It’s bad when you enjoy being on your own front porch more than a weekend at the Grand Hotel. I spent the weekend there at the Alabama Trust for Historic Preservation Conference. I love the Grand and I loved the conference. Those people know how to throw a good party. We wined, dined and toured to a fare-thee-well. Those are my favorite things to do ordinarily. It’s just that I have been tied up for the last three weekends. It was all fun stuff, but left very little time for porch sitting, which is how I regenerate. If I don’t get my quiet Saturday on a regular basis, I begin to come unglued. I fray around the edges at first, then the seams begin to seriously unravel. By yesterday, when I finally returned home with an extra trip to Montgomery thrown into the mix, I was not in good shape. I needed some solitude.
One thing I was able to do on the trip was find a new rocking chair for my front porch. Between many years of rocking and the neighborhood cats shredding the arms, it was time to reset things (literally). I had tried one other chair. It was a great looking 1940 metal chair that rocked on a metal frame. It wouldn’t do at all. One of the requests for my sitting place is that it must be the right height for my legs to prop on the wicker coffee table in front of me. Ideally, I guess I should have one of those chaise lounge things where your feet prop up automatically, but it would take up too much room. I have places for a lot of other people to join me on the porch this way. Two more of them can prop their feet up, too. Did I mention that my porch entertaining is very informal? When the weather is right, which is most of the year in rural Southwest Alabama, we always eat every meal on the porch when I have company. Everything except Thanksgiving Dinner tastes better on the porch.
My two rockers that shredded had been with me over ten years. They were nothing grand to begin with, just new imported ones that I bought white and painted. One was painted watermelon pink and the other was a rich grapey purple. I just had the paint colors on hand in spray cans. Spray painting is the only way to go with painting wicker. Otherwise, painting wicker is a real pain. This time I had one chair I just bought. I needed two, so I went shopping in my own house. I am an inveterate collector of things. I love antiques and I love bargains. I will buy any antique that is a bargain provided I can fit it into the house. I had reached capacity about a year ago. I started thinking of what I had that I might use on the porch. I just happened to have two wicker rocking chairs upstairs to choose from. I have a big guest bedroom upstairs that had room for them plus two more chairs. I took the fancy one. I went to the store to find some more spray paint. Just call me the spray paint queen. I use both hands. When one tires I spray with the other, It is the only place I use my ambidextrousness other than in eating (where it really counts).
I could choose any colors I wanted. I chose the exact same two that I used before. The other chairs are painted white with spring green cushions. I have a wonderful little table that I bought by artist Brenda Murphy at Black Belt Treasures in Camden. It was the first one she ever made. I bought it before they could even put it on the floor. It is patterned, checked and stripes in interesting colors –the predominant one being the spring green on my furniture. I thought of painting my new chairs with the same effect. I decided against it. I did paint the rockers on the hot pink chair the grape of the other chair, but that was all I could bring myself to do. The porch is about tranquility, not a carnival. I use it as a resting place – and now, I’m glad to be back home- resting!
One thing I was able to do on the trip was find a new rocking chair for my front porch. Between many years of rocking and the neighborhood cats shredding the arms, it was time to reset things (literally). I had tried one other chair. It was a great looking 1940 metal chair that rocked on a metal frame. It wouldn’t do at all. One of the requests for my sitting place is that it must be the right height for my legs to prop on the wicker coffee table in front of me. Ideally, I guess I should have one of those chaise lounge things where your feet prop up automatically, but it would take up too much room. I have places for a lot of other people to join me on the porch this way. Two more of them can prop their feet up, too. Did I mention that my porch entertaining is very informal? When the weather is right, which is most of the year in rural Southwest Alabama, we always eat every meal on the porch when I have company. Everything except Thanksgiving Dinner tastes better on the porch.
My two rockers that shredded had been with me over ten years. They were nothing grand to begin with, just new imported ones that I bought white and painted. One was painted watermelon pink and the other was a rich grapey purple. I just had the paint colors on hand in spray cans. Spray painting is the only way to go with painting wicker. Otherwise, painting wicker is a real pain. This time I had one chair I just bought. I needed two, so I went shopping in my own house. I am an inveterate collector of things. I love antiques and I love bargains. I will buy any antique that is a bargain provided I can fit it into the house. I had reached capacity about a year ago. I started thinking of what I had that I might use on the porch. I just happened to have two wicker rocking chairs upstairs to choose from. I have a big guest bedroom upstairs that had room for them plus two more chairs. I took the fancy one. I went to the store to find some more spray paint. Just call me the spray paint queen. I use both hands. When one tires I spray with the other, It is the only place I use my ambidextrousness other than in eating (where it really counts).
I could choose any colors I wanted. I chose the exact same two that I used before. The other chairs are painted white with spring green cushions. I have a wonderful little table that I bought by artist Brenda Murphy at Black Belt Treasures in Camden. It was the first one she ever made. I bought it before they could even put it on the floor. It is patterned, checked and stripes in interesting colors –the predominant one being the spring green on my furniture. I thought of painting my new chairs with the same effect. I decided against it. I did paint the rockers on the hot pink chair the grape of the other chair, but that was all I could bring myself to do. The porch is about tranquility, not a carnival. I use it as a resting place – and now, I’m glad to be back home- resting!
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