Porch Styling

Living in North Carolina, we have a long stretch of the year in which we can be outdoors. We have two porches at our house; one long porch in the front and a screened porch in our backyard. We love to spend as much time as possible in both of these areas, and once the pollen leaves every spring I do a deep clean, update the plants, and refresh the pillows and cushions.

We live on a busy road, and we love to sit on the front porch in the evenings to have a cocktail, and watch the cars go by. I wanted to make our front porch not only comfortable and inviting to sit on, but I also wanted to make it aesthetic as it is the first thing people see when they come to our house. There are also hundreds of people who drive by every day, so of course I wanted to make it look good.

I started with two white rocking chairs that we bought from a local furniture store. I have seen plenty of cheaper outdoor rocking chairs at Lowe’s and Home Depot, but since we leave these out all year long I wanted to make sure they were durable and would last. Then we added a table we already had with some durable decor on top.

We are coming into Spring/Summer and I wanted to make sure we had plenty of greenery. We (okay, Will did all the work) placed two hanging plants, and then I purchased these two planters from Homegoods and Target.

Last is our welcome mat. I am a sucker for a good welcome mat, and I like to switch them up for the holidays. Of course I had to incorporate dogs – I found this one on Etsy. I also love to layer them to add some extra dimension. In the colder months I like to use a black and white checkered rug, but I think this neutral one is perfect for the spring/summer months.

Our house came with a back porch, and we loved it at first. However, we decided to change it into a screened porch and make it a cozier, more livable space. Here is what it looked like prior to screening it in:

We found our outdoor couch on Wayfair. We originally had it as a corner couch, but we ended up finding that it wasn’t a great set up for hosting friends so we took it apart and formed these two separate couches. We also have these two stools that we store under the TV stand. We used to use them as plant stands, but we now use them as extra seating for when we have people over, and they work great for a short gathering. The couch came with a matching coffee table that I eventually want to switch out, but it works for now.

Continuing with our greenery, we love to keep plants out here as well (of course, Will makes sure they are watered and I don’t actually touch them). Alice LOVES to come out here and stand in the palm fern. We looked up if that was normal or not, and apparently it is. It’s called “trancing” – when a dog goes and stands in a corner for no apparent reason.

We added some shades to help block the sun when we are watching TV in the afternoons, and we added these string lights to help create a perfect ambiance.

We considered painting the wood back here – I probably would have chosen a shade of white. However, painted wood tends to splinter faster and requires frequent upkeep (like our front porch), so we opted to keep the natural wood look instead.

We’ve had this outdoor rug for years. It has held up great, and it covers the dirt and mud that the dogs drag through.

Lastly, if you are a dog owner I cannot stress enough how great a screened in porch is. We have a dog door that leads into our yard (it’s shockingly big enough to fit our Great Dane, Alice, too). When it is raining, or the yard is muddy, we are able to lay a ton of drop cloths down out here which catches a majority of the mud from their paws before they come into our house. It also allows us to wipe down the dogs outside before them come in. A win-win in my book!

And there you have it. I hope this post gave you some good inspiration for updating and decorating your own outdoor space!