The Evolution of the Lanai at the Florida House

From a blank slate to a relaxing outdoor area using a combination of new and vintage outdoor furnishings, see how I began to transformed our lanai!

When we first bought the house from my Great Aunt Pauline, the lanai was an empty slate.  I actually saw the house in January 2018 without Dave.  When we purchased it at the end of February 2018, Dave still hadn’t seen it in person.  He had only seen pictures.  The current lanai is approximately 10 ft x 16 ft with a concrete floor and screens on 3 sides.  We plan to expand the lanai and add a pool and an outdoor kitchen in late 2020 or early 2021.

The Initial Plan

From the very beginning, I wanted the Florida house to look a certain way.  It was finally my turn to decorate an entire house the way I wanted it…. well mostly the way I wanted it.  Dave did have some say and nixed some pieces of furniture, like my favorite curbside find.  You can read more about that topic here:

We were both flying down for my Great Aunt’s 100th birthday party in mid April 2018.  I really wanted the house to look partially put together the first time Dave saw it.  He really couldn’t care less what it looked like as long as it was in Florida and the roof didn’t leak. I started mailing and shipping boxes of accent pieces, shells and a few pieces of small furniture.  I even shipped a vintage wicker coffee table via UPS.  It was ridiculously expensive but I was going for a look and I needed that coffee table to complete my look!

In order to get the house ready, I flew down to Florida over Easter weekend. In addition to the boxes that I had sent down, I also ordered a few other things; slipcovers, a couple of chairs, another coffee table.  Those items were for the rest of the house and I am getting off track!… Back to the lanai!

 

As it turned out, I ended up spending the bulk of my time Easter weekend cleaning and sorting thru what things my Great Aunt had left behind.  We had also purchased her car so I had to go to the DMV and get plates for it.  It always takes longer at the DMV than you think it will!  The picture about is how the lanai looked until we were able to bring more patio type furniture down to Florida from Illinois.  It was hard for me to not race out and buy something to fill up the space but I knew I had a lot of pieces in Illinois that should work in the lanai.

Trying to Make It all Fit

Because of our schedules back in Illinois, we were only able to come down to Florida three or four times between April 2018 and September 2019.  We drove down over 4th of July 2018 and brought more furniture for the inside of the house.  When we came in September 2019, we had someone bring the bulk of our belongings.  The next picture is how the lanai looked after the movers put everything in the lanai that I wanted to use in the lanai area! You can read more about the September 2019 move here

Quite a mess, I know!  I managed to get it set up so that we could function but it wasn’t really “pretty”.  Finally, in January 2020, I couldn’t stand it anymore.  I had to wait until Dave went to his church small group meeting one night to tackle the area.  He doesn’t always grasp my vision so it is often times better to wait until I don’t have to hear him grumble!

I wish there was a Husband Day Care close by that I could send him to when I need to be in the decorating zone!  The only one I have found is in St Thomas, USVI which is a little far to send him !

Since I knew that we had plans to expand the lanai area, I had brought more patio type furniture from Illinois than I had room for .  I had some vintage pieces that I wanted to incorporate.

Before we moved down in September, one of my dear friends came out to the farm and painted my two matching black wrought iron settees.  She refreshed the settees with black spray paint and then hand painted the detail on the flowers along the edge of the back of the settee.  Isn’t it beautiful?

I had to do some creative stacking in order to have the items that are waiting for the lanai expansion to be in a protected area.  Our subdivision does not allow for a storage unit on site and I am NOT going to have a storage unit down here, mostly because my husband and my cousin had a bet about how soon I would get one.

I found this green wrought iron chaise lounge on my parents’ deck.  It is still in great shape!  I ordered a cushion for it that is a bit too big but it works fine.  The wire urn is one of a pair that belonged to my paternal grandmother.

My Dad made the above conservatory out of old windows for me when I still had my flower shop.  I asked him to make it so I could use it as a prop at a Herb show.  It was so wide, I couldn’t get it out of the building!  He would always tell me he wasn’t a carpenter but I think he did a great job!  It is tucked in the corner of the lanai at the moment, resting on four chairs that will be painted and used when we get the lanai extended.  I plan to get a table to sit it on and put plants inside of it.

Updated to show table we were gifted in October 2020

The conservatory looks so much better siting on the table than it did balanced on the 4 chairs!

If you are wondering why I call it a lanai instead of a screened patio, I tried to explain the difference in this post :

updated 11-18-2021

If you like to see how the expanded Lanai looks with a Retro Holiday feel, please see this post: Let’s Refresh The Lanai for the Holidays with a Retro Feel