folding chair and palm tree
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Cozy Screened Porch Before & After and More

Here’s how we inexpensively created a cozy screened porch using Home Depot, Target, HomeGoods, and IKEA. I also want to show you some handy hook organization by the back door, a new period television show I’m loving, another designer pillow source, and more.

It’s Five Faves time with Annie and Cindy!

1. Pillow Love

While I was at Cindy’s House, I saw a pretty blue pillow in her bedroom. She told me she ordered it from Pillow Fever on Etsy. I got it in a different blue and in a long lumbar for our bedroom.

Blue and white long lumbar

There is more about Our Unique Bedroom By Mixing New With Vintage. You can shop our bedding here.

Also, check out: PILLOWS! My Favorite Sources.

2. Cozy Screened Porch: Before and After

Upstairs, next to my office is a porch surrounded by tree limbs. Since having other expenses (like a backyard pool in the works), I wanted it to be stylish, usable as an extra hangout/workspace, and not expensive!

Porch Before

Cozy Porch After

Wicker cozy porch

The wicker furniture was on clearance at Home Depot. The indoor outdoor rug is from Target. My mother-in-law, Earlene made the succulent arrangement.

shells on a string

The shells on a string were inexpensive from Home Goods. This reminds me, you can hear the ocean waves from this spot.

Palm tree in a basket

The basket and seat cushions are from HomeGoods, the table and chairs from IKEA and the palm tree is from Home Depot.

Did you see our other screened porch? The “Ladies Loft”.

3. Inexpensive, Handy Hooks

These hooks from Target are keeping our hats and bags organized by the back door.

hall hats and bags on hooks

4. What To Cook – Baked Coconut Shrimp

We made this recently from Half Baked Harvest’s cookbook and they are healthier than the fried version.

coconut baked shrimp

Someone mentioned on Instagram that they would be great made with an air fryer too.

5. What To Watch – Empress

I’m enjoying this English dubbed foreign film while Howard watches sports.

“When rebellious Elisabeth falls for Emperor Franz and becomes his unlikely bride, she enters a world of tensions and intrigue at the Viennese court.”

My junior year abroad was spent in Vienna, Austria. It was a great experience learning to waltz for the student ball, sitting in the “cheap seats” at the opera, and visiting all the museums.

The interiors and costumes are gorgeous…appropriate to the Habsburg empire.

If you are new here, each Sunday I share my top five favorite things along with my friends, Cindy and Annie. It’s like our weekly “catch-up” phone call. If you would like to receive this series every week, please sign up HERE.

Let’s see what Annie and Cindy’s Five Faves are this week:

Cindy Hattersley Design

Most Lovely Things

budget friendly porch

24 Comments

  1. Judie Olivero says:

    A belated Happy Birthday! I just celebrated mine on the 10th! Love, love, love your porch. You did GOOD!

  2. Happy Belated Birthday!

    Very nice birthday treat that your son visited you.
    I have a movie suggestion which I watched last night on Amazon Prime.
    “Perfume”, a delightful French film about a woman who designed perfumes for Dior but lost her “nose”. You will love her relationship with her chauffeur.
    I think you should have a birthday week, celebrate all week.
    Blessings, Patricia

  3. Mary Ann I hope your birthday was lovely! I wish we could celebrate all together. Really missing you. The porch is so pretty and I love all the these things together! Such an inviting retreat. The little area with the hats and bags looks wonderful. I want to do the same here, but we don’t live near the beach and it’s so perfect there. Thank you about the Empress. I am going to watch when Max is on his Zombie shows. I had no idea you went to school in Austria. It’s one of my favorite places! xo

  4. Happy birthday, Mary Ann! You always seem to find all the right touches! It’s all coming together so well.

  5. Katherine says:

    Hi Mary Ann,
    Your AFTER screened in porch turned out so well. It’s so important to have your special place to go to when hubby is watching sports. If he is anything like my Honey Bear he yells out and screams at time with anger at the bad moves. It’s comical to listen to. A pool is coming, good for you.
    Your bedroom looks so pretty, love the pillows.
    Happy belated birthday. Can you believe another birthday rolled around so fast? I try to give mine away but no one wants them. I can’t figure out why!
    Your sheets look like really nice quality.

  6. Mary Ann, everything you do is always spot on! Weather using high end pieces and treasured antiques you’ve collected or bargains from Home Goods, Target and Home Depot, it always looks beautiful. How fun to have 2 cozy porch areas to share with friends or just sit and read a good book. Thank you for the pillow source and a good period piece too watch. Hope you had a wonderful birthday.

  7. Lovely porch, another great movie on Netflix is I Am Women. So many layers, everyone should watch this, it makes you THINK. The music is great too! It’s only available until October 23 so get watching.
    I really enjoy your blogs.

  8. Two thumbs up on your new porch

  9. Janet Arden says:

    Love your porch in the trees and I’m planning on a deep dive into your pillow source. I just finished watching The Empress. How lovely and lavish the settings and the costumes are. I don’t know enough about the history of that period to know how accurate the story is, but it kept me coming back for more!
    Have a great week (and happy b’day!).

  10. MARY ANN!
    That porch is just darling1. The furniture from Home Depot is fabulous and every inch of the space is just charming! I am watching the Empress as well. It is kind of depressing though! I love that pillow in the bright blue in your bedroom just perfection!

    1. Thanks for the source for the pillow, Cindy! I haven’t gotten to the depressing part of the series yet :/

  11. Annie Diamond says:

    I love your porch…both of them! That little string with the shells…it’s all about the little things! And how did I not know that you spent your junior year of college in Vienna? Madeline’s boyfriend, Rohit, did as well, and they told us about a movie with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Before Sunrise, have you seen it!?

      1. Ladies — If you love Before Sunrise, you should know that there are TWO MORE movies in this trilogy by Richard Linklater, the genius who brought us Boyhood. All three movies are highly rated on Rotten Tomatoes.
        Thanks for brightening my Sunday mornings, and all the work you do to make that happen!
        Happy birthday, Mary Ann!

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