Decorating Our Screened Porch

When we first toured our home with our real estate agent, there were so many great aspects of the home -- one being the screened porch.  I spent countless hours on our screened porch as a child, coloring with my sister or reading a book.  And as someone who loves to eat outdoors, it is the perfect way to enjoy a mosquito-free meal.

The screened porch when we toured the house -- with a little staging furniture

When we purchased and closed on our house, the staging furniture was removed, and I was left with a completely empty canvas.

Only one family member enjoyed the completely empty and unfinished room.

Sounds divine, right? 
Actually -- I was completely overwhelmed.  Too many possibilities.  I had decoration paralyzation.

Luckily, we were so focused on finishing the interior of our home that I didn't have to pay to much attention to it.  When spring rolled around though, I knew it was time to tackle it.  No more ignoring the empty room.

We started first by switching out the fan globes, which was an inexpensive fix that made a big impact.  Grandma globes, be gone!

Next, we decided to purchase a picnic table.  Our family lakehouse has a picnic table on the screened porch, and I just love the rustic look and feel of it.  We decided to give ours a nice coat of paint to make it a little funky.

Working on the table and evening out his (ahem) farmer's tan.  Love ya babe.

And then we added a few more porch accessories -- an outdoors rug, teal metal chairs (which are great for extra seating when put at either end of the picnic table), some hanging plants, a beverage stand, and a reading chair.

And the lights you see above are my favorite addition -- Ian strung cafe lights all around the perimeter of the porch.

It looks so great at night, and we don't even have to use the overhead lights on the fan!

One last touch that we added to the screened porch is that we painted the ceiling a very light robin's egg blue.  We were inspired by all of the great "haint blue" porch ceilings we spotted in New Orleans for our anniversary trip.

We've used this room a lot already this summer, including last night when Ian suggested that we eat our dinner together outdoors.

So there she is ... our screened porch in all of her glory!