Porch makeover of our French farmhouse

We've spent so much time over the past weeks and months getting the garden ready and finally turning it into the beautiful French farmhouse style garden that I've seen in my head all this time. Here's what it looked like after the entire garden had been destroyed after installing the septic tank, so I can't wait to show you what it looks like now. And that is restyling our porch. So we have a beautiful porch, it is we call it a veranda in French. It's a small space in the back garden attached to our house and it's really nice and warm with the early sun in the morning, even during like the colder season. And we basically spend all of our time here from say March to October. And that didn't really look very beautiful. But since we're still going to renovate all of this part of the house, we didn't want to touch it. But then, you know, the renovations may take longer. And I said to Olaf, I just want to spend a couple of days just doing some painting and just making it a little more beautiful restyling. So I'll share with you what I did and how it looks now. So as you can see, everything was just not coordinated here. It was old furniture, all different colors. We really left it the way the previous owners left it. I especially hate the yellow on the walls here. And also, I don't know why they did this, but I mean, I don't like it. The gray, the orange, all of our shoes are here. It is just really, it's designed to be like a mudroom. I'm fine with that. But even a mudroom, I think, can look beautiful. So I just decided to take a few days and turn this into something beautiful. Today, I'm going to varnish the table that we have on the veranda because it's got lots of stains. I've left it unfinished. And it's got lots of stains from our glasses and from food. I really like the unfinished look though. So I found a technique that promises that when you use that, the wood will look like you haven't touched it, but it will protect the wood from stains. So the thing with these old pieces of furniture is that in the old days, people would, I don't know what the word is in English, but it's probably wax. But people waxed the furniture. So then when you try to sand it, you can see it gets all into the sanding paper. What's that called? So look here, for example, if I go like this, it's very difficult to take it off. And this is what comes off, just that little piece. So I've used some really aggressive cleaning detergent thing to just wash it off first and then sand it a couple of times. And now the next thing that I'll do, because I think the wood looks kind of pink-red-ish, which might not be very beautiful. So the technique that I was going to use is, you actually just rub it in with white wall paint, just plain white wall paint, before you varnish it. But what I'm going to do first now, after when I've finished sanding the whole thing, is just take a wet cloth and wipe it over the surface, because then that will show you what it will look like once it's varnished. And if I like that, I might just leave it as it is. And if I believe it should be a bit less dark, so lighter, thank you, then I will use that technique. So this is what it will look like once varnished. It's kind of orange. And this I like a lot more. But I don't like this, so I will apply this technique that this woman uses. And yes, it will just be an experiment. Okay, I've done the whole thing. I do really have the feeling it's wider than it was. And in the instructions it said, you know, continue diluting until it looks exactly like it did before. It doesn't. I actually like this better. I'm just going to leave it as it is now. Wait for, like she said, four hours. I'll check. And then we put the varnish on. And let's see what it looks like. It might actually work out. I'll be so happy if it works out. It's finished! It didn't need four hours to dry. That was the top coat that I just put on. And the lady on Instagram said she didn't have the product that she needed, but something else that she put on. And I actually put the same product on that she put on, which isn't the original one that she wanted. But I just wanted to make sure I got the exact same thing. And as you can see, it has not changed. The color hasn't changed. It's incredible. And I think it looks really nice. So I've painted the interior walls. I've even painted all of the exterior walls, the woodwork, and what we now need to do. But we won't do it now. So I'll show you the result. But we need to replace some of the windows and then need to paint the metal window frames, which we'll do another time. But it's become this beautiful, relaxing space. It's almost as beautiful as I imagined in my head. But as I said, we will be renovating this part of the house. So a lot will be changed in this space even. But for now, I love how it turned out. And I can't wait to show you. So here is the result.