Porch Pondering Part II + A Fab Find

Summer has officially arrived. This weekend in Wilmington, we saw temperatures in the 80s. Woohoo! Needless to say, my beau and I tackled a lot of outdoor projects to get the house warm weather ready. You may recall this post from a month ago where he and I started painting my front porch. Well, I'm happy to report that we finally finished. Phew! I think our hard work has paid off with a clean, fresh and appealing (instead of peeling) porch and, more importantly, an outdoor space we can enjoy this summer.

Of course, now that the porch floor is perfectly painted, I feel like covering and swanking it up! I headed to Target on Sunday to pick up this rug in hopes of getting one step closer to the look below. (Outdoor bart cart + basket chair swing? Heck yes!) 

Bar Cart/ Lounge Chairs/ Garden Stool/ Swing

 But when I got to Target, the website had lied- the rug was nowhere to be found. Lucky for me, Target had better things in store.

Does anyone else feel like a good lamp is hard to find? Sure, you find fabulous options at $400+ but a seriously great buy in the lamp department is a rarity. As I debated whether this impulse purchase would pay off, I just happened to run into my favorite decorator friend. Her mutual affection for this find had me officially sold and we strolled around until the lamp found itself a great textured lamp shade. Now the lamp has found its permanent home in my living room and couldn't be a better fit. What do you think? 

The other table lamp in the living room is a World Market find from five years ago. Its mother of pearl finish has a glamorous but organic appeal to it. I've always wanted something to complement it without being matchy matchy. Mission accomplished? I think so! 

So on to the next task- today my kitchen gets repainted! Hallelujah! Peeling paint must be my lot in this phase of life as the kitchen ceiling and walls currently reflect crack house status. Maybe after it is finished I will post before and after shots. Moral of the story: a homeowner's work is never done...at least this time someone else is doing the painting!

Porch Pondering + Weekend Snap

I hope you all had happy and joyous Easter weekends! If you had Friday off, like I did, then I hope you found yourself having fun and doing what you enjoy with the folks you love! On Friday, my beau and I started painting the front porch. The floor badly needs repainting after five years of dog claws, boot stomps and heel piercings but you can't paint your floor until you paint everything else. So we started with the ceiling. These are just a few sneak peeks until the big porch reveal but...

 I chose the Olympic paint color Morning Cloud for the ceiling. We were going for a sky blue but the house being a blue-gray itself, our choice had to have a dose of gray in it. Though the ceiling is a bit more of an overcast sky blue, it looks sooooo much better than it did before. Of course, now the rest of the molding and posts need to be repainted and then the floor will follow. All in a day's work...

The revamping of the porch has me pondering the need for a porch redecorating. How do you arrange your front porch? Originally I thought I would just add a rug and a Chippendale bench. I already have a black rocking chair and an iron table and chair set. But then I started wandering around the Internet and...

Outdoor Furniture/ Rug/ Floor Color/ Ceiling Color

I am suddenly in love with this very neutral color scheme against this very graphic print and certainly the fabulous furniture from Lane Venture. Wouldn't it be nice to have a real outdoor living space you could enjoy before the temps turn sweltering? 

It's just a thought...until the big porch reveal, I leave you with a few other shots from the weekend. Hope you had a good one!

Ab fab floor lamp from the Rogue Vintage booth at The Eclectic 

Lacquered goodness from the Rogue Vintage booth

Sunrise at the Easter service on Wrightsville Beach

I could get used to going to church like this...