When I saw this room I was a goner.  It was the first room I walked into at our new house and after seeing it I no longer cared what the rest of the house looked like.

I was smitten with The Screened Porch.

For a long time I’d been rather jealous of those who lived in the South.  You see, they got to have these beautiful screened porches and I didn’t.  Not that I didn’t try to talk Mr. OTN into adding one onto our lake house.

It always came down to practicality though as really, how many months of the year would we be able to use a screened room in the Pacific NW?  So when we decided to make the move south, a screened porch was HIGH on my “Must Have” list and this is the room that cemented the deal for me.  Lucky for Mr. OTN the rest of the house was perfect for us as well!

The former owners, Mr. and Mrs F. told us they used to begin and end every day in this room.  Now . . .  here it is November . . . and we are still enjoying afternoons on the porch (yesterday it was 72).  In negotiating for the house we were able to have included in the price all of the screened room furniture, as well as some of the interior furniture.  This worked out perfectly for us because we had to sell a lot of our old furniture to keep the moving company costs down.
Isn’t the view of the yard beautiful?  It may not be the same view we had at our lake house but it is still pretty wonderful.
At first we were talking about putting a pool in here . . . something to make up for losing our lake view.We may add a water feature in the future, for the sound it makes, but we are loving looking out at the trees so much that we don’t really feel the urge to tear things up to make room for a pool.
You may recognize these bottles and some of the other things we’ve decorated the porch with from our lake house and also our old guest cottage at the lake.
I always used some coastal decor in my summer decorating (you can take a look back HERE) and our guest cottage was ALL coastal (if you missed that remodel you can view it HERE).  I knew when I saw this screened porth that it would be the room I would fill with happy west coast memories! Can you believe these vaulted bead board ceilings? LOVE!This is the view that captures me when I lay my head back to rest.
Now for a few close ups of some of my west coast decor transformed to east coast decor!

As you can see, the dogs have made the transition with no difficulties at all.  Cozy loves nap time on the porch.Sasha keeps an eye out for chipmunks or squirrels who might invade her territory.Say what???

Even old girl Snoopy, who is almost 17 and doesn’t do much but sleep, is happy here on the porch.

The porch is indeed my happy place.  It is the place I go to find total peace . . . but . . .

. . .  anyone who knows me well knows that I have a gazillion ideas for this space.  I’ve run them by Mr OTN and he just shakes his head.  “Not right away”, I tell him, knowing that he is still reeling from the cross country move and a new job!  “Eventually . . . little changes over time . . . “, I assure him.

He just rolls his blue eyes and smiles.
So blog friends . . .  here are my ideas!  I’m just certain that this room would be even more wonderful if we added a few more things to enhance the coastal feel:

A Sky Blue Ceiling

A Corner Fireplace Made of Natural Stone

Brightly Patterned Pillows . . . LOTS of them!

A Gray Wash on the Floor

A Large Patterned Rug to Pull it all Together

What do you think?  It definitely won’t happen right away.  We still have plenty to do just getting settled into our new home and community.

Hmmm . . . maybe I’ll go grab an afghan and spend some time mulling over my ideas . . .  right here in my favorite room.

Blessings,