mostly empty porch that could use another seating area!  Oh, well.  This thing sat covered with a pink sheet until last month.  And there was a lot of this going on.....

I swear I love both my cats, this one just loves getting his photo taken, so I oblige!  I voted to keep the piece wood because I thought it would be cool against the white walls, but Shaun really wanted to paint it.  So I let him win and helped him take it outside for a makeover. 

We lightly sanded, then used BIN to prime and Behr Premium in semi-gloss Ultra Pure White for the finish coats.  I admit I got a little sad when he did these first strokes of primer! 

Did you catch the 80's pastel southwestern cushions?  Here's a closeup of that mess!

A local upholstery shop quoted me $300 to recover these rectangles of foam, so I said HELL TO THE NO to that.  There are companies online that make cushion covers specifically for This End Up furniture, but the fabrics you get to choose from look mostly like this:

Um, why do they all look like they are made from 70's muppet fur?  I'm so confused.  Not a beige cotton or natural twill to be found.  So, for now it has a 96" long linen drape from Target tucked around the cushions, and that works well enough. 

Do you think we should've kept it wood, or does the white paint look better?

Aqua-tabley goodness

When I saw these rattan tables on Craigslist a month ago, I knew they had to be mine. 

In fact, when I emailed the lady who listed them, I actually said "Your rattan tables must be mine!"  I think she was amused.  I got them both for 20 bones! 

I chose a spray paint color that has been mentioned as a favorite on several blogs that I read, Krylon Blue Ocean Breeze. 

But before the awesome color could go on, I had to do my due diligence and prime the tables with Cover Stain primer.  And then I spent waaaay too long sanding down all the gross sandy texture the primer left behind. 

The middle part of the table was not fun to sand down.  Hell to the no. 

When it was finally time to spray the fun stuff, I realized that I did not obey the cardinal rule of spray paint.  The rule being, however many cans you think you need for the job, add two.  I got this far and had to go buy two more cans with the tops still unpainted. 

The final coat was a clear coat of gloss, the Rustoleum Ultra Cover 2X brand. 

This is some donkey stuff.  I was spraying and spraying and it didn't look like anything was happening.  It certainly wasn't gloss....it was more like wannabe satin.  Either way, I blew through a can of this and said enough was enough. 

Once the glass was put on top (with clear rubber discs to avoid ruining my hard-earned paint finish) I was pretty pleased.

Total cost was $30 with the spray paint - there was a sweet sale, so I lucked out and got all four cans of Blue Ocean Breeze for just under $10.  Not bad!

Good enough for now

Dudes!  I'm so glad you loved my hott lamps!  I know you were all riled up with my little sneak at the rest of the space.  Well, prepare to be underwhelmed.  The 'space' consists of lamps, end tables, and a 'curbside special' loveseat.  And some curtains and a rug.  Nothing else.  I wanted to share a perfect finished space, but I am not perfect, so here it is today:

I'll share more deets on the sweet aqua tables and loveseat next week! 

The other side is completely bare, only Ikea curtain panels are up so far.  I have plans to add a small little coat rack area as this is the pass through from the garage to the house.

The jute rug is from Pier 1, the cats love it and so far are not destroying it with their claws. I love that it stops short of the door area, so we don't get it all dirty walking through everyday.

There is much more to do in here, we need more seating, a coffee table, decor and a place to put our coats and shoes.  But I'm not going to work on this anymore for several reasons:  

a. I'm sick of it

b. I've got other projects that need my attention

c. The Craigslist gods are not smiling on me in my search of chairs and tables

d. I need to stop spending money in this one space

So for now, we are enjoying sitting in one spot staring at our french doors when it's not unbearably hot out there.  Sounds like fun, huh?  Oh well, it will be fabulous some day!

Lookin shady

Installation of the bamboo shades was a sweaty affair.  Mostly because if we had the ceiling fan on, I would've been decapitated while on the ladder....or at least whacked in the melon really hard. 

It was a lot of up the ladder, down the ladder, measure and mark brackets, pre-drill holes, screw in brackets, wrestle to get shade attached, refresh my beer, rinse and repeat 7 times.  Okay, I didn't refresh my beer 7 times, but you get the idea.  It was all so worth it! 

These affordable and pretty shades were a deal on Overstock.com.  They are the Dali Native Bamboo Roman shades, and they are available in every size imaginable.  This was essential, as six of the windows are 27 inches wide, and the one on the other side of the door is just 16 inches wide. 

Don't they look like they were made for these windows?  Yes, they do.

The shades are 74 inches long, which is perfect for covering the entire window when that hot western sun comes streaming in.  I got all 7 shades for $150 because I'm a Club 'O' member.  Not bad considering comparable bamboo shades at Home Depot were $28 apiece, and they didn't even have the 16in. size I needed.  I love you, Overstock! 

Porch progress

This porch is a never-ending project.  We've painted two more coats of paint on the porch structure and things are looking much better now.  We also painted three coats of paint on the ceiling because (dummy me) I decided to use flat paint on the beadboard, and I hated how it looked after two coats.  I chose to use the same pale blue from the den in this porch area, as the rooms are connected with french doors.  The color (Behr Harbor Sky) is so pale, you can hardly tell it isn't white.  The last coat is a mixture of semi-gloss and flat because I was too cheap to buy a full gallon of semi, so it came out to an eggshell-ish finish.  Whatever.

The gross light fixture came down and SURPRISE!  The light box is not centered in the room, so they 'swagged' the fixture over a few inches. 

Because we didn't want to tear up the original ceiling moving the box, we just decided to suck it up and have the electrician put the fan up a bit off-center.  It's so fabulous, I don't think anyone will notice or care!

I got the Minka Aire 'Acero' fan from CSN Lighting right here.  It was expensive, but I was able to use a $40 CSN prize from Elisa at What the Vita's giveaway, so that brought it down a little bit.  Everyone that has seen this fan is in love with it.  It has a sweet remote wall controller and the light even has a dimmer function....ooh la la!  Thank you Elisa for contributing to our fabulous fan!

So, right now the place is in shambles with junk everywhere, but next up is the installation of my bamboo shades from Overstock.  They look amazing!  And it only took me hours upon hours on a ladder while sweating profusely to put them up!