Our Front Porch Summer Makeover | Cozy Cottage Decorating Ideas | Adding a New Water Feature

Hi everyone, welcome to my channel. So in today's video i'll show you what I did to the front porch this year It's one of my favorite spaces to fix up for the summer season and we made some fun new changes But before we get into that, thanks to thrive market for sponsoring today's video. I've talked about them before on here They're my favorite online grocery store, but more on that later. Let's get started with the front porch So we use the same stain as we did for the back deck for the front section of the porch It's a solid wood stain and we talked about it as we were staining here This is probably the last time we're going to stain these boards They are really weathered and ready to be replaced But I think this will give it another couple years of life before we have to replace them So i'll show you what the deck looks like before we start adding things john did move my little greenhouse over here but It looks so much better. I wish you guys could have seen it, you know up close. I'm not sure does the camera pick it up? Or had it picked it up how bad it actually was There's still lots of cracks in here. It's far from you know, looking new but so much better And you probably remember us moving the swing from up here down underneath the deck. Um, it's still there. We like it there We don't use it a lot. Honestly It's just a space that we don't sit in very much But it is there for the sitting if someone wants to and I ended up buying some furniture from bed bath and beyond which I hardly ever shopped there, but The set caught my eye the price was right And I just wanted a two-piece set or in this case five piece because the ottomans come with it But just two separate chairs and then ottomans and then a little stand to go between them Not quite sure will I even use the stand or not, but definitely need the seating and john is here putting it together So the porch has kind of looked this way for the past week or two, um, just haven't gone around to fixing things up Uh, we have used the chairs and love them like we like how they sit And I had gotten this rug at walmart, I believe. Um, it was just a cheap. It didn't cost a lot but Very neutral colored. I like it, but I think it's there's like not enough color on the porch if I use this Like the floor is brown, you know, this is tan the furniture is brown the pillows Um, so the other day I was in walmart and I saw this pretty green You guys know how I have a weakness for green, but i'm going to see how this looks underneath the set So I will definitely have to cover these cushions with sheets or something the way this looks So I felt like this rug was completely covered with all the furniture So i'm going to try to put it at another angle just to see if we can see it more And I didn't really talk about this before but my fountain used to be in here The door that you see beyond the railing there is was like the backdrop for my fountain And then I had the sink which I can show you guys over here This was one of my first videos I had ever done was this beautiful vintage sink turned it into a little water feature And I always hesitate to send people to my old videos, but it's there if you want to check it out But it's been probably eight years since I had it here on the porch. It did start leaking for me There's a large crack along the front here And this is an outer layer. It doesn't really affect the actual leak. I don't think But things have shifted around enough that I probably have to just you know, replumb it if I decide to use it But I actually have another feature that i'm thinking of putting up against that railing. Um, I think it's time to retire this cute little bowl So I've got to say i'm kind of excited about this new fountain that we're setting up I wanted to show you before john he's going to work on it today Before he starts but right now this is just a separate bowl here that needs to have you know be plumbed or you know have a pipe and Seals and whatnot And what we plan to do is there's going to be a pipe in the middle of the bowl Coming up to whatever level I want the water to be and then the water will go, you know into that pipe Down underneath inside in a little container holding container underneath here And this is my old holding container. We probably won't need that but the pump i'm not quite sure how this will work But the pump will be you know in the container pumping the water You know back up Through this pipe back here one of these and then up through the faucet and out, you know into the bowl again So we'll see how it works. Um, john is again. Yeah going to be working on it Here i'm repotting some of my house plants that I want to have on the porch this summer And I normally do that for my house plants. I'll put them outside. They just do so much better than in the house I also have a few other pots i'm fixing with flowers that I had gotten at greenhouses So The pillows i'm using for the new furniture are just some that I had on hand up in my storage And the pretty green and white throw is actually a shower curtain that I saw in marshals I think it was 24.99 So not a bad price and it's really good size and the fabric is actually more To me, it's more like a throw or just as much a throw as a shower curtain. So I think it'll work for that I found these pretty rugs at hobby lobby and i'm going to layer them I'm going to jump in here for just a