I believe deetcha's super-helpful post was Spam.

I am in the same mindset as you, not because we're having warm weather (still around 40 degrees here!) but because we built a screen porch on our beach house last year and it wasn't done until November, so I am eagerly awaiting spring and summer so we can finally use it... and with that, thoughts of decorating! We have painted wicker furniture with big comfy cushions. There are a lot of throw pillows in catalogs in outdoor fabrics -- check out Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, etc. -- maybe some with tropical fabrics vs. cottagey (my style is cottagey so I got some retro-looking floral pillows from PB). How about fun lights (similar to Christmas lights) in tropical motifs? I have seen flamingos, chili peppers, tiki torches, etc. I'm going to use just small white Christmas lights in my porch. Maybe instead of putting plants in baskets, put them in metal tubs spray painted in bright colors?

I agree that the wagon with geraniums is more country/cottage, but I love the idea. I might steal it for my porch!

If you can find them at your library or elsewhere, browse through Coastal Living magazine. I've gotten lots of ideas there, and I am pretty sure I've seen tropical themes there from time to time.

Suebe, we certainly do have the same mindset. Your suggestions are greatly appreciated. One of my problems is that I love cottagey things but I also love tropical, especially during the summer. Don't know if there is a way to combine the two. So I'm always torn between which things to use on the porch -- cottage or tropical. I got the old wagon at an auction for $7.00. I knew right away that I wanted to put pots of red geraniums in it. I also have an old bike from the 1950s. It didn't have a basket when I got it so I ordered one, and filled it with marigolds, dusty miller, etc. It was just the right accent, parked next to my backdoor. You might want to do something like that. I have seen pictures of bikes that have been painted all one color -- like white, bright pink, periwinkle, etc., but I left mine as is.

Stargirl, you might want to take a peek at the porch/deck/outdoor thread in the Gallery (link below). Lots of gorgeous pics in there! Enjoy your screened porch!

Here is a link that might be useful: Porch, deck, outdoor photos in the Gallery

Wow! I loved the eye candy, hoosiergirl. Thank you for letting me know about those photos. The flowers in the watering can gave me an idea for my own watering cans. With all that inspiration, how would one ever decide on the look they wanted for their porch! LOL I loved aspects of every picture. Thanks again for sharing.

I don't have a screened in porch but I am looking forward to decorating and relaxing on the porch. I bought some new furniture and porch light over the winter. Need pillows and plants maybe a rug to finish the space. Oh and a glass of wine!

There are plenty of cottages in tropical locations. Think about places like Key West or Jamaica...cottage style using brighter, bolder colors than you might find on Cape Cod.

As a person who just now walked in from pressure cleaning my "open" screened outdoor patio thats sectioned off with sliding doors to main house, I say keep it minimal and use easy maintenance furniture. As pretty as all the flowering pots are they are very messy and leave rings on the floor unless you buy those wheelie things and the dead flowers go all over the place. Keep the flowers on the other side of the screen. Use plants that do not leave as much dead stuff. I love wood furniture with cushions but do not like treating the wood every year. Those pretty grouping of nic naks are a flipping nightmare to clean around. Those outdoor rooms in pictures always look real pretty but I'm telling you it all gets dirty real fast. If I sound grouchy I am! If you don't have a maid, think carefully about what you put out there because I'm about to drop dead cleaning it all and you will too.

Seems that we have the same taste!

My porch from last year

{{!gwi}}

Accessories/Decorating - Along with the following, I normally keep magazines below the coffee table, plus I have a bird cage, shells, more candles, and framed paintings/photographs on the shelves.

Recently purchased poster from CL. Candles on rattan base. Lamps and plants.
{{!gwi}}

Basil for pots
{{!gwi}}

Table is a piece of granite from previous homes sink cut-out, placed on a wrought iron plant stand base. Smaller sink cut-outs make the stepping stones outside the doggy door.

