Thrifty Screened Porch Decor (and an exciting announcement!)
Hey Friends! I hope you’ve had a wonderful Summer so far. It’s definitely been a hot one. :)
I had planned to share my screened porch and patio with you long before now but time surely has gotten away from me!
I do plan to share it around mid August, however. :)
In the meantime, I’m going to share a couple of the thrifty screened porch decor items.
Both of these little projects are easy peasy.
I am not kidding one bit. Both took me maybe a total of 15 minutes to complete!
My kinda project. :)
The porch and patio (well, there wasn’t a patio when we moved in) has come such a long way.
I can’t wait to share it all with you guys!
But first I’m going to share this little clock I picked up at Big Lots.
Blah.
I loved the sort of retro look it had going on. It kind of reminded me of the big schools clocks from my childhood. ;)
Remember those?
BUT….I didn’t love the color.
So, as you can probably already imagine, I painted it!
Yep!
Much better, right?
I think it took me all of 5 minutes.
I used some “Provence” Chalk Paint as a base and then “Duck Egg Blue” over that.
I used a dry brush for both colors and very lightly added paint.
You can see that the base color (dark gray) is still somewhat visible.
That’s the look I was going for.
Want to see a VIDEO on exactly how to dry brush? All the ins and outs, here >>> “How To Dry Brush – Video“
You can see the two blue colors here a bit better….. (darker and lighter)
Isn’t that blue pretty? I love it.
You can PIN it here for later….
This next little project was one that may be familiar to you. ;)
I am a shutter and weathered wood loving girl and there is surely no shortage of either on the blog here. (or in my home!)
But yep, that’s what this project involves.
And thankfully it was able to happen because my sweet husband knows how much I love a bargain…and a shutter. ;)
He found these in the clearance isle of Lowe’s or The Home Depot (I don’t remember now).
He paid around $20 for them.
Nothing special, just black plastic shutters.
I grabbed my trusty ole Coco Chalk Paint and started lightly brushing the paint on them.
I wasn’t too careful.
I actually wanted the black to show through. (You can see the black peeking through in the photos above)
If you’ve read my other “weathered wood” posts, you might remember that I sometimes use a bit of “Graphite” (black Chalk Paint).
So it was actually quite nice that these started out black and I didn’t have to.
Once they were dry, I went back over with a dry brush of White.
Left side undone, right side with the White. See the difference?
Isn’t that the neatest thing?
Old “weathered” shutters.
AND best of all, it maybe took me 10 minutes, if that!
A little close up so you can see the black peeking through and the 2 paint colors on top….
Doesn’t that look like old worn out, weathered wood?
You could even recreate this look by painting your base black. (if it didn’t start out black like these)
I’m so thrilled with how they turned out.
You can PIN this here so you’ll be able to “weather” up some wood (plastic) too! ;)
That’s it for today. OH!! Almost forgot the super exciting announcement! :)
I was asked (and am honored to be included!) by GMC to participate in the World’s Longest Yardsale.
Have you ever heard of it?? It goes from Michigan to Alabama, Aug 4-7.
I, along with my blogging buddy Christy (Confessions of a Serial Do It Yourselfer, yay!!) and a few more bloggers are going to be driving GMCs, searching the yard sales….and decorating a home for a Habitat for Humanity family with our finds!! How great is that?
GMC is taking care of us the whole way!
I’m so excited to be a part of this experience and cannot wait.
Be sure to follow along with our adventures on >>> Instagram! I’m sure we will be sharing a bunch. :)
Plus, I’ll be back here on Thursday with something fun (and useful!) I created to store some of my favorite things.
Hope to see you then!
xoxo
Follow along! –> Instagram ~ Facebook ~ Pinterest ~ Bloglovin
Congratulations, Nancy! I am so excited for you and know that you and Christy are going to have a blast doing the World’s Longest Yard Sale. This is a perfect way for the two of you to use your repurposing/makeover talents to help others.
Thanks so much Paula!! I’m so excited! :) And fun to be able to share the adventure with Christy!
xo
Nancy
First, lucky you to get to do the yard sale in someone else’s truck, with some one else’s money. My favorite way to shop OPM (other people’s money), and all for a great cause. Good for you.!
