My Great Outdoors: Keith's Front Porch Swing

Name: Keith
Location: Chesterville, Ontario
Type of space: Front Porch

Tell us about your outdoor project and how you enjoy it: The porch swing is the perfect spot to have a coffee in the morning and watch the world go by, or read a novel in the afternoon. It has taken a few years to get to this stage. The vines are hops, the beds have irises, and tulips. The beds have a crushed brick mulch and a brick border. Once the weather gets nice I tend to spend as much time as possible out here.

How did you create it?:
I built the porch swing myself from plans I bought from Lee Valley Tools. The brick border was made from broken bricks with the broken side buried, so that it appears to be made of complete bricks. The most work was fixing the cracked concrete porch when I bought the house. It started with optimistic plans to be finished in a month, but stretched out for the entire summer.

Recommended store, site, product or resource?
Lee Valley Tools

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Comments (14)

That's so inviting! And I love the black trim on the house; it's so elegant.

posted by Lisa (Montreal) on June 10th 2009 at 6:41pm
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What a sweet house! You're lucky to have a porch with a swing to idle by.... very charming! You built the porch? You've done a wonderful job and it has so much potential. You must be proud! Kudos!

posted by junklover on June 10th 2009 at 6:44pm
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Neat use of old bricks to get the planter off the porch.

posted by Rebecca_J on June 10th 2009 at 7:25pm
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Really charming and cute!

posted by Karen74 on June 10th 2009 at 7:50pm
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Delightfully inviting. The contrast between the hops and irises is so fresh. But aren't hops a prickly vine?

posted by Splomo on June 10th 2009 at 9:01pm
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Swoon.

posted by h144 on June 11th 2009 at 1:44am
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How lovely! So tiny and surrounded by trees.

posted by LilyB on June 11th 2009 at 6:49am
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This is so sweet.

posted by annalyssa on June 11th 2009 at 8:09am
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Awesome! Cute and modern at the same time. Our weekend home is going to be a floor to ceiling glass design, but I could TOTALLY live here... Simple, black, white, chartreuse.

This is BY FAR MY FAVORITE IN THE GREAT OUTDOOR SERIES!!!

posted by jeffnyc on June 11th 2009 at 8:51am
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Very inviting and pretty. I'd love to spend time on that porch swing as well. But careful with the vines! They're bad for your (I presume wooden) porch columns.

posted by michpc on June 11th 2009 at 9:35am
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love the irises..nice job

posted by ilovenature4ever on June 11th 2009 at 10:49am
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I like the swing facing frontwards....rather than the normal sideways. This is a lovely relaxing space.

posted by baileyb on June 11th 2009 at 3:49pm
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Love the color scheme of your house -- and the way it matches the car!

posted by epeterius on June 15th 2009 at 10:49am
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Lovely, inspiring job.

I'd love to know how you fixed the concrete cracks--I have a similar problem on my back porch.

posted by jen_g on June 17th 2009 at 2:42pm
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