I’m still slowly putting my office back together, but with the weather finally cooperating we’ve spent a lot of time focusing getting the outdoors summer-ready.  Last year we created plant beds and filled them with mulch and this year our goal was to fill them up!  We’ve got almost all of the plants bought and in place, and a couple weeknights, or one good weekend, we’ll have it completed!

A last minute scope addition was to paint the posts and some of the girders of the deck.  It’s no secret that I’ve hated the deck stain since the mis-tint fiasco of 2015, but one thing that has bothered me even more is our laziness (time-crunch + frustration with the color) in not staining the posts and some of the beams the same color. 

As we were finalizing our plant plans I came up with a crazy idea to stain these posts/beam black so that they almost disappear.  Also, since they are covered from the elements we won’t have to restain them every time we do the rest of the deck because they won’t wear at the same rate, win-win!

I stopped by Sherwin Williams and grabbed a gallon of SuperDeck tinted black (I initially made the mistake of getting semi-transparent and it was way too transparent, I went back and a total of 3 oz of black made the stain almost solid – learn from me and just go solid!).  While Mike planted some shrubs near the front of the house, I got to work painting the posts.  When I stepped back, it was such a huge improvement I couldn’t believe we didn’t think of it sooner!

After I worked my way down the line, Mike was right behind me digging holes and planting everything, so it was even more of an improvement.  The black worked really well because the posts fade into the shadows underneath the deck, and it blends with the black mulch.

This area is behind where our garbage containers sit and the rubber matting is where the snow blower is housed during the summer.  The black stain really hides everything now!

On the other side we had this area that Mike wanted to keep open to store things, but it was such an eye sore for our sweet neighbor.  I convinced Mike to part with the old plastic chairs (that were such a hassle to get in and out) and he organized the ladder extension a little better as well.  We added some stepping stones to allow him easier access to getting the ladder and we’ll add some hostas that will make the area more tidy, but not to precious if he tramples them every once in a while. 

The additional arborvitaes really hid the underside of the deck, but painting everything black just helped camouflage even more.  Also, I hope I never have to paint behind them again now that they are all in place!

Overall, it took two afternoons to paint everything since we were doing it after work. But now that it’s complete I’m so happy with my last minute idea!

I mentioned back in May that I was revisiting my earlier plans to decorate the porch.  I had bought new furniture and a new rug, but needed to add some layers and to pull everything together.  Well I finished, and finally took photos!

Just because Mike’s leaving for a few months doesn’t mean I’ll stop decorating!  I may even do it more since he won’t be around to call me crazy.  (Just kidding Sweetie, I won’t change a single thing while you’re gone, HA!)

The furniture and rug were nice, but it needed a lot of accessories to make it awesome.

Before:

and After:

To connect the chairs I added a gold drum table I scored on clearance from Target. 

I wanted a pouf for additional seating and to kick my feet up on (I usually sit in the chairs, while Mike lounges on the couch) and after trying this one from Target, I settled on this gray knit pouf from World Market.  Both were comfy, but the knit one is firmer, and I didn’t like the giant stitching on the other.

I was stumped for a long time on how to fill that area between the windows.  I saw this wicker mirror from Target on sale and grabbed it wondering if I was crazy to put a mirror on the porch.  A couple days later I saw Julia from Cuckoo4Design use a couple mirrors in outdoor settings and knew my idea would work!  

I tried using the heavy duty/waterproof command strips, but the hook wouldn’t lay flat against the siding and didn’t have enough connection to stay up.  Mike suggested some vinyl siding hooks and I found a pack of hooks small enough on Amazon to work.  These clips fit right into the siding seam and can hold up to 5 pounds.  The only problem was that I was limited by the seam of the siding on the height.  I had the mirror a little lower, but had to move it up for the clip.  It doesn’t bother me at the moment, but I may use some fishing wire to hang it a little lower.

I had a heck of a time finding outdoor pillows I liked, but finally found several from Society6.  I also came across these Zuma Stripe Indoor/Outdoor Pillows from Pottery Barn and grabbed 2 of those, then picked a couple coordinating ones from Society6 from my short-list.

I went with two Beverly II Throw Pillow by THE AESTATE and one TX01 Throw Pillow by Georgiana Paraschiv.  I bought the inserts from Society6 as well, but I wasn’t that impressed with them.  Next time I’ll buy them separately.

They don’t necessarily look like they match, but the coordinate well together.  And they make me happy!

The porch itself has a lot of neutral colors with the tan siding and carpeting, and white trim.  I tried to stick to a simple palette of natural wood, blues, greens, metallics, and black. 

The plants bring in a lot of the green, while the pots and small accessories, like these lanterns I was gifted with at my wedding shower years ago, add the black elements.

I also picked up these Threshold lanterns (in small and large) from Target.  I bought the giant plant pot and saucer from Ikea before I found this massive fern at the grocery store.  I’ve already under-watered it from the brown leaves I see, but I’m determined for another grocery store success story like my Japanese maple.  I also added the metal “M” that’s the match to the one in our basement family room.  My sister gave it back to me after using it in her apartment for a few years and I honestly didn’t know what to do with it!

