Let's Take This Party Outside

We "semi" finished the screened-in porch this past weekend! Our kitchen is yet again at a stand-still, so I was very antsy to start on something else and focus my attention there... instead of over there. That brings me to our outside patio. Here's a before picture from when we moved in and as you can see it needed de-wind-chimed, decluttered, repainted, pressure washed, and that fan had definitely seen better days. The only thing that stayed are those darn ceiling hooks. We broke a few trying to remove them... So we just let them stay. Sunday was the big day! We moved out, cleaned out, painted, hung a new fan and then moved everything into place.

Before

Progress

We bought this outdoor furniture 2 years ago at World Market. When we bought it, the wood was a natural color but we stained them black last year. They've held up very well... even better after we stained them! We created a sitting space to the left of the back door and left room for a walking path from back door to screen door.

The pillows are from West Elm, chair cushions from Target, and rug from IKEA. We've had the rug for a long time and decided that it was time to retire it from inside to outside. The fan is from Hunter and the other small decor pieces are mostly from Target and HomeGoods. Juliet's crocheted hanging swing is from HamacArt on Etsy, (I'm not sure if they make them anymore).

To the right of the back door, we plan to eventually create an eating area with a bar/table and tv. That area is about 8 feet long x 12 inches wide with a half screen/half wooden wall. I "doodled", (in every sense of the word), my idea onto a notepad so it would help us make decisions based on how we want it to look. We've decided on something like this...

Long, free-standing piece of wood for bar/table with two or three bar stools. A TV on the wood part of the wall (right side), and hanging lights over the bar on the other.

Back to some of the gross "before" stuff...
Here's a picture to show what a little pressure and water can do.

In the words of Frank Barone... "Holy crap".

Go ahead, call us crazy. I see you shaking your head and thinking, "why in the world?"

And I'll be honest. This door in the picture below almost broke the deal for me... As stupid as I knew it was and as "fixable" as I knew it would be; when I looked at this screen door I wanted to run screaming in the opposite direction.

But now we have a new door. (Ahhhh.... pretty.) It isn't painted yet, but it's not crooked and dirty and it doesn't look like a prop from Texas Chainsaw Massacre so that's a huge plus. In the next outdoor post this door could possibly be white, black, peach mimosa, or banana leaf. I can't decide.

(paint colors from the Behr's Home Decorators line at Home Depot)