My love of sitting on a porch began almost 50 years ago. My grandparents had a house in Atlantic City, NJ, and one of the fond memories I have when I think about their house, is sitting on the front porch with them when I was a child. Central air conditioning was not happening in their over 100-year-old “cottage” purchased by my great-grandparents in the early 1900s, so many humid summer nights were spent on the porch enjoying the sea-breeze that made it’s way to the porch when the wind was just right thanks to the house being situated between the ocean and bay which were only 4 city blocks apart from each other.
The porch always seemed Iike the place to be during the summer months. In addition to cooling off, the porch was also ideal during a thunderstorm to watch the lightning light up the sky thanks to the awnings that protected us from any wind and rain. It was social too, neighbors coming and going and in addition to a neighborly wave sometimes they would join us on the porch for polite conversation or juicy neighborhood gossip.
45 years later, I still enjoy sitting on the porch. When I first met my husband, I noticed he had a porch and asked where he stored the furniture during cold winters here in New Jersey. He looked at me as if I had 15 heads and very matter-of-factly stated, “I’ve never used the porch.” Whaaaaaat? How is it possible that the man of my dreams didn’t utilize his porch? How could this minor but oh so major detail be missed by the Universe when I was putting my order in for Mr Right? Thank goodness he was quick to give me the green light to decorate it however I wanted and as you can imagine, the pieces of porch-pleasure started arriving shortly thereafter.
Most mornings when the weather is mild I like to enjoy a cup of coffee on the porch while making my list for the day. Mr. Right and I enjoy sitting in our rocking chairs at the end of the day with a cocktail in hand reviewing the highlights of our day while watching the sunset or a thunderstorm just like I did as a child making memories on my grandparents’ porch.
Here is how I like to STYLE a porch like a FashionSHEsta:
Like other spaces when decorating, I like to begin with what “vibe” I’m going for which helps narrow down decorating choices. My porch vibe is “relaxing”. Maybe I’m reading a book, writing a to-do list, or just enjoying a glass of wine with my husband or a neighbor or two.
To get the relaxing vibe, I decided on a color scheme of blues, white, and gray with pops of green and yellow for a nod to summer. I selected an outdoor area rug to place the white rockers and grey table on, found some easy, maintenance-free accessories such as this yellow planter and this grey side table by Polywood to place in between the rocking chairs.
A porch is a great way to extend your living space and “sit a spell” just like my grandmother did <3