bit and talk about the sponsor of today's video thrive market thrive market is an online Grocery store and they do require an annual membership to buy from them. It comes to five dollars a month I'm going to quickly share a few of my favorite perks about thrive market And then I also want to show you what I did recently with some of their products First of all with my busy schedule I love that I can order high quality groceries and they get delivered right to my door And they have super speedy delivery like I can order one day and I think the next day it's moving already I might have it, you know, two to three days later And of course my favorite thing about thrive market is I don't have to worry about checking any labels I've really started doing that in the recent years just being aware of what we put into our bodies, you know What i'm feeding my family And I love that I can trust thrive market to have already checked those labels for me and what i'm getting are high quality Clean groceries, so I love that part since we're in the summer campfire season I want to show you what john and I did one evening for our supper It was just the two of us I ordered a frozen food box from thrive market and if you get a certain amount of frozen food They actually deliver it for free And it comes so well packaged, you know deeply insulated and I think I ordered this at the hottest part of our summer Or so far that we've had I believe we had 90 degrees the day that it came and everything was still nicely frozen inside the box I was so impressed with that which I wasn't surprised because thrive market boxes are always really well packaged but included in the box I had some steak salmon and then numerous appetizer type items and I don't know have you guys ever made You know frozen appetizers over a fire, but it's super delicious. We've done this in the past So I cut up the steak into pieces or tips and marinated it Added the seasonings to our liking set that aside and then I got everything else prepared Uh the salmon I just put in a pie pan a foil pie pan Um added some butter and then for the appetizers we had onion rings pizza pockets mozzarella sticks jalapeno poppers And then those rolled up Mexican type taquitas, I think they're called so we made all of this over the open fire Love the smell of the wood smoke with the food. We probably made all of our neighbors jealous I don't know. Can you tell from the pictures and the videos, but everything was delicious We really like the salmon prepared this way definitely do that again And then to top things off for our dessert also from thrive market these healthy ice cream cones right now Thrive market has their biggest sale of the summer. I will definitely be placing an order this week I saw the olipop and the chomps beef sticks are on sale I always buy those from thrive and my son loves the beef sticks in his lunch If you use my link thrivemarket.com slash white cottage company you get twenty dollars off of your first three orders Which is a really good deal. In fact that will pretty much get your membership paid for so again That's thrivemarket.com Slash white cottage company and i'll have all of that information and the links down below in the description box If you want to check that out now, let's get back to the video These lattice sections had been on the back deck and we removed them when we stained the floor And I think this section would look nice with some structure just fasten this lattice against the railing Creating just another separate little sitting area of sorts. We'll see how it looks I have a porcelain berry mine that is climbing up over this lattice here And sometimes I find little starts in this flower bed right here as one Um, I think if I can dig this out I can put it in a planter and get it to climb up over that lattice So here I am the next day thought i'd show you guys what I plan to do and what i've done so far Standing back and looking. I really like to see the lattice along that section I like to see it from inside looking out just I need more white on here. I can't have all these dark colors It's high time to get this porch finished. I'm really just working on it as I have time I guess that's why it's taking longer. It's so it seems But I really don't want everything to just be lined up along the railing in a line Like I just don't think that looks cozy at all And I thought adding this fern here kind of helped to bring this, you know forward a little bit And then I plan to add this white bike, which is parked right here My old vintage bike that I painted white years ago might add that in here. Just kind of bring that end out Just to not, you know make it seem like it's just, you know lined up again along the railing I want an end table or a stand to be in between the chairs and I wheeled this log up from the woods I think i'll be able to use this This was one I had on the front porch The past couple of years and we had just removed it when we stained the deck floor And then I have something for this wall. I'm kind of excited about it But you guys might remember I had found this in a garage sale or a thrift store Probably a thrift store. Let's see what the tag says here Yeah, it looks like a thrift store tag and I paid 350 for it This beautiful, I don't know window box I plan to hang that on the lattice And I have some flowers here that I found 40 off at the olive branch right now It's one of my favorite greenhouses. I have a lot of favorite