Renovating the old Drug Store: Maximizing a Miniature Porch

It has been a while since I have posted to my blog, but you didn't miss much. Over the summer, renovations slowed to a near halt! After a deer collided with my car, most of the money I had saved to do summer renovations had to be redirected to fix my car... And with a vacation in July, teaching summer school, and coaching my cheer squad, I didn't get too much done.

I thought for sure that once I was on break for the summer I would really get a lot of things done, but it was quite the opposite! Now that I am back to school, I have started tackling projects again. One thing that I have recently finished is my upstairs porch.

It started out as a very unsafe and ugly sight! The railing had been kicked off of the stairs and needed to be rebuilt. Thanks to my handy husband, the railing was rebuilt sturdier than before, and safe to use.

The walls of the top of the porch had never been finished. They were dark and felt very cave-like.

All three windows had been broken out!

The original door had been kicked in, but my handy husband replaced it with this one. It is not new, fancy, or gorgeous... but it was free, and in my budget free is my favorite! (Thanks, Dad for the freebie!)

One of the weirdest things about rebuilding the railing was that half of the posts were missing... I still have no idea why someone would take those? (Sidenote: We will be replacing the missing ones as soon as we find the right replacements)

It took me a couple weeks to finish this project. I worked on it for only a couple hours each day. Now that I am back at school, I only have a few hours of daylight. Perseverance pays off though.

Here is the finished product:

Using items that I found all around the building, I was able to maximize space in this tiny porch. Now, it is one of my most favorite spots!

The first thing I did was paint all of the dark wood using an antique shade of white. This took days!!! Each nook and cranny seemed to soak up the paint and it took three coats to go from dark brown to a fresh white.

Thankfully I did not have to do this alone. One of the best things about this renovation is that some of the local kids have taken interest in helping me and a sweet girl who lives down the street helped me all the way until it was finished.

No more broken glass! All three of the windows have been repaired.

Now that the windows are functional, I felt it was necessary to dress them up with outdoor curtains. Softening the edges of the windows made this porch feel warm and cozy. Perfect to sit outside and watch the setting sun with a warm cup of tea.

Remember the exterior door? I happen to find a great storm door at "Habitat for Humanity". Lucky me! Behind the exterior door is a very large hallway that does not have any windows. Now, this storm door allows for flooding light to fill the hallway!

Here's a cute little owl I found. She looks perfect with that little pumpkin. The shelf that they are sitting on was one of the pieces left behind. I think that originally this shelf was wider, but like the railing... some of it is missing.

How cute are these chairs! I found these chairs downstairs in the drug store. I choose these two because they were small enough to sit on the porch without obstructing the walkway. They had been painted in these fun colors from when the building was a children's ministry. When I started to sand them, I found the white underneath. I was going to paint them a solid, matching color, but stopped once I saw how cute they were just like this.