It’s Pinterest Challenge day, where 15 Bloggers  are sharing beautiful and festive patriotic porch ideas!

Happy SUMMER my friends, and welcome to another fun monthly Pinterest Challenge! After being overwhelmed for the past year by a massive home move and renovation to our new (old) red  brick home, I  am THRILLED to once again be able to join some of my dear blogging friends for this month’s  Pinterest challenge, which has helped inpsire my some of my patriotic porch decor for the Fourth of July.

It’s so fun to get together with so many talented bloggers to see all the creative ways that one inspiration photo can be interpreted! The best part of this challenge is that we are encouraged to use what we have on hand instead of spending lots of money on new decor.  A special “thank you “goes out to the fabulous Cindy of County Road 407 for hosting this challenge. If you are coming over from My Family Thyme, I know you loved Lynn’s adorable No Sew Pennant Banner!  Now let’s take a look at the inpsiration photo, then I’ll show you what I came up with.

Patriotic Porch Inspiration

This month’s challenge photo is this adorable patriotic porch that belongs to Suzy of Worthing Court.  There are so many fun things to be inpsired by in this photo! The elements that I could replicate on my patritoic porch using items I had on hand are as follows:

• Lanterns
• Wicker Chairs with patriotic pillows
• Hearts and stars Flag garland
• Vintage Coca-Cola Crate
• Basket with Ferns
• Basket with greenery and flags
• Side table with pot of red flowers
• American Flag Banner
• Vintage style truck for whimsy

Our old fashioned (1926) 44 foot long “visiting porch” is broken up into several sitting areas. For this challenge I chose to share the sitting area just to the right of the front door that I styled based on the inspiration photo. 

I love all the areas of the porch, but sitting in the wicker chair is my favorite place to drink my morning  coffee.  I keep a little round table by the chair for drinks and books, but I moved it when taking photos for the challenge to better show the items on the plant stand.

In the inspo photo there are two matching wicker chairs, but I am only using one (resin) wicker chair in this little sitting area. There is also an area rug pictured in the photo, but I am currently still on the hunt for the perfect rugs for the various seating areas on the porch.

To make this recent estate-sale chair find more festive for the holiday, I covered the old, worn floral seat cushion with navy blue ticking stripe fabric from my craft stash. I dug my star pillow out of storage, and since I was already using red pillows on the porch this patriotic look was easy to pull together.

I absolutely love Suzy’s little blue chest decorated for the Fourth of July, and I actually have actually considered a similar kind of little vintage chest or side board for this very spot on the porch. However, I have been liking the plant etagere where it is since placing it here when we moved in, so it works for now. It was fun to try to decorate it based on the challenge photo and the Fourth of July, which tied right in with the summery, garden-inspired decorative elements I already had on the stand.

The items I used  on my plant stand that are similar to those pictured on Suzy’s porch are the flag garland, basket of ferns, a lantern, a pot of faux ferns with flags and a vintage coca-cola cooler instead of a crate. When it comes to summer and Fourth of July decorating, I think vintage Coca-Cola items are quintessential! You can check out how I decorated my porch with Coke items at the yellow brick home here.

In lieu of shutters as a backdrop, I used an old stained glass window for architectural salvage interest.

Since I already had a basket of ferns on the second shelf, I used a blue and white chinoiserie style pot filled with faux ferns and three mini-flags on the top shelf. The little lantern has been on the plant stand for a while.

On the middle shelf are shabby blue garden birds, vintage flower frogs, a basket of greenery and a little pot of  gorgeous red tuberous begonia . 

Suzy used a little truck for whimsy in her little vignette. For my touch of whimsy, I created a “birdies” vignette with the two blue garden birds and a vintage ball “memory” jar I filled with badminton birdies and rulebook from the badminton set that belonged to my grandparents and was passed on to me. I have so many summer memories from early childhood and elementary school years where my grandfather patiently tried to teach my to play. Looking back I realize how much he loved me to stand out in the hot sun and chase around the birdies that never quite made it back to him when I hit them! 

One the far right side of the porch are two “new to us” thrifted rocking chairs that I scored at a local consignment shop just last weekend. I have been wanting rockers for this porch since we moved in just a little under a year ago, but I didn’t want to pay retail. I was overjoyed to find finally them while thrifting.

On the little table between the rocking chairs I used my vintage coca-cola crate to hold an old, blue striped crock filled with red impatiens, adorned with a flag. 

More of Our Patriotic Summer Porch In Progress!

Before I share a full porch tour next week, I want to share a peek of my favorite view as I sip my morning coffee in the wicker chair. I love how the early morning sunlight filters through the trees on the far end of the porch. I finally found enough flag buntings to go all around the porch, and after a little more decorating I plan to share a full summer porch tour before the Fouth of July! 

Although nothing on the far opposite end of the porch was necessarily inpsired by the challenge, it has also just started to come together in the past couple of days too (keepin’ it real here…I had just mopped in this photo.) The original wood floor is charming but hard to keep clean! We do have plans to eventually tile the floor with slate, but  alas, the painted floor will have to do for now.  Until we can lay down actual tile, I am considering stenciling it in a fun black and white vintage tile pattern…but 44 feet of stenciling??? I still need to find tile for my kitchen before worrying about the porch floor! Always a project!

You really don’t have to spend a lot of money to create a patriotic porch. Simply shop your own home for any red, white and blue items you may have including textiles, dishes, faux florals, baskets or any vintage summer items.

 I hope you have enjoyed seeing my patriotic summer porch and some of the ideas shared as part of this Pinterest challenge! To continue being inspired by patriotic decorating ideas, head on over to Kim’s adorable patriotic porch at Cottage in the Mitten! Don’t forget to check out all all of the beautiful posts via the links below too!

How is your summer porch decorating coming along? I love hearing from you!

I hope you have a very happy Fourth of July!

Amber