Front Porch Swing

I hope you all had a happy and safe 4th of July weekend! Our celebration looked and felt a little different this year, but I’ve never been more hope-filled. I was so glad that the crib size outdoor mattress cushion I ordered for the porch swing I built a couple of months ago finally arrived! And I couldn’t wait to get it up and put this swing to good use!

In terms of how to hang it…..don’t ask me. Ha! I looked up a ton of tutorials online and felt confident after doing so that my best bet was to hire someone else to do it. 😉 So I hired a guy who works for our builder to install this swing because I really wanted to be sure that this swing was properly screwed into the ceiling joists. And since our ceiling is beadboarded, well, I just didn’t trust myself to do this right. I’m aware of my DIY limitations. 😉

SO if you want the details on how to build this swing – that’s simple enough – trust me, if I can do this, you can too! But when it comes to hanging, if you’re not confident you can screw into the joists or something more structural, I’d consider hiring that part out.

I still saved a ton of $ by building it myself! And what little I paid to hire a pro to hang it was well worth my peace of mind and confidence that it won’t fall out of the ceiling. 😉

We used a 3/4 inch manila rope and propped it up on 5-gallon paint buckets while tying the knots.

The crib size mattress and black and white striped sunbrella cover I ordered on Etsy. And it took about 7 weeks to arrive (because they’re running behind right now due to Covid), but it was well worth the wait. It’s such great quality, and I love that it matches the black and white cushions I have on the chairs on the other side of our porch.

The striped cushion really ties it all together!

If stripes are wrong, I don’t want to be right. Mixing different size stripes feels classic but fun! The medium stripe pillows are oldies from Ikea, and not technically outdoor material. But they clean up really well in the washing machine and won’t get too wet here. And the leopard print outdoor pillows are from Pier 1, which is sadly going out of business.

So, this is now my favorite reading spot…….and also the perfect spot for a summer afternoon nap.

I’ve always wanted a porch swing, and I’m so glad I decided to give this DIY project a go! The satisfaction of having built it myself makes me love it even more. – > Get all the DIY details to build your own crib-size porch swing here! This is a beginner-friendly building project!