Freshening Up My Front Porch

Okay, I'm ashamed to admit I've severely neglected my front porch since I've moved in.  Basically it's a screened in porch with beige and brown indoor/outdoor carpeting, a wicker chaise lounge, and a wicker side table.  It's a bit dullsville. 

In time I'm going to rip up the carpeting and lay down indoor/outdoor slate tile but that won't happen until we get the flip house listed on the market so I don't feel guilty working on my own house when I could be working on the flip house.  In fact, I need to paint the outside of my house first before I even think about the front porch, so yeah, reworking the porch is down towards the bottom of my to do list.

But I honestly can't stand my porch the way it is any more so what's a thrifty gal to do when she's unhappy with a space?  Spruce it up with things she already has!  Plus it only took me maybe a half hour to do and that included sweeping off my porch.

In my workout room in the basement I had one of those el cheapo round wood side tables.  You know the kind where you screw in the three legs to the bottom and cover it with a table cloth?  It was just hanging out because I didn't have anywhere else to put it and I wasn't ready to get rid of it as I felt one day it would come in handy.  Well that day is now because I decided to revamp it.  Here's a before pic of the table I'm talking about.

Since this table is going out on the front porch for the purpose of setting drinks and such on it I wanted the top to be protected as it's just made out of particle board and will easily warp and bubble.  I measured center of the table and made a mark and then cut out some contact paper I already had on hand to cover half the table since the roll was not wide enough to cover the whole thing in one shot.

Then I covered the other side, flipped the table over, and smoothed the paper over the edges.  After it was in place I used some washi tape I had in the basement to cover the seam where the two pieces of contact paper met.  I wanted to add one more piece of washi tape just to give it a little more somethin somethin and pulled up a couple of my old kitchen table chairs that were collecting dust from the basement to set on either side of the table.





I set everything in place and placed an LED flickering candle that I purchased at Ross for $7.99 on top of the table.  But I was feeling like it was missing just a little something else.  That's when I rolled out an old bamboo rug that I had leaning up in the corner of the porch since I moved into the house.

And here it is!  My revived front porch that cost me a whole $7.99 plus tax and about a half hour of my life.  The picture is taken from the vantage point of me standing in the front doorway.  I just love how it gives people a little better impression before they walk into the house and at night when the LED candle comes on automatically it give the porch a nice warm glow that catches your eye even when you are in the house and you walk by the front door.