Magazine Worthy?

We have a neighborhood email and a neighborhood facebook page and I love the feeling of connectedness that those two items bring.  I rarely respond to the emails but always read them.  This last week, someone had requested recommendations of residents who have great porches.  This person needed some shots of awesome porches for a magazine shoot.  I actually responded and told the person about our next door neighbor's porch - they have happy hour almost every afternoon and anyone is welcome to bring their drink and sit on the porch with them.  We haven't participated yet but as soon as the pollen is better, I'm going to be first in line.  It looks fun. . . and if you don't have a drink, they will offer one to you!

I also described our porches to the writer and even attached a couple of photos and then I made the statement, "our porches are definitely not magazine worthy."  I've been thinking about that statement ever since then.  Who says?  Yes, I know that I said it!  I know it really isn't magazine worthy but beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I love some of the things on our porch (we actually have several porches but I'm talking about the screened porch).  These photos were taken on a cloudy day.  The porch is actually the walk through from the garage to the house and right outside the porch is our small courtyard.  We have a patio area tiled in the same tile.  As you can see, the porch opens from our main living/eating area so if we are entertaining and the weather is nice, we can use the porch as an extension of our living space.  When Mark fries fish, he fries it outside on the porch.

Our son, Glenn, made the two tables.  He made one for me for Christmas a year or two ago and he made the other one for my birthday this past year.  The rockers that match came from At Home.  The third rocking chair was Mark's - one of his pieces of furniture from his first apartment post college.  I think his parents bought it for him.  We used it in our nursery and rocked our babies in it.

There are several fun items on this table.  The Igloo cooler was my daddy's.  He worked as a carpenter and he worked for the L & N Railroad and I'm sure he had many days where he needed a cooler of cold water.  The cute faucets were purchased at Southeastern Salvage and they are to give the impression of beer or liquor taps.  That would be fun to have real ones!  The antlers wrapped around the orange bucket are from the farm from a deer that Mark killed.  The box on the very bottom shelf was Mark's daddy's . . .or maybe even before.  The writing on the box is "Libby's canned meat!!!"  The small red lantern on the bottom shelf was a gift from our friend Butch, who died several years ago.  The Jack Daniels bucket, the wooden box on the middle shelf are both from Southeastern Salvage.  We love that store.  The little red lanterns on the middle shelf are from Target.  I can't remember where the birdhouse on the bottom left came from.  I think it might have been a gift but I cannot remember!!  I think the silver candlesticks were a wedding gift . . .almost 33 years ago!  Lots of sentimental items on one bar table!!  We can clean the top off and set out drinks of all kinds.

This is the other table that Glenn made.  I asked for a very narrow table to go in this space.  This table is more rustic that the other one.  The fish on the stringer are metal and they came from Frontera.  I know this sounds so silly but Frontera and Southeastern Salvage are kind of "date" locations for us - it is something we both enjoy doing and we enjoy looking together.  This is really funny because Mark HATES to shop - I mean truly H.A.T.E.S. to shop.  The blue bucket is another Jack Daniels bucket from Southeastern Salvage.  The lures are real lures from some fishing trip.  I think the little red tricycle came from At Home and the giant pine cone came from the yard Hobby Lobby!  We have no big trees in our yard!  We have a tiny yard!!

Here is the view looking toward the garage.  The pillows in the old rocking chair are actually the cushions for the iron furniture in the courtyard.  I have a wreath of forsythia on the garage door because you see it from inside the house and I always try to match/coordinate the garage door with the two front doors (one main front door and the upstairs porch door).  We have two ceiling fans which make the porch almost bearable even in the hottest part of summer.  Summer in the deep south can be brutal.  We purchased fans for all of the porches from Dan's Fan City and they installed them and the fans and Dan's Fan City are all awesome!

Magazine worthy?  Probably not.  I don't have that fancy decorating flair that so many of our friends have . . .maybe our porch isn't magazine worthy . . .but our porch is filled with special items.  Our porch is much loved (by us and by our cat!!).  Beauty is truly in the eyes of the beholder and I think our porch is quite nice!!

Do you have outdoor living spaces?  Are you like me?? . . .I have horrible tree allergies . . .so I can't even use our porches right now.