Home | What's New | Site Map | Search | FIND A LOCAL CONTRACTOR

A Screen Porch Makeover in Blue and White

Shared by Brittany of PrettyHandyGirl.com

Dave and I are excited to show you Brittany's screened porch makeover. She transformed her screened porch using recycled furniture, shower curtains, a rickety old ladder, a minnow trap, paint and creativity on a very small budget.

The blue and whites she incorporated in her makeover are what really caught our eye.

Brittany is the author of PrettyHandyGirl.com and she enjoys empowering others to try DIY projects. With her step-by-step tutorials, she makes it easy.

Before the Makeover

Pretty Handy Girl's screen porch makeover - before picture

Here you see how Brittany's outdoor room looked before her screen porch makeover. Actually this is how her porch looked before they moved into their house.

With some ingenuity and an arsenal of screen porch ideas, come see how she transformed her porch.

After the Makeover

Pretty Handy Girl's screen porch makeover

Wowzy zowzy - love the blues and whites

How Brittany Decorated Her Porch

Over the course of several years, Brittany has decorated their screen porch with furniture pieces and accessories. She has transformed her porch into a very refreshing outdoor room.

Pretty Handy Girl's screen porch makeover - after picture

When I look at this picture, I always notice the cobalt blue bottle on the side table.

The sweet blue-patterned throw pillows on the side chairs and the bench are from IKEA. Brittany would like to replace those side chairs with wicker rockers eventually.

We like the sunburst pattern of Brittany's porch railings, too.

Turn a plain bamboo rug into a decorator rug

Did you notice the bamboo rug on Brittany's porch? That used to be a plain bamboo rug and then she painted the floral pattern on it with latex paints. She found the rug for $25.

The painted rug pulls all the blues together and sets the relaxing tone for her porch. It just makes her porch 'pop'.

Pretty Handy Girl's screen porch makeover - painted bamboo rug

Here's Brittany's basic steps for painting her rug...

Using a roller brush, she primed the rug with KILZ Clean Start primer
She rolled on blue latex to create the rug's border
After the border was dry, she masked it off and painted the background of the rug a lighter blue color
She created a design that she liked using her Photoshop skills and laid it out on butcher paper.
She transferred the pattern onto the bamboo using chalk.
She painted the designs on the bamboo using colorful latex paints.
When all the painting was done and dry, she wiped it off with a damp cloth.
Then she put on two coats of water based polyurethane to seal it.

If you want to try this rug project yourself, check out Brittany's step-by-step tutorial for painting a bamboo rug

A dumpster find becomes a pretty coffee table

The pretty coffee table you see above is a piece that Brittany found at the dumpster and restored. It used to have a yucky moldy top.

Brittany said the bottom portion of the table was structurally fine so she discarded the top and replaced it with boards she had on hand.

She painted the coffee table a soft shade of baby blue and then distressed the top.

She wanted to give the table a beachy look so she replaced the original hardware with seashells that she glued on as you see here. Love that idea.

Brittany's favorite spot on her porch

Pretty Handy Girl's screen porch makeover - Brittany's hammock

The hammock was a gift from her Dad and also her favorite spot on the porch. She added one of those cute pillows and a throw to it to make it especially comfy.

Ladder display shelves

Brittany took an old ladder (that she purchased for $15 at the Habitat ReStore) and turned it into this charming display piece you see above. She displays beach-themed accessories on her porch in many shades of blue.

She added shelves to the old ladder using leftover pine boards from another project. She also added a 1x2 strip to the back of each shelf - to keep her treasures from falling off the back of the ladder.

Pretty Handy Girl's screen porch makeover - close-up of the ladder display shelves

Enjoy a close-up of Brittany's ladder display shelves.

What about the back of the ladder?

Did you notice that Brittany's ladder display just includes the front of the ladder?

She used the back of the ladder to create an easel for inside her home (see photo on the right). Ingenious! Could easily be used on the porch, too.

A clever hanging pendant lamp

And what is that clever pendant lamp hanging above the ladder?

Brittany used a minnow trap to create this pendant lamp. Yes, a minnow trap. That is so creative and creates a soft diffused light.

Actually this lamp is just one half of the minnow trap. Brittany created two of them for her porch.

With a little bit of coat hanger wire and a candelabra kit from Lowe's, she fashioned unique lamps for her porch.

The minnow trap lamps are perfect for her beach-themed porch - but I bet they'd look great anywhere you want some mood lighting.

Refurbished cabinet and shabby chic butterfly window

Pretty Handy Girl's screen porch makeover - cabinet $85

Brittany found the cabinet at a flea market and she admits it's the most expensive piece of furniture on her porch ($85). Apparently it was once a table until someone removed the legs and added sides to it.

Pretty Handy Girl's screen porch makeover - butterfly window

I bet you won't be surprised to learn that Brittany made the shabby chic butterfly window, too - from an old window that she rescued from the dumpster. Not only that, but she also created the butterfly art using card stock letters, real butterfly wings, punch-outs from a butterfly punch and glitter.

She carefully affixed the pieces to the window with Modge Podge. Then she sealed it all up with a resin. Looks like it took some fussing to make this but the results are worth it.

Are you enjoying Brittany's porch decorating ideas from her screen porch makeover? There's more...

A rescued decorator table

Pretty Handy Girl's screen porch makeover - quiet place to retreat with a godo magazine

A quiet place to retreat for sure. See the pretty decorator table? Brittany's neighbor was going to toss it so Brittany rescued it and covered it with a shower curtain from Target. And it was on the clearance table, too.

Pretty Handy Girl's screen porch makeover - decorator table

A close-up of the decorator table. Can you believe that's a shower curtain? Love those blue hydrangeas - Brittany's favorite.

The bench...she made that, too. Yup, from a headboard and a footboard from an old bed.

Now for the last step of the porch makeover...

Add a snazzy cushion to the bench

The last step to Brittany's porch makeover is the classy piped cushion that she sewed from a shower curtain. We can see why she loves shower curtains. They come in bright and stylish fabrics, they stand up to water and they are affordable.

To make the cushions, Brittany covered a piece of foam the size of the seat with the shower curtain and piping. It looks like an intermediate level project to us - and she created a handy tutorial for this on her blog. This bright blue cushion makes loads of difference to the bench and the whole porch.

Hope you were inspired by Brittany's handy dandy screened porch makeover.

Meet Brittany of
"Pretty Handy Girl"

If you enjoyed Brittany's porch makeover, you will love her blog. She creates detailed DIY home-improvement tutorials to make it easy for the rest of us.

With tools, paint and creativity she makes her house a home - and all on a small budget. Brittany takes the guesswork out of DIY projects.

Enjoy Brittany's blog, Pretty Handy Girl.

Stay with us! We have other porch makeovers to show you.

--- Have you seen John and Sherry's porch makeover?

--- Or Barb's brick porch transformation?

--- Check out Diana's fun numbered pillows.