Our new favorite space

We have this really great screened-in porch just off two wide sliding doors from our living room that until this past spring was no more than a landing spot for cast-off furniture and accessories and lots of crunchy leaves and blown-in dust. I finally settled on what I wanted to do with the space, though, and now it's one of our favorite places to sit after dinner or when Ryan gets home from work. It's so nice to prop our feet together on the shared ottoman and just look at each other and talk about the day. Or the next one. Or one fifty years from now. The swivel-rocker chairs are from the Country Living Collection at Sears. The rug is from Ballard Designs. I ordered 5 rugs from them recently and they really finished off several spaces in the house. This chocolate brown one is my favorite of all of them. Most everything else besides the chairs and the rug I already had. The view through the windows is of the woods behind our house and the little creek below. I had the trees trimmed up in early May and we're still not used to the cleaned up look. Someday I hope to do much more to the backyard and the treeline.

Despite a lack of any real gardening skills, I have had some success with ferns on this back side of my house. I bought several at Lowe's when they had them on a great sale and so far they're thriving in this porch and the deck just outside it. The green shutter, which I've had for quite a while, hides the gas stove/fireplace that hasn't always worked right but we hope will cooperate this fall. I got the long gray bench and the green wooden finials on my last junking trip in Ozark with Barb (much too long ago--we need to go again soon).

I've also had this white table for a long time, one of my favorite purchases from The Seedbox. It's actually an old chick incubator. The front flap folds down and there are openings and pipes on one side. The lamp is from one of my other favorite people/places, Colleene's. I'm missing her little shop since she closed down and hoping she does another sale out at her barn this summer or fall.

Colleene gave me a great deal on this twig piece too, a baker's rack maybe. I've thought about moving it outside to use as a potting bench, but for now it holds a few odds and ends that match the gardening, brown/green scheme.

This green table is one of my favorite things, and I can't remember where I got it. I usually remember where I get everything. The big iron porch post piece behind it reminds me of my Nanny and Papaw's house in Muskogee. Their little porch had some similar. The candle lantern was a Mother's Day gift from my sweet mother-in-law this year.

I traded Colleene work hours for this old grain bin several years ago. I love the weathered honey color of the wood and it's great for stashing extra decor or, shhh--sometimes presents.

So many people who have visited our house said they'd "just live out in this room" if it were theirs, but before I got the chairs and cleaned it up, we never went out there. Now I like to sit with a magazine or a book, maybe even doze off for a bit on a sleepy afternoon, or just look through the glass from the couch inside. It's just a nice place to be and I feel lucky to have it.