Our Screened In Porch Makeover

One of the projects we were most excited about when we purchased our lake house was a makeover of the little standalone screened-in porch on our property.    We had visions of enjoying a morning cup of coffee or a late afternoon cocktail on the porch while listening to the waves beat against the shore, watching the boats drive by and listening to the Whippoorwills sing. (Yep, we actually have Whippoorwills).

My hubby and I simply couldn’t wait to get our hands on this cutie.   The porch was located as close to the water as the Corps of Engineers would allow. It was LOADED (heaping Tablespoons loaded) with potential.   This 14’ x 24’ space was a good size to work with and was in great shape. It just needed a little spit and a LOT of TLC!!

Since we were still working on the plans for reconfiguring and adding on to the main house, the screened in porch renovation rose to the top of our priority list.  The porch remodel was still going to be quite a bit of work. So, we decided to break it up into smaller chunks of work (Rome wasn’t built in a day, right?) – stain, paint, and shiplap, build, and hang a swinging bed (I know, I said swinging bed- the excitement mounts), cover mattress and make pillows for swinging bed, decorate the screened in porch, paint the front door, and build a concrete step.

Although the lake house was 25 years old, the screened in porch was not (lucky us!).  The standalone porch was added sometime later and the screens were only added about 2 years prior to our purchase.   The floor material was Trex (lucky us again!) which is engineered to resist fading, scratches and stains, and is basically maintenance free. So, we determined that we wouldn’t need to touch the floors or replace the screens. But, we pretty much touched everything else.

Adding Electricity

Before we began on the physical appearance, there was one key thing missing which would hamper our future enjoyment of the space. It had Zero (a big goose egg) electricity.  Fortunately for us, my brother-in-law is an electrician.  And guess what?  He needed a shower renovation.  And guess who can do shower renovations? Yep, us.  It was a match made in heaven.  We decided to trade work with him which was definitely going to help out on the budget.  I’ll write about that shower renovation in an upcoming post.

When my electrician brother-in-law finished, we had 14 receptacles located in various places in the screened in porch. This would allow us to have several fans, lights, and anything else that our hearts desired.  We may even decide to hang a TV in there someday. It would be perfect for watching college football games on cool fall days.

Since our screened in porch had gone unused for several years, we had to give it a good power washing both inside and out before we could even think about anything else.

Adding Shiplap and Paint

Finally, we were ready to start considering more options for our screened in porch makeover.  We knew that we wanted to paint the outside to freshen it up. We also wanted to use neutral colors that would blend into the natural surroundings. 

Here’s the screened in porch that we started with prior to the makeover.

The outside of the structure was made of cedar and had been stained a light brownish gray at one point. But, it was faded and in much need of a face lift.  The inside had the same the same brownish gray stain on the walls but the ceiling was a darker brown.

We wanted to brighten up the inside walls of the structure and also darken the ceiling.  While we were busy trying to decide on paint colors, my hubby came up with a great idea to add a little pizzazz to the porch- the infamous shiplap (yep, we’ve been bitten by the Joanna Gaines bug).  If he removed the bottom screens on the patio, he could easily install shiplap to give more strength to the structure, add a little privacy, and give it a refreshing look.  So, that’s exactly what he did.

We purchased 1”x 8” pine shiplap and he cut the shiplap to the appropriate lengths.  It took about 3 ½ shiplap boards for each section.  Most of the shiplap sections were 4’ wide by 2’ tall.   Once cut, he attached the boards to the structure with a brad nail gun so that it looked like this on the outside.  It’s starting to get some personality now, isn’t it?

This is how the shiplap would have appeared on the inside as well. But, the hubs wanted a more authentic look inside.  So, we also purchased 2” x 4” pine boards that my hubby “ripped”. (I’ve learned that this basically means that he cut them down the middle) into 2”x 2”s with his circular saw.  He then added the ripped 2” x 2”s in a vertical pattern (4 were added to each section) on the inside as this picture shows below.

While he was busy adding shiplap, I was busy painting.  We are huge lovers of Sherwin Williams products and ultimately decided to paint the outside Dorian Gray (SW 7017) with trim in Black Fox (SW 7020).  These colors complement each other well and are ones that we had used in a previous home.

I painted and painted and painted.  I seriously felt like I was painting for weeks.  Since I was painting dry cedar, the wood soaked up the paint like a dry sponge.  I put 2 coats of paint on both the main structure and the trim.  See that scaffolding that my hubby built for me? (he does LOVE me!)  We had to move that scaffolding a million times. (OK – well, maybe not a million, but it felt like it.)

It’s difficult to tell in pictures, but our house lot is very challenging for building because it has a big slope down to the water.  So, in order to build any type of structure, the legs holding the structure level are not all the same length.  The legs holding the floor on the screened in porch on the uphill side are only a foot long, whereas the legs on the opposite side are almost 4 feet long.  This calls for some highly creative scaffolding building when trying to reach up high to paint.  Props to my husband for figuring that out!

On a side note, when my brother-in-law electrician wired the patio, he hid the wires as much as possible in between the screen sections.  In order to minimize the color of the wire, I just painted right over it.  One thing you’ll learn about me, I’ll paint just about anything.

Now our porch makeover needed some attention inside. On the inside, we decided to keep stain on the ceiling but we wanted it darker.   We ultimately chose a Sherwin Williams stain called Charwood (SW 3542) which is a semi-transparent stain.  We stained over the existing stain to achieve a much darker color.  To lighten up the inside walls, we decided to paint them Eider White (SW 7014) which is another one of our favorites by Sherwin Williams.

The white contrast with the dark ceiling looks amazing!!  There were some large knots in the cedar on the Eider White walls.   To address this issue, I ended up putting caulk in the holes, letting it dry, then painted over it so the surface was smooth.

You wouldn’t believe the difference the white paint made in brightening up the inside.

Our Completed Porch Makeover

The added shiplap and paint on the outside finished off our screened in porch makeover perfectly.  Just wait until you see what we’ve got planned for the inside! In another post, I’ll also show you how we achieved the look for the antiqued turquoise door and how we built the concrete step leading up to it. This once forgotten porch has been turned from FIXER TO FABULOUS. Don’t you agree?