The only thing I had in my plans that didn’t get included was a overhead fan.  I have dreams of a giant fan keeping the mosquitos at bay while we sip margaritas out here, but 1 - outdoor fans are expensive (!) and 2 - the ceiling isn’t that tall, and a fan with a light would be just above 6 feet.  Meaning any adult could hit the blades if they raised their hands.

I was still gung-ho, but Mike suggested that before we spend the money and time let’s see if adding a box fan would increase the amount of time spent out here.  So far, we have spent a lot more time out here enjoying the summer evenings, but I’m not sure it’s enough to warrant a ceiling fan just yet!

I’ve only showed the one angle, but the front door is on the other side, and there’s really no space for anything else.

I tried to add in some red to go with the door, but I just wasn’t happy with it.  Maybe the red coordinates with the orange tone of the furniture and mirror?  I think that’s a stretch but I’m sticking with that reasoning.

I still love that red door, even though I don’t use red a lot.  With the tan siding and black shutters, it really needs a red door to make it stand out, especially under the covered porch.

The porch furniture doesn’t show very much over the railing, but you can tell it’s finally got it’s sh*t together even from the street.  And, all the boxwoods made it through the trauma of temporarily being moved to the side yard!  It was touch and go there for a minute, but we’ve even got new growth happening!  What didn’t make it though is that center hosta, which is weird because I was under the impression that hostas could not be killed, which is why I love them so much.  These were all taken from the side yard either completely or split, so I’ll get another to put in the center later.

Overall I love the new front porch space and it’s literally my favorite “room” this summer!

Later this week I’ll share a budget breakdown of all the items, since it’s basically all just bought items that created this space.  Until then, you can most likely find me lounging out here with Mike and Benelli and some adult beverages.

Switching gears a little bit from the Hummel House to talk about our porch.  Last time I talked about the porch styling was almost 4 years ago when I complained about how tan everything was looking, but did some virtual styling to reduce the monotony of beige.  Last year we did do some major work on the actual porch which made my dislike of the basic furniture seem a little less important, but with warm weather right around the corner I’m back to dreaming of sipping margaritas out here again!

So, the last time I had checked in I had bought this set from Bed Bath & Beyond, which is no longer carried.

I also had that Ikea sisal rug that I had plans to paint, but honestly, who has time for that?! 

My plan was to add color by painting the rug, adding pillows and accessories, and maybe one day making slip covers.  They were grand plans indeed!

Well fast forward 4 years and we still had the tan furniture with a couple pillows, which you can see peeking out in the first photo, and that was it.  I was hopeful to take on this space again and everything changed when I got the Bed Bath and Beyond circular last month and I got super excited about new possibilities.

I decided to stop trying to like my old set and get something I loved, and this Westerly Acacia Wood Chat Set was it!  I knew Mike would kill me if I came home with a new set while we still had a perfectly good one sitting on the porch at the moment, so I reasoned with myself that if I could sell the old one, I would buy the new one.  I posted it to our local Facebook Buy, Sell, Trade group and within 3 minutes it was sold for $150!  I went after work to buy the new set :)

Poor Mike was actually on the porch cleaning it up when I came home with the news that someone was coming by later to take it away.  He’s definitely used to this by now so he wasn’t even that surprised.  I had also picked up a new outdoor rug from Target while I was out and then got to work putting everything together.  I would have liked a larger rug, but we’re limited by width of the porch.

The furniture is surprisingly really comfortable.  The cushions look a little thin, but I sat on the display set before I bought it. 

I’ve got to add some more layers, including a side table for the chairs, planters, lanterns, pillows, and accessories.  I’ve got a couple items in transit, and I’ll share as I add more pieces.   

I mentioned last week that we stained the deck.

This has been a very difficult process since thanks to the time change we only have about an hour, at most, of daylight every evening. Last weekend we moved everything off the deck, and power washed it. Which, we’ve decided needs to be done every spring, because it was beyond gross. I actually fell one day off the top steps because it was rainy that day and I stepped onto a dirtier area that had become super slick. Not again folks.

After cleaning, we waited for the weekend to get our stain on. Last time we did it on a weeknight and we were out there in the dark until 10:30pm. We learned our lesson. Mike picked the color last time and he picked Warm Golden Honey, which I’ll admit was not my favorite. It definitely faded a lot after this photo, but it was always a little too orange for my taste:

So, this time I wanted to go with a dark color, Sherwin Williams Charwood (SW3542):

Via

We bought 6 gallons (the amount we used last time – thanks past Mallory for writing that note in the blog!) and went to work on Sunday.  When we started the stain looked really gray.  Like, light blue gray, but we had hours of work ahead of us, so I just assumed that as it dried it would (I don’t know, magically?) turn dark brown.  We used 2 gallons up when Mike opened the third and we realized the problem.  The 3rd gallon was the gorgeous brown you see up there, while the 2 we used were tinted Charwood using a weathered gray base.  What are the chances that we pick the 2 out of 6 that are mistinted to start with? 

We had all ready done a third of the deck at this point so our only solution was to return to Sherwin Williams and exchange all of our Charwood for the weathered gray color. 

