shelbe lane
- Jun 11, 2020
- 2 min read

Covered Porch Makeover

Hello Everyone!

Show of hands, who loves a good Before and After? This is one of those projects that you do in a relatively short amount of time and for not too much money and you think, "Why didn't we do this before now?"

Keep reading for how we took our covered porch from Dusty to DREAM.

The Before: A dirty congregation of toys, dirt, and random chairs. PS: that's a dirt spill not ground zero for an animal sacrifice .

This porch definitely stood out to us when we were looking at houses some 7 years ago. We've always loved having such a large covered outdoor space where we can sit regardless of rain. BUT this is how the last 7 years went... finally we pulled the plug.

STEP 1:

We power washed the porch. UM HELLO, did I miss something about how much PURE JOY you get from power washing all the things?? This made the BIGGEST difference.

STEP 2: Painted Brick is my spirit animal.

I understand there are ill feelings and Facebook groups out there hating on us painted brick lovers. I get it, its not everyone's cup of tea. Every time I've painted brick or stone, however, I've never regretted it. We did two coats on the L shaped wall and ran a coat across the ceiling and lip of the ceiling and we were like "danggggggggg". What a $30 gallon of paint will do for your MOOD.

After: Steven admiring the freshness.

STEP 3: Build a Wall.

This was my favorite part. For years, I dreamed of semi-enclosing this space. I also wanted to prevent anyone from feeling like they were going to fall backwards off the porch. We used 2x4's for the frame and middle supports and then 20 1x4's for the cross sections. Steven used a nail gun to secure the boards to the frame using spacers on each end then puttied and sanded the holes.

He's so cute and yellow.

The whole wall went up in about 30 minutes.

After filling the holes, we painted it white and used an outdoor waterproofing seal. Even though this wall isn't out in the elements, the elements still get blown into the area.

The entire wall probably cost about $200 including paint and went up SO FAST.

Our outdoor sofa was caught on a Memorial Day sale through Wayfair and is 7 separate pieces (including the coffee table) so you an make the the sofa fit your style or size needs. We liked this idea because most of the outdoor sofas out there are a 2 seat or at most a 3 seat style. I wanted the back wall of the porch to not overwhelm the sofa so I knew we needed a longer option. BTW: Shipping was fast and assembly was easy.

The rug was a find 2 years ago at Target. I caught it at the end of the season and it was heavily discounted. It is still available online.