from drab to...not so drab

Come on in! Or should I say out?

Our porch needed an overhaul. That's the short story.

The long story goes something like this: Diana has big dreams of selling her first home and making enough money to move to a bigger, nicer home. Diana reads up on how to prepare your house before selling, sees curb appeal and first impression as one of the top things to do, and sets in motion redecorating the porch that has been ignored for too long.

Key words here are 'big dreams' so don't read into anything. We aren't even close to listing our home OR buying a new one and we don't know when that will happen. I am just a dreamer with too much time on my hands (except not literally, of course) and I took it as a good excuse to do some sprucing. 

I started out with a new rug. I browsed large outdoor rugs for hours but I knew in my heart that I wanted black and white stripes. Stripes are my love language and I was pretty sure I wanted to stay neutral since our house was already working with mostly neutrals. 

As an afterthought, I threw down my circular sisal rug that I found at Crate and Barrel for $15 about 4 years ago (that used to be somewhere else...remember these days?)

Next up was the chair. I had bought a teal chair from Target a couple years ago that sat here before but I just wasn't loving it. 

It was clashing with the brick and didn't work with what was in my head so I sold it to a neighbor and picked up this chair at Ikea the same day. The neutral worked for me and it was $20 cheaper than the black, so I snagged it. I have a can of black spray paint if the mood strikes. 

I pulled the pillows from inside and left our Home Sweet Home canvas up where it was.

While I was at Ikea, I was looking for a variety of pots, not really knowing what to do. I found these hanging planters and instantly knew they would go perfect with our scalloped entryway. I'm having a REALLY hard time growing anything on our porch (more on that later) so I picked up some faux plants and called it a day. 

The "B" sign was a housewarming gift and I've loved changing it out for the seasons. I tied on a greenery garland from Joann and added a leopard bow (another love language of mine) and it might be my favorite part of the porch.

That's just part one; the easy stuff. I still have a list of some more intensive items that I want to check off like:

-paint the floor (it was already painted blue but the majority of it has chipped away. I'm thinking grey?)

-re-paint the front door

-add natural bead board or wood to the ceiling; something like this

-replace the light (possibly)

-add pots/plants/decor on the ground to fill in the corner where the chair sits

That last point is the one I'm dreading the most. We've been here for two and a half years and I don't have a single surviving plant from our porch. Our house faces north and the porch is enclosed, as you can see, and everything just withers away. I've pinned some articles here about some shade-loving plants but I don't know...should I just go faux? I'm waiting to do this one until it's warmer, and the rest of the projects are waiting until my husband feels like helping me out (so don't hold your breath).

Still, I'm loving my quick little porch update!