06.18
2012

Some Color on the Porch Part I, and our Love Is Pillow Covers in White
One of the questions we often get asked is about how we keep so many items on the porch without them getting ruined. Well, first, let me say that things do get wet and it does requiring some major cleaning and scrubbing at the end of each spring thanks to the pollen but other than that it is relatively easy to keep up with things. Once the pollen season seems to be over I take all of the bedding, tableclothes and anything else that can be washed and do a huge load of laundry (it took two loads this year). While all of the linens are washing I scrub the furniture down with soap and warm water and do a thorough sweeping/dusting. Then after that I add all of the fresh linens back where they go and start adding the seasonal touches. I do this about four times a year. Once at the end of the spring, and then again at the end of the summer. Those two times require a more thorough cleaning and it can take an hour or two. Then I often do it at the end of autumn, and again at the end of the winter. Those times are much quicker and often take less than 30 minutes. When we get a really bad rainstorm, if I remember, I will move some of the pillows to the other side of the daybed but other than that I don’t do much else for upkeep out there. 
We go through phases where we kind of forget about it and don’t spend much time out there and then phases where we eat dinner out there almost every evening for weeks! We just did the “after the pollen” major cleaning two weeks or so ago and so have started spending quite a bit of time out there again. The girls love eating dinner out there. They seem to think eating outdoors is quite fun.
This summer I thought it would be fun to add a little more color. Lillie keeps wanting me to decorate with pink and purple and seeing how I don’t want to add that inside right now =) I figured she would think it was fun to add some color out on the porch. The first project was to paint the big armoire at the other end (which I will show you as soon as it’s finished) and then I added a few more pops of color with flowers and pillows.
I couldn’t decide today whether to use the purple fabric above or the striped fabric below to sew up for the front pillow. I was leaning towards the stripes but now after looking at the pictures I think I might like the purple better. What do you think?

All in all the porch ended up a bit more feminine than I intended so I thought it would be fun to add some oversized photos to add a bit of a modern pop. Plus it’s fun to personalize the space. Lillie had so much fun making them with me. She even requested one for her room (she chose the photo of her and Lola with the ice cream stand because the dog, Ginger was in that one) so we made that one Saturday and today we are going to make one with her friends, Chloe and Bayley. We made these posters for a little over $7 a piece! I had tried making some before using a tutorial I found on pinterest but couldn’t ever get them to look right. They wrinkled up and just did not look right. I played around and came up with a new way to do it and it was so easy! I will have the tutorial up soon. Just need to take a few more photos of the steps, which hopefully I can do today.  Not only does is cost less than $10 it takes less than five minutes! 

The Love Is Pillow Cover set that is on the daybed is now available in our shop!

I also stole the 1776 Pillow Covers from our sofa and tried them out here. I thought it would be fun to have them out there with Fourth of July coming up. I liked them but not as much as the Love Is ones so I ended up swapping them back.

We recently got asked where the porch was located in relationship to the other rooms in the house. It is directly off our kitchen and family room. The sliding doors at the end of our kitchen lead out to the porch. 

That’s all for now. I will show you the other side of the porch once I finish editing the pictures. I can’t wait to show you the painted armoire. It’s almost done! 

I hope you all have a fabulous Monday!

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41 thoughts on “Some Color on the Porch Part I, and our Love Is Pillow Covers in White”

  2. HOLY COW…I think it should be a WRITTEN LAW that every single house built SHALL HAVE A PORCH. 🙂
    This is sooo awesome and I am about to do a workup draft for a post on porches. May I use one of your photos to show the world?
    xo bj

  4. I always love when you show photos of your porch…maybe because I really want one of my own! I'd be out there all the time. I love the purple Stock and even though I usually like everything kind of neutral too, I really like the purple pillow. It looks so pretty with the flowers 🙂

  5. Jennifer, I absolutely love your porch, and always look forward to you featuring it on your post! I would love to have a space like this, and you have made it look so homey and comfy. I love everything about it, and cant wait for you to show us your armoire, and the tutorial for your pictures!

  8. Jennifer, adore the purple in your porch, not too much, just right. I bet your girls love it out there. You have such a talent wish I lived near you, so I could hire you to help out with my front porch decor. Looking forward to the photo poster tutorial, just yesterday took some good action shots of my son playing baseball, this would be a great addition to his bedroom wall…Shelley
    mcardle4atcenturyteldotnet

  9. I want to hang out! It is so soft and dreamy…just enough color…not too much. I can't get enough of your spaces. They are all so beautiful.

  10. LOVE that porch! I cannot wait for the pictute tutorial, i've been wanting to do some like that for awhile. Your pictures are always a real treat, Thank You!

  15. This is exactly why yours is my favorite blog! I love every detail of this porch. I love purple as it is the color of my alma mater. 🙂 What a wonderful job you've done!

  17. What a great space! I'm sure it is just delightful for everyone to have meals out there in the summer, and that little daybed looks like the absolutely perfect place to snuggle in and read a book. I think i like the purple pillow better too, but it may just be because of the purple flowers on the table. I am so curious how you do the big photos, I can't wait to hear about that, and see the armoire!

    Cindy

  18. Your porch is so warm and inviting and of course, beautiful! The purple is a great added touch. I love your Love Is pillows. Can't wait to see your painted armoire!

