Friday, May 8, 2020

MY HAPPY PLACE | SUNROOM REVEAL!

Happy Friday, friends and welcome to my Happy Place!!

No, I'm not talking about my blog, although I do feel like that is also a happy place (unless I'm whining about homeschool).  😬

I'm talking about my SUNROOM!!



I know I've shown y'all a picture or two here and there over the past couple of weeks but today I'm giving y'all the full tour! I feel like I'm finally finished tinkering with all the little details--at least through the summer.  Come fall, I fully intend on swapping out the rainbow-colored pillows for fun fall ones and then red and green at Christmas.  I'll switch out the summery baskets for something a little cozier and I may even add a Christmas tree and colored lights out here in December.

We added on this sunroom back in 2013 and it has undergone makeover after makeover with underwhelming gusto, unfortunately.  I just did not know what to do with this room when we had two Jack Russells who loved to get everything muddy and gross and plus two little boys who also loved to get everything muddy and gross.  So it just got a half-hearted attempt several times.

But look at these cute 3 and 5 year olds hanging out in their new sunroom!


We had to lay some extra concrete outside on the patio so we all added our handprints. (Craig's is next to mine, it just got cut out of the picture.)


At this point in my life, I was a DIY fanatic, friends.  My favorite thing to do was spray paint old stuff to make it look new again so I spray painted our wicker furniture this teal color and added fun cushions.  I have no idea what possessed me to buy that ugly floor lamp so let's pretend we don't see that, shall we? ;) Focus on those cute little boys!


Part of my DIY fascination was scouring the Facebook Buy/Sell groups for things I could re-do.  One day I was on there looking for furniture I could re-paint and this adorable lime green coffee table jumped out at me.  It had three black chalkboard panels on the top of it and was distressed and chunky and I had to have it.  It cost $75 and I picked it up that day.  Obviously, I wasn't going to mess with it.  It was bright and cheery and perfect for this room!


The boys thought it was so fun that they could draw on that table and I was pretty pumped with my find.

Ahhhhhhh!  How cute were they?!  My sweet babies.


As time went on, I got restless with the decor in there and just knew it wasn't what I wanted.  So I sold the wicker stuff and for a while we had one of our old "indoor" couches out there but everyone would come in and sit on it when they were wet after swimming and it had bugs down in the cushions from outside...it was not working.  We got rid of it and then my parents brought our old ping pong table (from the 80s!) to us so we could turn the sunroom into a gameroom.


 The problem with that is that there wasn't much space left for much else.  I refused to get rid of my green table so it got shoved into a corner and then the rest of the room was really just used for ping pong.  And the whole room kind of stayed like this while we focused on other things.  It just got pushed to the back of our minds.

The ping pong table finally died last year after it got left out in a huge rainstorm during a party we were having so we were back to square one and a fairly empty room.  I knew I wanted to get serious about actually using this room the way I wanted to.  I didn't have to worry about messy pups anymore (they passed away), my kids were older so they didn't need it as a place to hold all their toys and clutter and I was ready to HGTV the mess out of it.  😂 With a limited budget and zero interior design know-how of course.  My goal was really just to have it become a place that was cozy and cute and functional without spending a ton of money.

So here's the finished look!
(I'll link everything I can at the bottom of this post.)

This is what you see when you walk out the door.


I ordered this pretty doormat from Target the other day, added a basket next to the couch for all the shoes that get left in here, and rigged a little changing area for the boys to change in and out of swimsuits over in the corner.


Craig's mom sent the boys this really cool magnetic dartboard that works perfectly in here!  They like to sit here and throw darts while I work on the computer. (Or watch Bravo on the computer...)


Anyway....

The first thing I ordered for this room was this couch.  I have seen this couch all over Pinterest and on so many other influencers' porches and they all said the same thing.  The quality is awesome, it's super comfy and its the best price you'll find for a 3 seater couch like this!  Also, it comes with a really nice metal table that looks like distressed barnwood. (You can see it HERE.) Since I wanted my green table to stay, we just moved the new table out next to the grill instead. (I completely forgot to take a picture of that but will try to add one in later.)


I went back and forth a million times on whether I should get the 4 piece set which came with the couch, table and two chairs or just the couch and the table. I was nervous this room would look too crowded with the chairs so I decided to just go with the couch and table set but the deal for all four of those was awesome!  If you're looking for a full set, be sure to check this one out!

Instead of the chairs, I decided to add in this bench seating.  It would give us more seating while also keeping it a little more airy but it also gave us storage!  We're using it to store all of the boys' art stuff that they work on out here.  (Plus my diamond art I'm still working on!  I still love that so much!)  I may go back and order the chairs some day but for now, I'm happy.



This little corner of the room is the only thing that hasn't changed much over the last few years.  The only thing I've added is a blackout curtain behind it because when the sun starts to go down, it blasts through this window and I thought it might help keep some of the heat out when it starts to get hotter.  You can see how bright it is in the next picture.  (Ignore my placeholder lamp that I was using before my new one came in.) 


This room doesn't have heat or A/C so it definitely gets cold in the winter and hot in the summer.  We get a great breeze in here though with all the windows open so it's like a screened-in porch and with the fan going too it's nice.  We can also shut all the windows in the sunroom and then open the backdoor so that some of the A/C from in the house makes it way out here. (Same for the heater in the winter.)  We make it work but it's PERFECT out here day and night with the weather the way it is now.

But back to the corner. :)

When we added built-ins and a shiplap wall to our dining room a few years back, this black buffet table got displaced and we didn't know where to put it.  I was just about to sell it when I had the idea to put it out here in this room and stock it with towels and swimsuits that sort of thing.

