A Porch Swing Post Makes 100!

I'm glad this post turned out to be my 100th, because I've been thinking about it for a while - since I ordered my porch swing a few weeks ago!

My swing is still in the box, so no pictures yet. But there will be plenty once it's hung!

It came in this week and even though we have quite a bit more work to do before we can hang it, I've started planning! I ordered one with no stain or paint so I can decide what color I want. I spent a lot of time Saturday scouring the internet for images of porches that I would want to swing on. And these are a few that I found. The first two are pictures that I like, but that I probably won't copy because they wouldn't go with my house.



I do plan on putting a cushion on my swing, and I have a few different ideas about what colors I want. The first idea came from this picture:

I've loved this picture since the first time I saw it. It's from Fly Through Our Window (one of the first blogs I started following.) I love how crisp the white and black look so I may just end up with a white swing and black cushion. I do keep coming back to this image. Paige just looks so sweet!

But I also had another idea. It came from these pictures:
I've noticed before how lots of historic homes have blue ceilings on their porches. There are lots of reasons, but I think the most interesting one is the Southern idea that this light shade of blue keeps "haints" away. Haints are ghosts who apparently have to be shooed away from Southern porch swings. Personally I don't believe in haints, but if I did I wouldn't blame them for wanting to swing. Also, a blue ceiling would look really silly on my house, so we won't do that. Still, I do love this color, and I think it would be a fun nod to a Southern tradition to paint the swing itself "haint blue," as it's been dubbed, and have some natural color of cushion on it. Just like this:
The swing is blue, I promise.

I have also considered painting it green and using some bold black and white print, like in this picture:
There's no history lesson to go with this one.

Now this last picture looks nothing like my house, and it's not the breezy summery look I really want to go for, but I can't help loving it!
I loooove the rug! And although I haven't run across this particular rug, I am thinking about adding one underneath my swing. That is, unless I can convince Michael to add flagstone to our porch to make it look like this:
We should add a fireplace, too! We may have to commandeer some of our neighbors' yards for the final project. They won't mind. They don't use the back half of their yards!

I also plan on a little side table (or coffee table, like the orange rug picture) to hold books and sweet tea, and probably some outdoor drapes like in the picture with the "haint blue" ceiling. And some hanging plants.

I can't wait to have y'all over to swing with me! Of course, you'll have to come one at a time because my swing is only four feet long. It'll still be fun - who doesn't need a little one-on-one time with Jenni? And Carmen, we can stop swinging when you start to get motion-sickness.