River House Diary

I am hesitant to purchase more furniture for the great room until the sofa is delivered because mere inches determine which pieces will fit. So I am on hold until early September. I moved onto the screen porch because we're learning we spend most of our time there when we are at home. I finalized the furniture layout a few weeks ago. And took advantage of a Summer Classics 4th of July sale to purchase the second  wicker rocker we need. The store also confirmed what I suspected; Summer Classics is in the process of discontinuing their Classic Wicker collection. To complete the porch, we need a bench and coffee table for the lounging/seating area of the porch and a dining table and chairs. Zuniga Interiors confirmed my choice for the dining and and coffee tables -- Frontgate's Isola collection in a weathered finish. Isola weathered finish; courtesy Frontgate We would be purchasing the coffee table  and the expandable dining table . For the dining chairs and a benc...

Ever since designing the furniture layout of the screen porch earlier this month, I have been worried that Summer Classics is in the process of discontinuing their Classic Wicker collection. Far fewer pieces of furniture from the collection are currently displayed on their website from when I originally purchased a sofa and rocker for our porch in Oakton. Classic Wicker rocker; personal collection I decided the safest thing to do would be to purchase the second rocker we need for the River House screen porch as soon as Summer Classics had a sale. I checked the website a few days ago and noticed they were having a 40 percent off 4th of July sale through July 6. The sales person confirmed the line was being discontinued but that I could still order a second rocker. Hooray! Unfortunately, the cute little dot cushion fabric is no longer available so I am purchasing two cushions in Sunbrella Sponge Pumice as it matches well with the Arch Spa fabric on the sofa -- one for the new ...

I asked Zuniga Interiors for help with our screen porch and this is the design concept they sent me a few days later: Screen porch design concept; courtesy Zuniga Interiors I hadn't planned on purchasing new cushions for the sofa I'll have to see if we can swing it. I do like how crisp and clean the design is.

I like to layout out furniture on a floor plan to ensure there is balance in the room and the furniture isn't "piled" up on one side making the room look out of balance or heavy on one side. Once I have the balance every room needs, I refine the layout to ensure each piece of furniture fits the space and that there is sufficient space for traffic flow. This is my first attempt at a furniture layout for the screen porch. The goal, again being balance. Screen porch furniture layout; personal collection The furniture is not drawn to scale -- that will come with later refinements. I have color coded the furniture so I know which pieces we already own (blue) and which pieces would need to be purchased (red). I've also identified which doors are active because I do not want to place furniture in front of those doors. The inactive panels may be treated as windows or walls. Another words, furniture may be placed in front of them.

I received bad news from Ethan Allen yesterday regarding our sofa for the great room. It won't be available to deliver until October 26 -- five months away. Everything else I want to buy for the room depends on how the sofa fits and if I can use two end tables or one. I'm stymied until November. So I'm moving onto the large screen porch that overlooks the river and is accessible from the great room via two French doors and the rear guest bedroom via a sliding door. Screen porch in our Oakton house; courtesy of Sotheby's We brought the wicker rocker and sofa, lounge chair and metal drum table with us, as well as the chainsaw carved pelican we have affectionately named "the Mayan Fertility God." All of the cushions and pillows are in fabrics no longer available but the color palette was spa blue and brown. Sofa; personal collection The sofa is the Classic Wicker Sofa from Summer Classics. The finish is Black Walnut and the cushions are covered i...

No-see-ums aren’t always insects. Sometimes they are porch railings. Our builder designed these railings to impede the view of the river as little as possible. They were fabricated by American Marine & Fabricators in New Bern. The railings were powder coated RAL 5009 Azure Blue and the cables are stainless steel. Screen porch railings; personal collection

Yesterday installers from SCREENEZE positioned the screening for our rear porch. It’s amazing to me the screens require no other support than shown here. We’d have an unobstructed view of the river if we didn’t need railing as required by code for safety. Screening for the rear porch; personal collection

Since the lot slopes down to the river the screen porch steps are more complicated than the steps to the front porch. We decided to have a landing instead of a straight flight and have the steps from the landing to the ground descend parallel to the porch. That way, if we add a patio later, the steps won’t end in the middle of the patio, splitting it in two. Screen porch steps; personal collection From the screen porch; personal collection

We need two ceiling fans in the screen porch. While we were selecting lights at Kitchen & Lighting Designs in Jacksonville, North Carolina, Jan Banks found the perfect fans for the porch. Rainman Ceiling Fan in Galvanized with silver blades ; courtesy of Minka-Aire