Pillows in pattern and light solid green
{{!gwi}}

Small table-top water feature
{{!gwi}}

I've also used the large flameless candles, in cream, for this hanging baskets. I can never get flowers to grow in these. The candles look great at night!
{{!gwi}}

Pottery figurine that my daughter made. For some reason, it's sitting on an iron trivet in this pic.
{{!gwi}}

Good luck with decorating your porch! We are hoping to do some updating this summer, and then eventually build a pergola off of our porch.

jterrylynn, I can totally relate to your post. My porch is screened only, no windows, and we're rather secluded in the woods with not a lot of wind, but boy the DUST. I have painted furniture on my porch so I can wipe it down with a damp rag. For those of you with those BEAUTIFUL porches, how in the world do you keep them clean?

Newhomebuilder, my coffee table and end tables are almost identical to yours. What a pretty porch you have! I love what you have done. And, I totally agree that keeping outdoor spaces clean is a big task. Actually, my porch isn't that large, just big enough for the pieces of furniture I've mentioned. The only plants I use are maybe a couple of ferns and a large palm. I, too, prefer to have the majority of my plants on the outside of the screen. I appreciate everyone's response to my post.

I would have flowers if I had more sun but admit vacumming up dead blossoms every single day gets old even with shade flowers.

So my favorites for no mess are Kimberly fern and Hollywood fern, all kinds of variegated ivies, and big begonias. The mess is minimal on those compared to impatiens or streptocarpella.
And, the ferns are cheap enough if I don't decide to overwinter them.

Kimberly is a much cleaner fern than Boston.

I also LOVE cottage obelisks with ivy all over them.

I have a bunch of orchids on my patio and we recently put two shelves of a nice-looking tall garage shelf out there and the orchids look great. I need some time to get the patio cleaned and I'll post some pictures. Love it when it gets warmer than 70 degrees!

I have dust, lots of pollen. It's a pain to clean, especially that first spring cleaning. My husband wants to glass the room in, but I have said that the glass needs to be removable. I like a full breeze coming in when I sit on the porch.

Continued from my post above! It's been several days now but the wooden furniture has been pressure cleaned, dried, sanded and treated. The screens have all been cleaned along with screen frames. The floor has been vaced, cleaned and the walls washed down. The patio has been debugged (somehow them spiders still get in). The fans and lights have been cleaned. I have ten windows on house side and have six more to clean. Grill area still needs to be cleaned. The chair cushions still need cleaning and the lizard poo removed. All the little doodads need cleaning. Plants need a little work.
I'm getting there!

Gosh, jterrilynn. Where do you live? I don't dare start cleaning until after pollen season.

Hi newhome, I'm in south Florida and my patio was covered in a film of pollen. Bad pollen this year! Excluding finishing the wood furniture the up-keep will continue.

UGH!!! I have that to look forward to, but in TN, no pollen so far. We are still having snow - twice last week.

I absolutely refuse to "dress" the lanai! I'm a block from the beach in Central FL and salt covers everything as does pollen. Easy to clean, no fussing and it works! I don't have chairs with deep cushions and no gee-gaws to gather dust. I'm retired and don't need a full time job cleaning outdoors!

You are smart beachlily! Now I'm doing the front porch, then I need to fertilize the plants and tree's to ready them for the summer, then mulch. I never ever wanted to leave this house, all I ever wanted was a house somewhat in a country setting with a front porch, nature, canals and not too far to the beach. However, this is killing me! I could hire someone but that would take money out of the travel fund and I'm not going without trips to Europe. Work hard and play hard has always been my way but I am TOAST.

I so want my front porch to be Gorgeous this spring and summer but I am having trouble battling the wind! The wind whips over the bluff we are on and knocks the rockers over, throws even big rugs around.,,ugh hh. What's gorgeous and really heavy lol. I'd do built in benches but the historical society would have a cow. I'm seriously thinking of church pews....anyone use them outside????? Any other ideas for the wind challenged?

Those outdoor rooms in pictures always look real pretty but I'm telling you it all gets dirty real fast.

There should be a disclaimer on those pics! They're so unrealistic.

Kimberly is a much cleaner fern than Boston.

