Our Outdoor Room AKA Front Porch (with some facelifts)

There are many things that I won't miss about this house.
One redeeming quality it does have is this large front porch.

I've not always utilized the fabulous space in front of our house, but slowly over the past couple of years I've added more to make it a usable outdoor space for our family.
And it is. I love to sit out there, visit with friends, read. It's a good space.
I'll soon change a few things out for summer, so I wanted to get the more spring look up before I do that! :)

Here is what I did with it LAST YEAR.
See it this past fall HERE. (bottom of post)
And, it looks as if I didn't take any photos of it from December... what the? How did that happen?
Here is is from winter the previous year... 2012.

Anyway, after winter, this is what it was looking like.

Yep, a little blahhh.

Before I show what I did with my porch I want to show you a couple of pieces that I gave facelifts to, and incorporated in my design this year.

First, this little bitty plant table was found on the side of the road. I've had it in my basement unsure of what to do with it. This year I brought it up, spray painted it green and added it to the front porch!

I also found this small filing cabinet on the side of the road, while walking to the bus stop!

I went ahead and pushed it down the street back to my house!

It opens up and I think will be so cute as a place to store drinks... right? Cute!

I spray painted it (w/ outdoor paint) and until I need it for a drink server I'll use it as a side table.

Now onto our porch. This is the section by the door...

This year I brought my hanging cintronella candles over to this side.

I just hung them from screw-in hooks, with some chain.

We are gone for most of the summer and I just can't take care of plants.

The past few years our porch has looked so color-less with no flowers.

This year I decided I'd just go fake with everything. I found a ton of blooms at Joann's for $1! Major score!

I'll bring in red flowers in July, for more summer flair.

This plant holder has been with us since we were first married. Got it from my mom.

This bench is another roadside find. I painted it aqua.

And there is my little table all made up and pretty!

Now the 'sitting area' of the porch...

Two of the chairs and little glass table are from our outdoor set (the rest of it is in the back yard). The red chair was painted by me, got it at a garage sale. Church bench, again, yard sale. It looked like this, I made no changes to that.