Summer Porch Tour

Get repurposed vintage and upcycled junk ideas on this fun summer porch tour!

Mid summer has arrived and the living is easy! The gardens are bursting forth with beauty, and we are savoring longer days and a slower pace;) Time to share how all these vintage upcycled and re-purposed projects get styled together here at the Fake Farmhouse! As I ignore the out-of-control weeds in the garden, I’ll give you a Summer Porch Tour that will hopefully inspire your future decorating!

Thankfully no big DIY projects had to be accomplished this year, since we’re between grad party years. Maybe the lack of a deadline is why my flowers got planted later than ever?! Can anyone else relate to needing a deadline to get things done?

As is often the case with old farmhouses, our back entrance is our main entrance, so come on in! Consider yourself our guest today! Pour yourself a cup of coffee, or some refreshing iced tea and enjoy the summer porch tour!

There’s just something classic about a swinging bench hanging on a covered porch that welcomes with a happy “hello”. We flanked both ends of our covered porch with swinging benches to enjoy the function and the beauty of these classics.

I both love and hate how this sentimentally gifted crabapple tree has grown to arch over our back entrance. We appreciate the shade while rocking back and forth on the swing, but the little crabapples and leaves that get dropped over this area have me battling constantly with the mess! Sometimes planting decisions just don’t turn out quite as we plan;( Live and learn.

A table and chairs right outside the door makes a quick bite of lunch easy, or a nice place to rest at the end of the day while gazing over our backyard and wooded ravine. Adding cushions to these already comfy chairs helped quite a bit. I think all our outdoor furniture has come from the side of the road {“Curbside Junking Adventures and Tips”} or been given to us. Over the years I’ve painted everything and given them new cushions, too! { “Paint Sprayer vs. Spray Paint”, “Refreshing Patio Chairs: Stapled Cushion How-To”} I’ve got one sunflower that was a volunteer from the bird feeder seed; I really need to plant more, because they just put a smile on my face!

Up on the covered porch my vintage display was born out of necessity. Mr. Fix-it and I created these rustic benches {“From Painter’s Scaffolding to Rustic Bench“} to seat a lot of people for Happy Girl’s grad party. I know we’ll need them next year, but didn’t know where to store them. Storing them in plain sight and creating some display shelves for garden decor solved the problem! This has been a fun place to enjoy my vintage sprinklers and garden tools, along with my succulent “Garden Hoses Wreath” and “Re-purposed Wheel Flowers”. Right when you come to this house, you know a junker lives here!

Around the corner I’ve created a little reading nook. Two comfy, cushioned chairs nestle in by my vintage stove, where I hide my plant food and scissors;) There’s an outlet here, so I can happily sit outside working on my laptop while I watch the hummingbirds fly from flower to flower. Definitely when I’m thankful I can work from home!

A second table up on the deck is glass topped and I use it to fold clothes outside in the summertime! Right now it’s showing off a couple of my vintage bird cages that I love to incorporate into my outside decor, throughout the year. {See the porch in the winter in “Porch Decorating Fun”} Having a covered porch is like having an extra room in your home; I have so much fun decorating it through the seasons!

The dogwood bushes we planted years ago create a privacy wall outside the kitchen patio door. For an indoor/outdoor feeling, I’ve created a seating area with the other swinging bench and my green, vintage glider. In between we’ve got a glass-topped table we re-purposed from an antique baby playpen. I tucked in a piece of fake grass and some old croquet mallets, pick-up-sticks style. Two of my refreshed, vintage metal lawn chairs complete the grouping, with curbside flower pots overflowing with lots of texture. {“How to Refresh and Enjoy Vintage Metal Lawn Chairs”}

As you step down the few steps to our patio, around the side of our house, you’ll enter our main eating area and night-time hangout spot. We put this patio in for Big-Boy’s grad party a few years ago and have really enjoyed this extra space outside. The grill is right next to our big, teak, eating table {“Two (sewing machine bases) are Better than One”}, and we’ve arranged our lounge chairs around the chiminea, facing our newest garden. You can see the table all set for a party in my post “A Pink Depression and Peonies Patio Party”.

This is where the “Repurposed Birdbath Succulent Planter” ended up, sitting next to a vintage water bath I want to turn into a fountain. Yes, there are always potential projects swimming around in my head! If I could only snap my fingers!

This side garden is just starting to come into it’s prime! I planned it with plenty of tall grasses and late summer perennials to block the view from the road. The black-eyed Susans are just blooming and the Pee-Gee hydrangea blooms are forming. Once the tall, Autumn Glow sedums begin their rosy transformation, I know early fall has begun! I also filled an old galvanized tub with annual impatiens to give the garden some constant color. The bloom boost is working well!

But this isn’t a garden tour, it’s a summer porch tour! Sorry for getting off track…pretty flowers always distract me!

Hope you enjoyed this Summer Porch Tour! Hopefully you got some ideas to incorporate your favorite vintage and re-purposed finds into your summertime decor. For more ideas, check out my  “10 Ways to Add Vintage Farmhouse Style to your Summertime Decor”. Enjoy these lazy, hazy days of summer while we’ve got them!

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