greenhouses around here, but They have such nice and pretty unique plants So a few more things I want to keep in mind for this front porch area this summer Is I want to watch for a little end table and maybe even a coffee table for this little sitting area I just feel like it still needs something Um, it's okay for now, but i'm gonna keep my eye out for something just that, you know Perfect piece that would fit in here And I also want to stain the pergola like the black part of the pergola I feel like it's so faded and it could use a fresh coat And the other thing I want to keep an eye out for is a little bistro set I'd love to have one. There's still a big area in front of the porch that doesn't have anything And I think that would be so fitting to have a little bistro set I've even seen cute sets in antique malls. Sometimes it doesn't even have to be brand new But definitely going to keep my eye out for one These hydrangea pillow covers are from amazon I will try to have that link down below in the description box in case you want to order the same thing But they did have a few different colors. I think they're so pretty So one of the last things i'll do for the front porch for this year that i've never done before is hang some curtains I always like to see that on a porch My friend susie my cousin she has curtains on hers and it's just such a cozy feeling of sitting on there It's almost like you're in a little outdoor room So I have some sheer panels here that i'm not using anymore I used to sell these we sewed some strips of fabric onto them, you know creating a whole nother curtain Um don't have them anymore, but I have these panels. They are 84 inches long. I think they'll be perfect I do want to wash them before I use them. I don't care for the smell of them I want to mention the laundry detergent along with the fabric softener that i'm using here. These are the cloud products I've talked about them before on here and I do have a link down below in the description box in case you're interested But i'm so impressed with these products I've been using them for probably four to six weeks now And I feel like our laundry is just so nice and clean and fresh smelling the ingredients that are used to make these products Are you clean they're not harsh chemicals or anything? I'm, simply using a thicker macrame cord to hang these curtains Now you could you know totally use wash line or a rope or even a rod But this is what I had on hand and this is what i'm going to use I can always you know tighten it up some more if it stretches with time And i'm also using a safety pin tying it to the end of the cord and then threading it through the rod pocket So I have two of the panels up and I think a third one would look pretty going the other way kind of creating a L shape of curtains here on the one corner and I really debated to put another one by the side of the fountain But I really don't want to block the fountain from the house So for now, I think i'll just go with three. I can always add a fourth one if I decide to So now i'm thinking being that I have curtains on both sides of the post here Do I want to add a fourth one on this post as well? I would have a ring here and the ceiling to tie the string to it's not quite even you know with the post but I don't think that would be a problem So I might go ahead and do that again. It's something I can always remove if I don't like the look of it I'm going to make some ties for the curtains in case we want to you know tie them back But i'm pretty sure i'll have them free flowing a lot of the time. I kind of like that look too I want to show you a few things up close before taking the final videos But this is what happened to my favorite plant. I think this was one of my favorites For my little greenhouse here, but we had some major heat here in ohio And I watered it it was not lacking in water, but um just got some damage from the heat And this time plant did as well. I tried to pick some of the brown part out But this was so healthy looking before And it's just yeah too bad what heat can do This plant struggled Um, this one is a double impatient doesn't look very healthy either But i'm just hoping later on they'll snap out of it Um, it's not too bad these days, but last week we had some intense heat I'm surprised this plant is still doing relatively. Well, it struggled a little bit And this one is struggling. It's not blooming right now. I was full of blooms Hopefully I will get some again This one here is one of my favorite plants. I wish I could get the smell to you, but it's one of those Cerveza and lime I had showed you on the back deck. I also have one But it smells so fresh. It smells like lime Um, this one sure is not struggling with the heat. Thankfully I planted a perennial in here should get the name of it. I'll try to put it on the screen Ask marlene what it what it is. I had gotten it from her Um, but this had looked so healthy too when I planted it and the heat definitely got to it as well But I think it'll be okay And I also wanted to show you how this little water feature is set up i'm so impressed with it As you can see there's a pipe in the middle of the bowl here And of course the overflow, you know goes down into the pipe and then underneath here in the cupboard there's a little bucket Where the water water is running into and my pump is in here And it is simply pumping the water up through that hose Up through the faucet, it's pretty simple. I do add