Living on the Back Porch
When my oldest and his wife (Trey and Grace) moved to Charleston I surprised them with furniture I repurposed for their new back porch. It did this momma’s heart good and it was so much fun to be able to give them a cute little set up so they could start enjoying the screened porch right away!
The set included a drop leaf table, two chairs, and a bench. Quite literally it was all trash at one time but was currently being housed in my storage unit. One person’s curbside may end up being my treasure! When you’re starting out money is tight so use what you can find and make it work. Bonus fun for me is that on these builds I got to play with all my Ryobi tools – my friends!
Paint
In an effort to keep it simple I decided to paint everything white knowing that decor tastes change over time and Grace can switch out accessories whenever she desires. I also did some distressing so they won’t be sad when it gets happily used and dinged up!
Decor trends are fickle so keep your fundamentals simple.
The paint I chose is one I’ve never used before so we’ll just have to wait and see how it holds up. I’ll let you know! Let’s just say that the sales associate at Home Depot did a good job selling me on it so we’re giving it a test run. The paint is Behr Alkyd – supposed to be as tough and durable as enamel with the convenience of a latex. With a single gallon of paint ($36) I was able to complete the table, two chairs, the bench, and the sewing cabinet for the foyer that I wrote about in a previous post. The leftover paint I left with Trey – he can be in charge of future touch-ups.
Hand-me-down chairs
The two chairs are ones I rescued from a curb years ago. They’ve lived a couple of lives in my house already with changes in paint and seat fabric. Since they were going to the porch my hubs (that’s Chip) cut out wooden seats ($16 for wood) and attached them for me. He also tightened up the legs and we had to add some support brackets ($12). With the new wooden seats Grace can add her own touch with seat cushions and be able to bring the cushions in – you know, when a hurricane comes.
I like to hide Bible verses on my furniture projects and the verses for the chairs are Psalm 139:1-2. O Lord, you have searched me and know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
A table with history
The table also has a family history. As a teenager, Chip mowed lawns to earn money and one of his customers requested he
The table’s verse is John 6:35. Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
Once trash, now a bench!
The bench also has a past as trash. Since everyone who knows me knows my passion for upcycling they bring me solid wood prizes from the roadside. The bench was built from a headboard and footboard that my father found on a curb for me. Bingo!
Before you trash it, can you reinvent it?
Building a bench like this will always be a bit different from one project to the next due differences in headboards. I wanted this one to be used as seating at the table so our plans were based on standard kitchen chairs. For a seat depth of sixteen inches, we cut a bit more than sixteen inches off each end of the footboard to use as the arms and sides of the bench. Inside this frame of back and sides, we constructed a frame of two by fours to support the seat. Using a seat depth of sixteen inches also allowed us to (pretty) evenly space one by fours as the slats for the seat. Even my MIL got her hands dirty on this one – a complete family affair.
We also planned in advance for the finished seat height of the bench to be eighteen inches like a standard kitchen chair. I knew I wanted casters ($10) on the bench (this sucker is HEAVY) that were two inches tall. This meant that during construction we planned for the finished seat height to be sixteen inches from the bottoms of the feet of the furniture. This way the finished overall seat height would be eighteen inches. I’d say we nailed it (pun intended) since it turned out the exact same height as the chairs. The total lumber cost for the bench was $38 and $6 for a box of screws. To all my former math students out there who said they’d never use math in real life – phooey on you!
The Bible verse I assigned to the bench is Colossians 3:1. Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Finishing Touches
Because I’m me, I also added a few pillows and decorative items from the At Home Store! This was just to give Trey and Grace a jumping off point (& I enjoy seeing a finished staged project). Grace loves blues but she also said she wanted bright, happy colors on the porch. I think we managed to give her a bit of everything. The cute little sign is a DIY that I’ll tell you all about in another post. Since the move, they’ve also added their own touch to the porch with an outdoor rug and party lights strung from the ceiling.
I love upcycling and reimaging spaces, furniture, and decor, but most of all I love being able to help and support young people as they start out and show them that not everything has to be brand new or expensive. The furniture makeover for this porch only cost $118. Get creative and make your space your own!
Xo,
