So I started a new project, I know I am crazy, but this nesting bug has got the best of me. In a fit of “I can’t stand it anymore” I spontaneously grabbed a gallon of Aqua Pura paint last week on my way through the home depot as an attempt to commit myself to my next project; spiffing up the porch before the new baby comes. I can say without a doubt that the porch is the heart of our home in the summertime. There’s not a morning before, evening after work or weekend that we don’t spend hanging on our front porch.

Being that the porch has become such a central part of our lives I feel like it needs more attention than we have given it. It is currently a mishmash of hand-me-down furniture and toys, all engulfed by the ugliest fleshiest color of paint you could ever imagine. It is definitely not getting the love it so deserves.

Now for my plan: My objective is to spend $100 or less on making our porch a little more quaint, a little more fresh, and a lot less sloppy. The $25 gallon of paint will be the biggest improvement on this space. As you can see from first above photo, the peachy colored walls from the previous owners are just not cutting it. This light turquoise paint will add some airiness and freshness and will complement the rest of the main floor living spaces. To accent the blue paint I have picked up a few pillow covers at Ikea in red ($6.00/cover) and a light blue ($1.99/pillow). The bare walls aren’t helping anything either, as a solution I will add a shallow white shelf ($9.99) to use as a place for holding the records that currently find their home piled up on the floor (we have a small record player out in the porch). The record shelf will also add aesthetic function as a place to display our rotating collection of album artwork. I also purchased two shadow box style ($9.99/frame) photo frames from Ikea to display my growing stash of instagram kid prints. De-cluttering the kid stuff will be an easy, free solution to tidying the place up. The toy corner will be replaced by a small toy box (cause we can’t get rid of all the toys) and 2 Saarinen style chairs that I have been keeping tucked away in the garage for the last year. Expect updates soon, as this project is under way!