I've got two shelves on the left side stocked with beach towels at all times and on the right, the two top wicker baskets hold a random assortment of things (extra sunscreen, sunglasses, earplugs, chalk, etc) and the green bucket below those holds the boys' swimsuits, swim shirts and my two big vinyl tablecloths I use for parties out here.


These green buckets are from Walmart but I can't find them on the site. I found them in store and there were a few different design options.

On top of the table, I have a little orange metal tray that I got at Michael's about 4 years ago that I put our sunscreens and bug spray in plus a plant Craig got me for our anniversary that is miraculously still alive and a little glass jar where we throw the boys' goggles.

On the other side is this adorable little lamp I got from Amazon and a few beach reads from some of my favorite authors.


And speaking of things that are miraculously still alive, I've had this fiddle leaf fig for 2 years now (I think?) and it has gotten so tall!!  I had to rig it a little to get it to stay upright with a pole and these little velcro pieces I use to hang our garland on our staircase at Christmas.  😂



I'm so proud of this thing.

And here's another view of the little makeshift changing room.  We also hide our cornhole boards back there as well since our closet (next to it) is packed.  All I did to create this was use 2 hooks (one is a suction cup hook on the window and the other is a command hook attached to the wall) and cut a piece of clothesline to run between them.  I added curtain rings to the clothesline and then tied each end off on the hook and added a little super glue to keep the knot tight and in place.  The curtain is actually just a cheap white sheet!


I strung up some pretty lights to make it look a little cuter over there and use these to hide the cords as they run along the baseboards.  (These are the best little invention by the way!!)

The two ottomans are actually apart of our sectional that is in our living room but we've had them out here forever.


I wanted comfy pillows out here for my couch and found these big white and black ones here and the pretty floral ones here. They are all so soft!!

The little tray on the table goes back my "spray paint it all" days. This was just an unfinished wood tray from Michael's that I took some turquoise spray paint too. It now holds my HGTV magazines, these gorgeous coasters, a random hair clip, some sunglasses, my Kindle, and the remote for the fan.


Guess what I'm about to start reading on my Kindle??

The new Emily Giffin novel!!! I managed to score an early copy and I can't wait to dive into this one!  It's available for pre-order now and will be released June 2nd!


Now moving onto my favorite part.  My rug! I knew I wanted black and white stripes and I knew it had to be an indoor/outdoor rug with how wet it gets in here.  I looked and looked for something in the size I needed and that didn't cost hundreds of dollars.  If found one that was I ended up finding it here for about $100 in the 8x10 and I am so thrilled with how it pulled this room together! 



On the other side of the room, I've got a little high top table with 2 rattan chairs (that used to be in our kitchen) and 2 little barstools.

This table and the 2 small barstools were actually another FB marketplace find last summer.  I knew I was looking for a white pedestal, high top table so before I jumped straight to Wayfair or Overstock I decided to check out FB.  And someone happened to be selling one!  Now when I got this table, the top of it was covered in the same color paint that is on the base but it also had dark rings, big stains and scuffs, and it was just BAD.  I spent a solid 2 hours sanding through about 3 layers of paint to get to the raw wood but once I did, it was gorgeous!  I sealed it and it's been perfect ever since!  And I only paid $35 for the table and two barstools!  I'm going to recover the barstools soon because they are a little dingy up close but that should be a pretty quick job. 





This white trash can is where we toss recycles but I may order another for outside near the pool for more pool toy storage.


And how cute is my little wood sign?! My friend, Leigh, makes these and she is so talented!  She cuts them, designs them and paints them freehand.  I've got 3 of her door hangers now but when I told her I was looking for something to go in this spot, she customized this rainbow one to match the colors of my pillows and the rest of my room exactly!

You can check her out on Facebook HERE and Instagram HERE. (She's more active on FB.)


Here's a closeup.  Be sure to check out her page!  She ships and she can customize anything!

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Whew. I think that about covers it! When I say this is my happy place, I'm not kidding.  I'm out here every single second I can be.  If I have computer work to do, I bring it out here.  If I want to watch a show, I watch it on my laptop out here.  If there's a storm coming, I watch it out here until I get too scared and have to go inside. 😂⚡ (And you notice I keep saying out "here" instead of out "there".  I'm typing this from my favorite middle seat on the couch.)

The boys love to come out here and watch movies or have game night.  It's just been such a fun little project and I'm over here kicking myself for not doing it 7 years ago.

And one last picture of it at night.


Linking everything I can below so scroll through to see it all. If I've missed something or you have a question, feel free to ask it here or DM me on Instagram!




Be sure to check out the Deals Group today for info on a small giveaway I'll be announcing!

Happy Friday, friends!!


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16 comments

  1. Looks like a perfect place to relax!

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  2. It's very pretty!!! I'm inspired.

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  3. Anonymous11:14 AM

    Don't kick yourself-7 years ago it wouldn't have functioned as well with little boys! Looks great.

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  4. What a pretty and functional space: I can see why it's your happy place!

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  5. It looks really great! I especially like that corner changing space. Love your choice of colors and that carpet.
    www.chezmireillefashiontravelmom.com

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  6. It looks great! I love how you were able to change the space for what stage your family/pets were in. Happy Mother's Day!

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  7. What a happy, fun space! I would be out there all the time too! (Do you happen to remember where you got your Kindle cover? I have never seen one that cute!!)

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    1. Thank you! I got it on Amazon! https://amzn.to/3fC8R78

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  8. Super cute and cozy! My screened in porch is my happy place. Now I may need to spruce it up a little!!

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