smart back porch ideas for renters

These last few months have been literally insane, with a lot of laborious processes, figuring things out in our new living situation. But I think we’re finally feeling settled. Everyone has fallen into a groove, and I even have a bit of my creative spark back. For a while, it was a real existential crisis around here, wondering if I’d ever feel normal again. I have a little more organization to do, but this place feels like it’s finally up and running, and we’re just glad to be here so we can settle into our new version of normal. I’ve shared a few sneak peeks along the way, but we have a summer tour coming up next week for you guys that I’m thrilled to share with you. In the meantime, here’s our new back porch: smart back porch ideas for renters!

But first, a little history: If you have no idea what I’m rambling about, or you’re new here, we did a thing: we sold our home + it was kind of a lot for me in the moment on multiple levels. It may sound silly to some, but it easily goes in the top tier of hardest things I’ve ever had to do. Change is hard, especially when those babies are leaving the nest, and you’re managing more than just your own emotions and expectations. We had to keep our business running in the meantime since that’s how we feed our children, and we weren’t even sure where we would land at first. It was a lot, and we’ve been pretty worn out. But there are some exciting things on the horizon that we can’t wait to share with you. Now that we’re on the other side, we’re glad we jumped.

Selling the house we transformed into our home for over a decade, smack dab in the middle of Emerson’s senior year, was a wild card move, and my goal was to put this new place together quickly so the kids felt settled with everything we have going on before her graduation + the summer months. I needed a soft place to land for everyone in a family that suddenly has lots of moving parts. Aiden is a rafting guide on the Ocoee this summer in between his semesters, so he’ll be back and forth a little unpredictably. As a finance and accounting double major, we told him now is the time to have a little fun this summer, so he’s definitely seizing the moment. Emerson has a bajillion things planned before college with trips and projects galore, and Malone {our youngest} is living his best life on multiple levels. So it’s honestly a nice mental break for me to have our home settled, so I can focus on client projects and other side gigs we have going on. In short, we just want to feel normal again, and we haven’t felt “normal” since December, when we decided to sell + start this entire process.

But back to the porch now that you’re kind of caught up on my insanity: Our new place came with a simple space, and while it was hard to say goodbye to our old house {you can’t really top a pool and a gigantic yard} we knew we could definitely make this one work. It’s been the perfect blank slate to work with. This is a rental, so I’m a little limited in what I can do. If it were up to me, this porch ceiling would already be a fabulous haint blue, screened in with a small pergola for Peggy Martin roses. HA. But in the meantime, this is what we cooked up! {No worries, I’ll be adding more to our little garden in the process. Some of these are affiliate links. Thank you so much for understanding!} 

Let’s take a moment to admire this beauty. I’ll be sharing all the details in its own dedicated post, but I’ve wanted a big bed swing for about 15 years now and have tried to install one in various spaces, numerous times. The stars never aligned in the way of practicality for us. So imagine my absolute thrill when we received permission to hang one here! I’ll be sharing more about this gem, and I’m totally smitten. But in the meantime, check out their website Easy Breezy Porch Swings {How CUTE is that business name?} and you can customize your own… We certainly did, and I’m OBSESSSED. 

Psssst… take $50 off with the discount code is HANDMADE50 at checkout for your own! These beauts ship in about ten days and are made in Amish country by experts… they’re absolutely gorgeous. 

We’re only ten minutes south of our old house, and the houses here in this adorable community are pretty close together with smaller yards. We’re actually grateful for a break of sorts from the intense labor an acre and a pool demanded. It helps that the new neighbors are really sweet.

We realized pretty quickly to block the intense sun {we’re used to lots of trees}. So we purchased some outdoor curtains with upper AND lower tabs, along with tension rods at the top AND bottom, so they don’t keep flying away. 

We also added two comfy rocking papasan chairs to the back, for some cushy seating. {Pillows originally from World Market.} We’ll probably hang a TV in the space behind that chair, because what’s fall football without a place to watch it outside? But in the meantime, some of my art is serving as a placeholder. 

I’m all about a potted garden this year, and I’ll probably just keep adding to it over time because I clearly have a problem. 

It’s so easy to create some cozy corners with plants and pillows galore. 

I loved adding this outdoor rug for a patch of fun color. 

Garden lights at night with these hooks added a little ambiance, too. If I want, I can always add my colorful ones back in. The more these hang, the more I think I might. 

I’ll always be a fool for some contrasting piping. And the blue on that cushion? Chef’s kiss. Icing on the cake = Sunbrella so it will resist fading! Again, more on this fabulous piece later, but this one is the Poly Winslow, so it’s basically going to last FOR. EV. VER. 

Oh, and if you didn’t think I was doing a wildflower garden this year… you were WRONG. Because I already have it growing. Stay tuned. Must. Have. Flowers. ALL OF THEM. This is just the beginning. {Pillows from here + here – and new planter {as I left the old one behind} from here!}  And of course our Kichler lanterns are still kicking. We love all the little pieces we were able to pull over from our cabana to create quite the outdoor space!

At first, we were nervous about moving here to a smaller yard with the dogs, since they’re getting up there in age and are white Pyrenees/red heeler mixes. They love their space. I even spoke to our friend/vet about it, and she said that dogs are just happy to be with their people. That’s all that matters to them. She was right. They enjoy their Whimzees and afternoon walks, and we’re happy to report that they’re living their best lives in what we now call their quiet retirement home. 

We truly adore this outdoor space. 

 

Thanks for coming on this little tour today. As always, let us know if you have any questions. Stay tuned for our summer tour because we can’t wait to share what we’ve been up to. Have an inspired day!