Spring has indeed sprung! I want onto my porch ASAP. I love my porch SOOOOO much that I can get pretty engrossed in porch beauty shots, so I lost count of how many great ideas I've rounded up for you. But great ideas they are, and all by fellow enthusiasts such as yourselves -- they're totally accessible! Please do enjoy an unstructured (for a change) scroll and see if you can pick an element to use in your own porch sprucing this season...
Hydrangeas!
Right: NVDaily.com
They love shade and require minimal care in bush form, but even easier is to throw a pot in an urn, both of which you can pick up at your local garden store.
More Hydrangeas! And Some Easy Colour...
Country Living; Young House Love blog
Left photo is a bit prissy for me, but i do like the dry hydrangeas for pops of colour. I also enjoy the blue wall -- you can never go wrong with blue as an accent colour on a home. Or green for that matter, as per the hard work of the cute couple behind Young House Love blog (photo on the right). Check out their DIY for painting the porch!
More Green...And Curtain Panels!
Scalamandre Fabrics; Snug Harbor Farm
The green fabric panels are an easy summer addition. Main thing here is the paint -- if your porch is wood, paint it out in a light colour. It's a bit more maintenance but there's nothing like it as a backdrop for seasonal accessories. The green wicker chair (on the right) is just such a looker, it makes the porch.
An All-Around Shiny Penny!
Our Vintage House Love blog
The lady behind this blog has turned this side porch into an exemplary hangout outfitted with love. SO simple. All it take is time and a little commitment. Painted floor boards -- check; refurbished vintage bench -- check; fun pillows that can easily be switched out as you get sick of them -- check; refurbished sidetable with potted plant -- check; and a cute curtain! LOVE. Check out all her DIYs by following the above link.
Modern Ingenuity
The Brick House blog
GORGEOUS. Check out how they did it: The Brick House blog
A Nice Compromise
Top image: house in my neighbourhood displaying the Quebec-designed Solair Chair . Bottom image: Solair Chairs
I walk by this house to go for my Saturday morning coffee and have to say, though it's not quite finished, something about the widening of the porch and the way it extends out and wraps the front of the house throwing convention to the wind, appeases me. I am not one to restore out of the box -- I stick to the conventions of an architectural style, but this is great. And the modern Canadian classics, the Solair chairs, make it. A great way to make an unremarkable older home chic!
Throw a Rug Down and Bob's Your Uncle
Coastal Living
Nothing like a good, textured sisal over a painted porch floor. Cozy.
Pots! Create Symmetry or Take the English Approach
Decor for the Outdoors blog; Style North blog
Flanking a door with boxed topiary adds grandeur to any doorway (if it lends itself) but I also love the English garden approach of lining a porch staircase with random pots. Admittedly a bunch of blue pots isn't all that random, but I say mix it up -- the wilder the better!
Paint It Out!
Coastal Living; Flower Garden Girl blog
More paint on a porch is always good in my books, if done with care. A palette is a great way to bring a little visual order to a sad porch, such as the blue, white and red in the example on the left. I have for a while now been intrigued with the blue porch ceiling idea. It hails from the American South where a certain faction of the African community believed the blue, known as Haint blue -- in reference to 'Haints' or spirits -- warned off malevolent spirits. It represents water, which was supposedly the only thing that could stave them off.
Thoughts? Easy enough? Would you adapt any of these ideas for your own home?
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