I agree. No more Boston ferns for me.

igloochick, we had a problem with our furniture blowing over all of the time also. We finally bought log furniture, but we love that style anyway. It has never blown over, very heavy. Terri

Can you rig up some kind of a wind screen?

Perhaps a fence at first- you need the kind that aren't solid, so that the wind is slowed down but won't push the fence down. In the meantime, plant an evergreen hedge that will eventually become your wind break.

The wind gets broken for twice the height of the windscreen on the horizontal axis. I hope you understand, I've rewritten this sentence 3 times- having a hard time communicating this simple thing clearly. It's hard to get old, lol.

We have a screened in porch that I have decorated and each spring, when pollen is winding down, I bring in a hose through the front door and hose everything down. It works like a charm and is clean in several minutes.
Now, this would deeply distress dh so I always do it while he is at work. But I've been doing it for 10 years so somethings right :-) I might do it twice during the pollen season. And I always pick a warm, sunny day and start early in the morning so everything will dry out.

We hose everything off too, Bumblebeez! That's part of the reason I wanted a true screened porch instead of a three season room. It's so much easier to just hose off the dust/pollen!

Igloo, the church pew idea sounds pretty cool. Today while consignment store shopping I saw a neat old bench that was attached to a desk with an open up storage top. I'm not sure of the era it came from but I had never seen one that was set up for at least three children to sit at. It was a very dark stained wood. Anyway, I thought of your porch problem with the breeze and was thinking how cute it would be to have an area for your son and friends with their oun bench table/desk.

Posted by bumblebeez (My Page) on Fri, Mar 18, 11 at 17:00

"We have a screened in porch that I have decorated and each spring, when pollen is winding down, I bring in a hose through the front door and hose everything down. It works like a charm and is clean in several minutes.
Now, this would deeply distress dh so I always do it while he is at work. But I've been doing it for 10 years so somethings right :-) I might do it twice during the pollen season. And I always pick a warm, sunny day and start early in the morning so everything will dry out. "

I do a 4 step process that is similar. First, I put on a mask and take the leaf blower to the porch. Then, I pull the central vac outdoors through a window (reminds me that I need to have the vac guys come add an outlet closer to this window.) Next, I bring in the hose and water down every surface from windows to floor. I don't touch the ceiling because it is wood, but do knock down the cobwebs. Luckily, we have a waterspout near the porch and do not have to come through the front door with the hose. :) Lastly, I wash the windows, glass tables, etc. with window cleaner.

I take everything off the screened porch and put it in the yard to clean. Then the hose and mop get dragged in. This year the ceiling needs a good cleaning too.

Still, the porch gets dirty again before long.

This years end of porch cleaning is better then last because I can still walk and climb a little and half way breath. I'll be as good as new after my 6 day prednisone 10mg and 500mg cephalexin, then I'll even be able to bend and hear and hopefully my head won't hurt.

jterrilynn - Take it easy and try not to do too much. :(

NHB you had snow recently??? We were 82 today. You are not that far from me! We did have a couple of cold days recently, but not even frost. We definitely have pollen here in our part of TN.

We have a sunroom - no need for removeable glass (not sure how that would work). Our windows are all sliding - like sliding doors.

tina

It's been two weeks, since I made that post. We had snow on a Sunday - about an inch, and then again later that week, but just a dusting. Today, tress are in bloom, and we have pollen all over the porch. DH and the dog are sneezing and scratching. I guess having DH take the bee pollen seeds all winter didn't help him. :( Zyrtec doesn't seem to work, either.

Yes, my parents and some friends of ours both have removable glass panes. They clip into the screen supports during the winter months.

My pup gets itchy feet and belly - we just figured this out last year (first time she seemed to have the itchy belly). She is little - so belly low to ground. She is also pure black so one day when I saw green pollen on her fur - I realized she was especially scratching after she had been outside. I've never heard of bee pollen "seeds". There are so many antihistimines, I'd check with your doc.

I can just see me dropping a removable glass pane. LOL

tina