some water every so often it does splash out some You know therefore losing some water And I put a piece of foil up in here. You can't really see it I don't really want to mess with it now because it's trickling so nicely, but I did that so that it would have a nicer Flow that way it doesn't you know splash out as much And I gotta say i'm loving these curtains so far i've just had them tied back but I do think i'll probably Um, just have them flowing loosely sometimes. Um just flowing in the breeze. I think that would look pretty But it is amazing how much it just makes this space feel like all cozy and kind of like a little room in here Really and once more things like this just show me it doesn't take much to just add coziness to a space Like it was stuff I had on hand And I you know, even if I would have had to buy these panels, they're not that pricey So for just a little bit of money, you can definitely spruce up a space And i'm really loving this shower curtain throw I think it really goes well with the rug It also smells really good right now. I have an agave and jade candle burning. These are from valentine's day Gotta say I love the front porch at first. I wasn't sure about all this darker furniture underneath here I was so used to just the one white porch swing But I think with adding, you know pillows and plants and the curtains just lighten things up and I I really like it We like how it sits like it's really comfortable. We actually sit out here a lot Maybe not these days because it's really extra hot but in the evening when it cools down It's so nice to sit out here And i've done some editing out here, you know during the day if it's not too hot overall really impressed with how it's looking We of course spend a little more money on you know, this furniture, but we haven't bought furniture in years In fact, it's probably been I don't think we ever really bought furniture for this porch I always just kind of use something I had on hand or we had that swing for a number of years I have something I want to show you here I wish I could get the smell to you, but I have some really pretty summer soap that is cured and ready to go This isn't labeled yet, but i'll try to throw some pictures on here of some that is labeled I'm, really excited about these three different scents that are just plain white bars And they're all a fruit scent i'm going to sell them in sets of three because I think it's so fitting But the one is blueberry and there's a peach and a strawberry they smell amazing And i'm just really excited to add some pretty labels to them This pale yellow bar is also really fitting to the summer season It's called yellow summer and it actually smells like that if you can imagine a yellow summer Just really fresh smelling and there's a hint of chamomile in here, too I do that with a lot of my soaps. I just think you can't go wrong with chamomile It's just such a pleasant scent. It just goes with a lot of different oils and there's lilac I have lily of the valley now the lily of the valley don't be deceived with how it looks It does have some glycerin rivers. I was really disappointed with that But the smell is amazing and it won't affect the quality of the soap It just doesn't look quite as pretty, you know with those glycerin rivers in there, but it's fine I'm, never sure why that happens. Sometimes I make lily of the valley soap and it's perfectly smooth I do the exact same thing next time I have glycerin river So not sure what's going on with soap making just one of those mysteries And there's a new one here. This is really pretty. I love the color of it. It's called sea salt I don't have a lot of this It was basically just a sample that I wanted to try out and I liked it so much I might end up getting a larger amount. I have a guy scent here. This is the fresh air I've made it in the past, but it smells amazing. Definitely want john to use it I just love how that smells and I know he likes it, too And I have some eucalyptus lavender that smells amazing too, but it also has glycerin rivers again not sure what happened there, but All of them just yeah, really great smelling if you ask me. I wish I could get the scent to you I also have another new one here This is really pretty with a kind of a pale blue color with some white swirls And it's like a green tea soap, I think there's some lemongrass in here as well It was also a sample one that I did and I have the cactus flower and jade. I've done this one before This is very fitting for the summer season really floral I might not have them all with me here But check out the listing if you're interested in some great smelling summer soap And then of course head on over to thrive market and check out their site I'm sure you won't be disappointed. And again, if you use my link down below in the description box thrivemarket.com White cottage company you get twenty dollars off of your first three orders. I hope you guys are enjoying the summer season We sure are there's just so much going on in the summertime, but I can't get enough of it It's just so much fun. And if I post videos every other week instead of weekly It's probably because i'm just trying to enjoy the summer season. We're in and not be you know too busy but I really enjoy putting videos out there too because there's so much to be filmed and I love to share the things that we're doing around here as always. I hope your day is going great Thanks for watching and i'll see you next time. Bye