Black and White Porch

Today I'm sharing the update of our back porch, 

which runs the length of our house with access

from the dining room and the master bedroom.

 Here it is "before" in desperate need of painting

and new flooring.  

The existing floor was tan indoor/outdoor carpet.

We talked about wrapping it with siding, but decided

to have it painted along with

the rest of the outside of the house last summer.

 The flooring was a difficult decision.

No carpet for sure!  Tile? Wood? 

 I love the black and white check floors, and thought the outdoor "room" 

could support such a bold floor, plus it was a good 

place to experiment without having to look at it everyday

if it was a terrible decision (believe me I've made some of those!)

 Here's the process we (meaning my husband) followed:

After the porch was painted we laid new plywood flooring

Then we painted the entire floor white

Next we taped off squares (you can see above) with Frog tape

Filled in the squares with black enamel paint

And let it all dry really well.

 Here's the finished product. You can see Miss Madison was the

first one out on the porch LOL!

 Here it is furnished again with our rockers and table.

 Down by the master bedroom we have the rockers 

where we sit and visit lots of evenings.

 Here is the floor by the wicker rockers, which I repainted black

from the white they were to match the floor.

 I hung a battery operated chandelier over the dining table.

 We repainted the rod iron table and chairs white

and my sweet mother in law made the cushions for 

both the dining and wicker chairs.

I used Waverly outdoor fabric.

This picture is from this past week.  The others are from one year ago.

I wanted you to be able to see how it's "wearing".

Sometimes I see projects and think "that looks great now, 

wonder how it will look in a few months"

Since it is an outdoor porch, even though it is protected by the overhang,

it gets wet when it storms, dirty from bugs, etc.

The floor does look less crisp than when we first finished it,

but I like that look of a little worn, so I am happy.

If you wanted perfection forever, you could put a coat of poly to seal

but I didn't want my white squares to tinge yellow, so we skipped that step.
*Don't forget to visit Bee Breakfast at
http://beeutifulbydesign.blogspot.com/2013/07/bee-breakfast-on-porch.html
for a chance to enter my giveaways!*

I'm joining:

Metamorphosis Monday http://betweennapsontheporch.net/a-sweet-bird-girl-in-the-garden/

Inspire me Tuesday at http://www.astrollthrulife.net/

Wow us Wednesday at http://www.savvysouthernstyle.net/

Tutorial Tips and Tidbits at http://www.stonegableblog.com/

Outdoor Wednesday http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/
Furniture Feature Friday http://missmustardseed.com/2013/08/furniture-feature-friday-favorites-a-link-party-25/