Four-Season Porch

After

Host Joan Steffend and designer Krista Crawford transform a four-season porch decorated in a soft contemporary style into a space that is more consistent with the Mission-style decor of the rest of the house.

Before

The light paneled walls and crisp furniture are attractive, but lack warmth and seem disconnected from the home's interior. Warm colors, texture and garden-themed accessories turn the room into an inviting gathering place any season of the year.

The blond paneled walls are stained a spicy cranberry and the carpet is removed to reveal a rich wood floor. A large area rag rug trimmed with leather adds softness. The loveseat is slipcovered with barkcloth in an abstract floral motif and an old chair also is slip-covered, using a contrasting cloth for the seat and accent pillows. Wooden furniture pieces are painted a soft cream color and aged with antique glaze, Shelves and brackets stained to match the paneling are hung around the perimeter of the room. To emphasize the natural element, they are draped with grapevines and used to display old metal vent covers and baskets. An old trunk serves as a coffee table and extra storage.

How-To: Game Table

With just a little paint, a rustic twig table is turned into a game table:

1. Apply a base coat of cream latex paint.
2. Mark lines of checkerboard and tape off.
3. Fill in brown squares.
4. Wash with brown glaze.
5. Sand to distress edges.
6. Paint edges with green trim.

How-To: Plaques

Decorative plaques, hung around the room, are inexpensive and easy to make:

1. Select a picture then color copy and enlarge it to the appropriate size.
2. Cut a piece of board to size.
3. Crumple the picture and apply to the board with decoupage medium.
4. Apply decoupage medium over the entire surface.
5. Sand.
6. Apply a brown glaze over the front and back.

Itemized Design Elements

$13.94 — latex stain (The Home Depot - Minwax, Spice 13)
$35 — above-window shelf and bracket
$50 — rag rug
$78 — bark-cloth slipcover
$38 — mismatched chair slipcover (Calico Corners plaid fabric - style: Renwick, color: Expresso #2710550)
$19.26 — cream paint and antique glaze (cream paint - Hirshfield's, Topscrub II, Tobacco Road #8214M; brown paint — Glidden, Ralph Lauren, Manchester Brown #TH14D)
$40 — sofa table
$37.50 — checkerboard table and vintage metal chairs
$50 — storage trunk
$32 — weathered green side table
$30.49 — lamp (lampshade - Target, SP0015-005, style #264; Calico Corners fabric -  style: Tilling Gardens, color: Rhubarb #2774488, discontinued: #2704336)
$15 — three metal vent covers
$32.08 — lavender topiary (foam forms for topiaries - Floracraft Corporation, Dry Foam, #924709)
$22 — accent pillows (Calico Corners fabric - style: Lancaster, color: Fern #277449)

$501.27 — Total cost of makeover