  19. We screened in our veranda last year and it was one of those things that we said we should have done ages ago…….we absolutely adore living "outside" with no bugs all summer long. I still have some finishing touches to add such as a daybed (for sure) and you have inspired me to finish up. I just showed it to my husband too and said "see how perfect this is?". Personally and as a designer, I think everyone should plan on a screened porch or veranda. it's the best.

  20. Jennifer,

    Thank you for the porch cleaning/maintenance advise. I only do mine once in the spring – maybe that's why it looks so awful sometimes : )

    Anyway, I'm still confused about the daybed (which I want so badly!)…. Is it wood with regular box spring and mattress? If so, how do you keep those from getting ruined from the rain?

    Love your blog…. your girls are adorable!

    Many thanks,
    Angie

    1. Thanks, Angie! Our daybed is wood and it is a regular mattress and box spring. The daybed was made from two twin beds that were damaged beyond repair in our last move so I figured it was a worth a try to turn them into something else but if they got ruined out on the porch it didn't really matter seeing how if I didn't give the daybed option a try they pieces were going to have to head to the trash anyway. Four years later and it's still holding up great. We got the mattresses out there for $25 so it was kind of the same theory – if they eventually got ruined no big deal. And again, four years later and they still are the same. I thought they might get a mildewy smell to them at some point but so far they have not. I don't think I would have put anything out there that had any value to it not knowing if it would have gotten ruined or not. It's nice knowing, though, that four years later things have held up so well so in the future I wouldn't be too scared to try something out there that maybe was a little nicer. For now though, this works great!

    2. Thank you, Jennifer!

      That is wonderful…. somehow, I never seem brave enough to try these things… Your porch is lovely- wish I had one just like it!

      Thank you for the reply!
      Best Wishes to you and your family!
      Angie

  21. Love the porch, ADORE the large prints on your wall, can't wait for the tutorial….but can I request a tutorial on how you manage to do everything that you do? Boutique, blogs, tutorials, gorgeous home, coming up with new ideas….and still have time to spend with your two kids? I can barely keep a clean home with my own two! Long story short I'll keep an eye out for the "how to make time stand still" tutorial 🙂

    1. Haha – well, for one thing – I don't sleep much. Last night I went to bed at 4 and got up a little after 7. Oh how I miss my sleep! =) And I have to say I don't have much to do with the day to day parts of running the product side of Dear Lillie anymore. Jason handles all of that and my sister, Jamie now does it full time as well. We've also hired a couple of other people to help out with product stuff as well to help us keep up. So, although I do still design most of the items, once I make the original design I don't have to do much beyond that. And I have to say I don't do the best job of juggling it all – I am pretty tired these days. I spend most of my days playing with the girls and keeping up with the house and then do all of my work from about 10PM – 3 or 4AM which is not the greatest plan and I don't recommend it – haha!

  23. Everything looks beautiful. I love how you've decorated the porch. The lavender pillow is my fave. I can't wait for the tutorial! ♥

  24. The porch is a wonderful and inviting place – you have a lovely area to spend some
    great time with family. I think the lavender/purple has a little more pop to it than the
    stripe. Very pretty !
    And having a brand new grandson this past week, I will be waiting on the tutorial on
    doing those large prints. So cute…

    Diana

  25. Picture perfect porch! Lillie's corn pic, the cutest thing I have ever seen!! If that's not summer all wrapped up in one picture, then I don't know what is!
    Your home is a dream come true.

  26. Oh, I just love it when you share pictures of your porch. I love your porch and mine is similar dimensions so I spend a lot of time studying every little thing. I'm not a stalker, I promise! I just have a thing for your porch! Ha! 🙂 It looks beautiful and I love the flowers. SO pretty!

    ~Angela~

  27. Jennifer, I just found your blog..how sweet of you to so freely share your tutorials..I will be making a few of the things you have made and credit them back to your blog….the crepe paper peonies and the photos for the porch..but truly, what is not to love about your blog❤

  29. Hello,

    I absolutely love your work – especially your chalk board art! The style of print is always so beautiful. I was wondering how much it would cost if I asked you to make a print for me. I'm wanting to put a bible verse above my soon-to-be-born daughter's changing table. My plan was to copy it onto a transparency, shine it on the wall, trace, and paint it so that it could be nice and big. What do you think the possibility of being able to have you write it out for me in your beautiful handwriting would be?

    Thank you, Lauren

    1. Dear Lauren, I am honored that you would ask! Unfortunately, we get asked quite a bit to write things for people and at this point I am having trouble just keeping up with the new items. I just finished getting "In Christ alone my hope is found…" written last night after spending a week trying to get it finished. Even staying up until close to 4am every single night I still can't keep up with everything. If there were more hours in the day I would love to be able to do things like write special requests for people. Maybe someday in the future when my girls are in school and I have more time I my hands we will be able to do more custom things like that. Thank you so much for asking, though!

  31. Hi! LOVE your blog! Love it. Okay, this is random, but I have been looking for a table runner or place mats that are exactly like the ones you have in these pictures. I can't find them ANYWHERE. I have honestly been looking for months and months. Any ideas where I could find them? 🙂

    1. Thank you! I purchased them quite a few years ago at Target. I think I've had them since before Jon and I were married, which was almost six years ago so I am guessing they don't carry them anymore. =(

  32. Where did you get the purple patterned fabric on the bed? I absolutely love it!

    1. It's from Joann's! I just picked up some for my sister and it was half off plus I used a 15% off your whole purchase coupon so 2 yards was about under $18 which for that fabric is a GREAT deal!

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