One of the major selling points of our apartment was the fact that it had two porches. Yeah, that's right, TWO PORCHES. The catch was that the nice porch needed to be torn down and rebuilt. (The other porch is surrounded by brick walls and pulls double duty as "garbage porch" and "HausWitch Workshop") We waited patiently (yeah right) until late October when it was finished...just in time for winter. While it was a great place to watch the snowstorms we didn't get the chance to really enjoy the porch until this Spring. By the time May rolled around I was itching to get started decorating. I set a budget of $100 and was done by 4th of July. 
So as you can see, there wasn't really anything major to do aside from move our old bed frame to the curb, cover up a weird, broke-down looking window, and give it some flair. The people who lived here before left the Adirondack chairs behind so those babies were free. The blue bistro set was my graduation present from Dave last year (and one of my favorite things ever) so we already had that too. 
" Summer Camp" was my inspiration for the porch decor. Since I actually never went, my idea of a "summer camp" is a vague mash up of imagery from Wet Hot American Summer, Indian Summer (the one from 1993 with the lady from Big) and Moonrise Kingdom. Translation: primary colors and wood. 
I found the outdoor ottoman at Target. Total game changer. I think this may have been the best $40 I have ever spent. It turns out that a porch without something to put your feet up on is basically a total waste of time. 
I found the table bases at Goodwill for $2 each. I asked a friend at work who has a saw if she could cut 13" circles out of plywood for the tops. (Shout out to Annie Bulman, you da besssst!) Then I stained the tops with Miniwax's Early American and spray painted the brass white. Deets:
1. Even though I spray-laquered the table tops after I stained them, I wanted some coasters to protect the wood from annoying drink condensation. I found these slate coasters (that reminded me of arrowheads) at Michaels for $2.99 for 4. I painted camp-y (?) designs on them with the Martha Stewart All Purpose Craft Paints in Pollen, Wedding Cake, Pond, and Geranium. 2. I covered the gross window ugliness (the other side is in my building's common hallway) with fabric from IKEA that I hemmed with Heat & Bond. The "ladder" is just that IKEA part that I wrote about here stained the same as the tabletops. 3. I like to call these lights the "everyone's-wedding-in-a-barn lights". 4. The birdhouse was like, $5 at Michaels. It was raw wood so I painted it bright yellow. It's a little obnoxious and a little amazing. That's basically it. I would have definitely liked to have some plants out there but my brown thumb put a stop to that pretty much immediately. I bought two plants and they both died within weeks. (RIP Planty and Dalia, you're in a better place!) Luckily we have those nice trees.
The moon is in Pisces and who else is SUUUUUUUUPER happy that Mercury is out of retrograde???!!!!
So as you can see, there wasn't really anything major to do aside from move our old bed frame to the curb, cover up a weird, broke-down looking window, and give it some flair. The people who lived here before left the Adirondack chairs behind so those babies were free. The blue bistro set was my graduation present from Dave last year (and one of my favorite things ever) so we already had that too. 
" Summer Camp" was my inspiration for the porch decor. Since I actually never went, my idea of a "summer camp" is a vague mash up of imagery from Wet Hot American Summer, Indian Summer (the one from 1993 with the lady from Big) and Moonrise Kingdom. Translation: primary colors and wood. 
I found the outdoor ottoman at Target. Total game changer. I think this may have been the best $40 I have ever spent. It turns out that a porch without something to put your feet up on is basically a total waste of time. 
I found the table bases at Goodwill for $2 each. I asked a friend at work who has a saw if she could cut 13" circles out of plywood for the tops. (Shout out to Annie Bulman, you da besssst!) Then I stained the tops with Miniwax's Early American and spray painted the brass white. Deets:
1. Even though I spray-laquered the table tops after I stained them, I wanted some coasters to protect the wood from annoying drink condensation. I found these slate coasters (that reminded me of arrowheads) at Michaels for $2.99 for 4. I painted camp-y (?) designs on them with the Martha Stewart All Purpose Craft Paints in Pollen, Wedding Cake, Pond, and Geranium. 2. I covered the gross window ugliness (the other side is in my building's common hallway) with fabric from IKEA that I hemmed with Heat & Bond. The "ladder" is just that IKEA part that I wrote about here stained the same as the tabletops. 3. I like to call these lights the "everyone's-wedding-in-a-barn lights". 4. The birdhouse was like, $5 at Michaels. It was raw wood so I painted it bright yellow. It's a little obnoxious and a little amazing. That's basically it. I would have definitely liked to have some plants out there but my brown thumb put a stop to that pretty much immediately. I bought two plants and they both died within weeks. (RIP Planty and Dalia, you're in a better place!) Luckily we have those nice trees.
Budget:
Ottoman: $40 Lights $12/box X 2= $24 IKEA "Ladder": $12 Margareta Fabric 1.5 yards: $10.50 Coasters: $2.99 Table Bases: $4 Birdhouse: $5 Total: $102.50 So that's our little slice of urban outdoor heaven!
The moon is in Pisces and who else is SUUUUUUUUPER happy that Mercury is out of retrograde???!!!!