Instead of my awesome dark brown deck, we have a giant light gray, almost blue one.  Womp, womp.

The more I think about it, the more bummed I get.  I told Mike while we were staining – as a sick joke – that the only good thing about having to stain every couple of years is that I’ll get my Charwood deck in 2-3 years when we have to redo this horrible process again!

I guess if we weren’t so pressed for time (no more staining in November!) to get this project completed, we would have opened more cans to see if they were all gray, taken the 3 seconds to see the bases were labeled differently, or freakin’ tested it on a piece of scrap wood!  Coulda shoulda woulda. 

The next 5-6 months the deck will probably be covered in snow, so we’ll see how I feel once spring time rolls around.  Hopefully the warm weather will make me forget about this feeling and I’ll get excited again about decorating the deck. 

I recently received a comment on our porch reveal asking what our deck looks like.  I admit I’ve been bad about sharing the updates back there.  Back in the day, I outlined the “zones” I wanted to create, and I’m happy to report not much has changed and we even purchased all the large items we didn’t have.  You may have noticed these in the drone flyover post.

And, my original “zone” plan:

We bought a dining set as well as a sectional and a coffee table.  Both are from Target.  The dining set is the Threshold Holden 6-Piece Metal/Wicker Rectangular Patio Dining Furniture Set.  We also bought a navy blue umbrella and granite base (seen here, but no longer available on the website).

The sectional is the Threshold Heatherstone Wicker set with 5 sections with a faux stone coffee table (similar to this set).

Since the weather is crappy more often than not, I don’t leave any of the cushions out full time.  So, instead of the “food set-up zone” I imagined, we opted for a storage container.  It’s fine because we actually have larger parties than the deck alone could handle, so our food tables are set-up down in the driveway with the eating areas.  With all the sectional cushions, dining chair cushions and extra pillows, the storage container alone couldn’t hold everything so we also picked up the Ikea TOSTERÖ for $20 and it’s held up surprisingly really well.  I leave it on top of the storage bin during the nice weather months and then we toss it in the attic of the garage during winter. 

I still plan to add string lights, which we already own from our wedding reception, but Mike and I have to build some supports, which I plan to make semi-permanent so that we’re more likely to use the lights if the supports are always there!  Since we’re 5 minutes away from snow here, this will be a project for next spring. 

But, before the snow hits (and with the freaky 75 degree weather we’re experiencing right now), we wanted to re-stain the deck.  We finished most of it yesterday, but we still have touch-ups and a few sections along the sides to complete, but I’ll be back later to share.  We had a huge hiccup happen, (one word: mistint), and I’m still not sure how I feel about it now.  Hopefully later this week we can add the furniture back on and feel a little better!

Sorry for the radio silence, Mike and I jetted off to Cozumel, Mexico to watch my brother and my new sister-in-law get married a couple weeks ago!  We’re experiencing the “vacation is over - now back to the real world” blues (is that a real thing?) so we really haven’t gotten any projects done worth sharing.

Before we left though, Mike bought an SJCAM (a cheapy GoPro) to get some shots while we were doing all the fun things down in Mexico (we went scuba diving and Mike got the coolest sea turtle video!!).  We decided it would be cool to hook it up to the drone Mike bought on Craigslist last year, (because why not?!) and do a flyover of the house.

We don’t have a gimbal yet so every adjustment is noticed, which doesn’t make for the most *ahem* smooth video, but we had fun shooting it, and I got some more practice editing, you know, for the sea turtle videos!

When I showed the painted foundation I never did a full pulled-back shot of the porch.  Since I use this blog as much as a platform to share our projects as I do a reference for us to look back on, I wanted to wrap this project up, officially. 

This is probably the first project that doesn’t look that much different from the before, but the progress photos show all the good stuff.  We started with the existing porch, with carpeted stairs, and a concrete slab that dead-ended into the grass.

We got to work removing and saving the siding, demoing the stairs, and tearing off the old wooden siding.

We then had to step back to re-evaluate the project after we found extensive termite damage.

After some discussion, we decided to keep the porch and rebuild it with extra support.  Also adding better materials to prevent termite damage in the future.

We poured a new walkway.

And, got new stairs.

We wrapped the porch with Tyvek and PVC trim, and added faux stone panels to create a faux foundation and columns, creating an architectural detail and better curb appeal.  Then added the saved siding back on.

Finally, I painted the foundation (technically, only half of it) with a paint color matched to the faux stone for better continuity.

Even though we still have to fill in some of the garden beds, we’re calling this baby done!

I hope to get the other foundation wall painted before the weather turns.

Like I said at the beginning, the before and after aren’t mind blowing or anything, I mean we literally transplanted the same plants back into place, but all the work underneath is impressive and we can definitely tell the new supports when we walk around on the porch.

The before/after back to back:

We recently added up all the receipts from this project, as well as all the new landscaping (new beds, mulch, rocks) and our total was $2,700.  We had estimated that a new porch would be close to $5,000, so we went in to this project fearing the worse.  We feel really good about the upgraded curb appeal, as well as making the foundation secure and preventing future damage.  We’re also impressed we were able to clean up the rest of the yard in that number too!