Fall-i-fy Your Porch #1

I know it has been a week since I last posted, and I am sorry.  This week got away from me before I even knew it.  I have some fun ideas and tutorials to share with you to make up for it.

When I was first married, I wanted to be able to decorate for EVERY holiday, but realistically it wasn't going to happen.  All of the things that were so cute on the shelf were far too expensive for our budget. 

Even now that we have been married a while, the budget is still slim and the decorations are even more pricey. 

As I was thinking about what I wanted to put on my front porch this year, it hit me.  I didn't need to spend a lot of money to get a great fall porch.  I have figured out some really cute projects and I wanted to share them with you so that you can decorate YOUR porch on a budget too. 

The way I am going to share this with you will be in stages so that we can complete our porches together :)  Also, if you break up costs, it is a lot easier to afford than if you have to spend a lot all at once...right?  Right.

My vision for the porch includes straw, corn stalks, pumpkins, wooden fencing and some other projects that I will tell you about later.  For today, we will start with the wooden fence.

Supplies:
2- 1X2 (furring strip) These are 77 cents each at Home Depot.
1- piece of lathe (I think that is how you spell it.  It is found by the stakes in the lumber department)  55 cents each
1 can of spray paint (I found some high gloss black spray paint at Walmart for only $1.12!  They have it in various colors as well.)  Normally I don't like to use glossy paint, but in this case it works, and you will use the left over for another project later on this week.
Nails
Hammer

Optional:
1 can brown primer

The total cast is at about $4.00! So far, so good :)

Let's begin.  First you need decide how tall you want your fence to be.  I made my tallest piece 3 feet tall and my shortest 2 1/2 feet tall, but you can do whatever you want.  I then cut out my 1X2 into various heights in between those measurements.

Arrange them the way that you want it to look, then take your lathe and hold it across to see how big to cut it.  (It is important that you don't cut the lathe first.  You want to make sure that it will fit correctly.)  After you cut it, hammer the fence together.  I used four nails per 1X2 (so 2 nails where the lathe connects to the 1X2 on each end) I also put a little gorilla glue behind it first, but that is unneccessary unless you want to.

Sand it to make it look worn. Then take a hammer to it and pound out the corners, sides and even the middle in some spots.  I like the aged look it gives to it.

If you wanted to do a primer like I did, now is the time to do it.  The reason I chose to use the primer is because when I sand it down after I paint it black, the brown will show through which I like.

TIP:  When using spray paint, the instructions say that you need to wait 1 hour or 24 hours to paint again.  This is so that the paint adheres the best to your project.  I think I waited about 40 min though and it worked just fine.

Now paint with your final color choice of paint.

Once that dries, sand the areas that you hammered and sanded before to make those spots stand out. 

There you have it.  A fun, inexpensive and festive decoration for your porch.  (Just wait till you see how the porch looks all put together.)

 

Get started on your fence and check back on Monday for the next step in making your porch fall-i-fied