Freshened Up Spring Porch + Mother’s Day Interview

Three things always remind me of my mom-  good books, sweet tea, and pretty front porches.

Usually, at my parents’ house, on most sunny Saturday mornings, you can count on her to be sitting on her wicker swing on her front porch reading a book from her library and sipping iced tea that somehow always tastes better when she makes it.

My second story childhood bedroom was right over that porch, and I woke up to the sound of that creaky swing every summer day. Her porch is her happy place, her escape for some peace and quiet.

Front porches always seem more complete with my mother there.

Even when I was a teenager, if we were driving around and saw an old house with a big beautiful porch, we would have to slow down and marvel over it. I lost count of how many times our conversations started with, “Ooh wouldn’t you love to live in that old place?” Looking at charming houses was our thing.

She’s my twin, just 27 years older.

So whenever we were in the blueprint phase of our house two years ago, one of my few requests was to have a front porch.

Do you know how many mornings I’ve spent drinking sweet tea and reading a good book on this porch? Zero. Relaxing on a wicker settee when you have a toddler trying to dart out into the street doesn’t really work.

Since having Olivia and now hitting the huge tantrum phase, I have a much bigger respect for my mother than ever before.

As a kid I thought, “How boring to just sit in a swing and read a book?” Now, I would love nothing more.

As crazy as my brother and I were, my mom deserves her little porch oasis.

One day, when our little one is at least old enough to fend for herself, I hope to have this little escape too.

Ours is finally off to a great start after having no greenery on it for over a year. (Is that sad?)

This is how it was looking last year:

Balsam Hill sent me this 22″ boxwood wreath for our door that was exactly what our plain exterior needed. I really like that I won’t have to change it out with every season.

I added a wooden picture frame from the craft aisle that I stained and sprayed with two coats of polyurethane. We have an initial obsession in our house. If this doesn’t convince you, our gallery wall will. We might have enough by now. (wink wink)

We’ve had our door mat for as long as Robert and I have been married from our first apartment together.

I didn’t want to spend a ton on planters for our front porch, so since I already had two galvanized buckets, I turned them upside down to use as pedestals for these two Bolivian Jew Ivy hanging baskets I picked up at the grocery store. I just cut off the plastic hanger part to make them look like topiaries.

We found our wicker furniture at Goodwill last year for fairly cheap. I had given them a couple coats of polyurethane when we got them home and they’ve been great. This year, since they had yellowed a bit from being out in the sun so long, I freshened them up with a quick coat of white outdoor spray paint. Good as new.

I was on a chevron kick last summer when I found these pillows and cushions at Marshall’s. Robert likes them because, with our navy blue door, we have Dallas Cowboys colors on our porch. Sure babe, that’s exactly why I chose them. Hey, if he’s happy, I’m happy.

I’d bought a wooden crate months ago for shoe storage under our entryway bench that, wouldn’t you know, was hardly used there. So I painted it to turn into a little side table instead. Ya know…for the lucky spare moment I might get to enjoy some mommy time too.

Check out those Carolina blue skies. Nothing could be finer.

Maybe one day, I’ll actually get more than just greenery out here and add some flowers. For now, my black thumb’s abilities have reached its max. Whatever abilities I have decorating the inside of our house, I seriously lack in the gardening department.

Even though our house is nearly identical to all of the others in our neighborhood, at least our porch has an extra dose of cute. #suburbanlifeprobs

(See that scraggily little stick tree in our yard? It bit the dust. I told ya…black thumb.)

I’m so glad the front of our house isn’t looking quite as barren as it did last year. And of course, my mother approves. There’s no swing on ours, but it’s still a little slice of heaven on a pretty spring day.

You can enter to win Balsam Hill’s Mother’s Day Giveaway by sharing your own favorite memories of your mom or mother figure on their social media pages. You can find all the details here.

Whether you’re a mom of itty bitties or all grown-ups, I hope you get to have your own oasis on Sunday to spend some time exactly the way you want. You deserve it, mama.

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