Love the look of the weathered shutters, and the best part, they really aren’t old peeling shutters that you will have to fix~
As for the clock, been there done that~ Big joke in our home is if you stand still for too long, Mom might paint you, so keep moving, LOL. Love the paint combo on the clock. Places like Big Lots are the best for “found stuff”. I have a wall clock, very large that was painted green with the face looking almost like parchment paper. Bought it at Big Lots, before they called it big lots, 25 years ago. It is still hanging in our billiard room, looking great!. Paid $5.00 for it because at the time black was the in color and green was on it’s way out. Worked for me~
Oh yes, you go that right! ;)
And thank you, yes, I am glad they are not peeling and chipping away!
I love that you’ve had it 25 years and still going strong! And so funny on the green! I had it everywhere back then. I also had a rectangle clock (I don’t remember where I got it) but it started out green. I painted it cream colored and designed and printed a new “face” for it (on parchment style paper!) probably 15 years ago. It’s still hanging in my foyer to this day.
xo
Nancy
Hey good morning Nancy, love both of these DIY’S,& congrats on your opportunity to do this road trip with Christy. I would love to do something like this, and with a great purpose as well. Have a fun and safe trip!
Thanks Sandra! I’m so excited that we both got the invite to go! So nice to be able to share this adventure with her!
xo
Nancy
Good Morning Nancy~
How much fun going shopping from garage sale to garage sale. Right up my ally – Also the end result will be wonderful for a special family.
I love your shutters. I am partial to shutters myself. I was with my sister in PA and found an old chippy shutter which I use for hanging card given to me that are too special to throw away.
Good Luck with your back porch.
We have been planning Pete’s (my guy) office/tv room and I have a reveal date – we only have 34 days left. Yesterday I finally ordered the sofa.
Have a wonderful day
Much love,
Rose
Hey Rose!
I know, how fun will this be?? And so happy Christy also got the invite so we can do it together!
Oh what a neat idea for the shutters. (I know, I’m a sucker for them!)
OH yay, good luck with yours. Can’t wait to see it!
xo
Nancy
Hey girl great job on the clock and the shutters! SO cool! y’all have fun at the yard sale!
Hey Shawnna!
Thank you, they are fun little makeovers! :) And yes, thank you so much! Can’t wait to get going!
xo
Nancy
Nancy, I can’t wait to see what you and Christy pick up on The Longest Yard Sale. I’ve heard of this and hope to one day take a road trip and see what I can find. Have fun!
Loving that clock! So cute!
Congratulations Nancy! You and Christy are going to have such a fun road trip and I can’t wait to see what you do with your treasured finds en route for the Habitat house. Have fun! Love the clock and the shutters too btw.
Thanks Marie!! It was awesome…and exhausting! ;) But such a great experience. :)
xo
Nancy
Hi Nancy! Love the clock makeover with ASCP in my two favorite colours! It just so happens that I have a clock like that which my D-I-L gave to me a few years ago. I’m repainting my main floor and I wanted the clock to be one of my pops of colour (I’m painting the walls in a lovely light gray. Aquas & blues are my accent colours so now I have colours for my clock! Between you and April Hoff, I get the most wonderful (and easy to do!) ideas for my home.Thanks so much for yet another great idea! I LOVE your creativity!! Keep the excellent ideas coming! I can’t thank you enough for making me look like a creative genius!! ;)
Hi Sandy!
Aw I am honored!! Thank you so much for the very kind words. Your room sounds like it’s going to be beautiful. I love the color choices!
Good luck and send pictures of your finished room if you’d like to share. :)
xo
Nancy
Cute makeovers! Can you show us your shutters in the room? I’m looking to purchase some at Habitat and need ideas about where to hang them.
Love your blog!
Hi Nan,
Thanks! If you look back a few posts to the one named “DIY Beverage Stand”, you can see them on the wall.
I also have more shutters in my home. Here https://www.artsychicksrule.com/2015/07/creating-a-gallery-wall-decorating-challenge.html and here https://www.artsychicksrule.com/2015/03/family-room-makeover-before-after.html.
I hope that helps!! :)
xo
Nancy
Nancy, congratulations on being asked to participate in the Longest Yard Sale. That will be so fun, but at the same time you will be doing something wonderful for another family! And I know you will do a fantastic job, too! So good of GMC to participate, too!
The makeovers look really awesome! Using two colors like that really adds depth and I love both projects. Did you sand them at all after you painted or did you just leave them as is?
Have fun these next few days and be safe! xo
Hi Karen! Yes, it was so much fun and so exhausting but worth every bit of it! :)
I left them as is. The white dry brush gave the “distressed” look I was after so didn’t need to!
xo
Nancy