Tags
country french decor, Florida living, lanai, painted furniture, privacy screen, recycling distressed items, repurposing, sunroom
This blog was begun for our children and grandchildren, so they could see our new home and what we are doing to it. This post is primarily for them, but of course, all are welcome.
Other Things We Have Been Up To Lately Besides Golf:
Since we both finally got rid of the upper respiratory crud that burned its way through our neighborhood, we have been working on some things around the house, mainly our lanai. As can be seen by the reflection of the lights from inside the house, we had the lanai glassed in. The screening we had before was nice, but allowed so much dust to get in, that we bit the bullet and did it sooner than planned.
Bo is working on building a low wall around my little kitchen garden to make it a raised bed. I have been painting; below is a photo of my partially finished shutters. They are actually louvered closet doors, but for whatever reason, I find myself calling them shutters. This aqua paint is a bit too bright, and I had planned to go over it with a wash of diluted white paint, then distress them a bit. That should help to tone down the brightness. If I were going for a beach theme, this color would be perfect as it is, but…. We’re already thinking we need one more set of shutters so we can have a wider screen. Unfortunately, road construction on Hwy 466-A at US 301 makes it almost impossible to reach the little antique/junque store where I bought them. After they are all finished, Bo will attach the sets with hinges to make a screen, to keep out the morning sun which, in summer, comes in at just the right angle so that it shines in your face or on your back, depending on where you sit. It also makes it very hot out there. Here’s a photo of how they look at this time:
Glassing in the lanai meant that we could no longer have our gas grill on the lanai, so we had a patio laid in order to have a place to put the grill. So for Christmas, Bo got a glassed-in lanai, and I got a beautiful patio. Now the search is on for some chairs for that patio. Photos of the patio and raised-bed garden will be in a future post.
Before Fresh Paint
Below is a “Before” photo of one set of the shutters before I began work on them. It’s hard to see in this photo, but this set had two shades of yellow on them, and both sets were very dirty. When we had our house power-washed a few months ago, I had the guys power-wash the shutters for me, too.
You can also see that this end of our lanai is still a bit of a mess. That will change when I finish decorating it. For now, we use the other end (which is larger) for seating and entertaining. We have always had a walk-out door on the side of our garage, as well as the large garage doors. In this house we do not have the walk-out door. Because of that, I find myself leaving some of my gardening tools on the lanai, rather than carting them back and forth to the garage which is on the front of the house. After we get the bare concrete floor tiled, and have the lanai completely decorated, that will have to stop. Darn it!
After I get the wash of white one the shutters, I will post more photos.