Monday, May 31, 2010

Low Budget Back Porch Makeover

When we purchased our little house a few years ago, one of our favorite features was the large, screened in back porch. It needed some work, but we envisioned using it as a second living area, or a playroom, either of which would be a plus, in our small home.

Baby V was born several months after we closed on the house, and along with a lot of other projects, this one was put on the back burner. Indefinitely.

Last year, we bought a nice little set of patio furniture from Ikea, but that's about all we've done. The porch has otherwise become a depository for things we don't have room for elsewhere. (By the way, the dog's eyes aren't normally that creepy looking. Just in case you were wondering.)


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We've decided to start working on it again. On as close to a zero budget as possible.


Our first task was to basically just clean up. We got rid of some junk, relocated other stuff to the garage, and rearranged what was left.


After that, we hung up these cool curtain tracks that we picked up from Ikea last year. I purchased a whole bolt of burlap to make curtains, although that still ended up not being quite enough, so I'm waiting on Hobby Lobby to restock, in order to finish a couple of projects.

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I sewed some pillows for the furniture out of some pretty old fabric I had lying around, and then tie dyed a tablecloth I already had, as well as some muslin fabric, which I them used to make a couple of more pillows.

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Finally, I added the previously blogged about do-dads wrapped in jute, and a
couple of ferns.

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We spent:

$25 for the burlap

$5 for one fern (The other came from the front porch.)

$18 for fiberfill stuffing for the pillows

From the craft stash and/or repurposed from elsewhere in the house:

Curtain hardware, patterned fabric, muslin, fabric dye, jute, jars & canister, tablecloth, tealights

It's not totally finished yet. I still have several other things in mind to do, and we are still trying to come up with a nice, but cheap flooring option. The floor is currently just icky old concrete that's impossible to keep clean.

Not bad for a $48 makeover, huh?

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11 comments:

  1. so cute! and creative, too. i love what you did with the tie-dye!!
    great job!
    lora

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  2. I really love how this is turning. Your curtains are awesome! It still allows light to come in through the windows yet provides some privacy. It really is a gorgeous patio!

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  3. Great!!!! Love that tablecloth and I like the neutral color scheme...very summery...

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  4. Looks great & done on a budget makes it even better! Thanks for linking to Craftastic Monday:)

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  5. What a nice change and for notalotta money, gotta love that. It looks very inviting!

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  6. Love your makeover. Looks like a peaceful place to relax.
    '
    I came here via Made By You Monday. Hope you can visit me sometimes over at Pittypat Paperie.

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  7. Never tried it but I've heard good things about painting concrete. I've even seen an "area rug" pattern painted on... Great job!

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  8. NICE, and you've gotta love that budget!

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  9. You did a great job! I love reading about projects on a budget, b/c that's what REAL people do. :) I laughed when I read about the dog's eyes--I wouldn't have noticed until you wrote about it. :) I'm visiting from The CSI Project today. :)

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  10. That's some good lookin' tie dye. Normally when I think tie dye, I think bright 70's colors, but that makes tie dye look modern.

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