National Simplicity Day is today, every year on the 12th of July. 

This is sort of a special "holiday" for us here at The Whiskey Porch because it's at the core of what we are all about.  After all, our tag line is "cultivating contentment & possibility in a smaller, simpler & more beautiful lifestyle."  

And, now more than ever, it just feels like we are all seeking refuge and inspiration to lift our spirits as we recover from this wild insanity of the last few years and then there's more to come with another divisive election season. 

​So it goes without saying, that finding pleasure and calm in simple ideas is something many of us are striving for now.

I've always been enamored with the Craftsman Bungalow - but didn't even realize it at first. 

I remember spending time in the Pasadena California area house hunting for a possible job move decades ago and just being hypnotically drawn to the older bungalows that abound there.  I didn't know then, but it was a truly American architectural style that was also common all over San Francisco where I'd lived most of my life. 

​Looking back, the feature that always caught my eye first and drew me in, was the front porch.

So I thought I'd write a piece to explore the idea.
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Spring in Prescott means that we are running a few local porch features to share some inspiration and sweet sittin' spot ideas.

It's not about being perfect, or impressive or huge, but an authentic and lived-in porch that makes it feature-worthy.

Every spring I like to run a few local porch features to share some inspiration and a ton of the coolness from our neighbors' favorite sittin' spots.

Although it's spring here, we have some pretty wild swings from day to day and week to week.  That's the nature of spring in the high country of Arizona.  

I've got a couple more downtown porches on deck and if you're interested in having yours featured, keep scrolling to find out how.
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Every spring I like to run a few local porch features to share some inspiration and a ton of the coolness from our neighbors' favorite sittin' spots.

I'm kicking porch season off just barely in the nick of time, here at the end of March.  Stay tuned for more this spring.

At this time of year, porch season is on my mind!  It's been a few months for us here in Northern Arizona and since early spring is often windy here, it's not quite porch sittin' time, but it's getting so close.

Meanwhile, what better to do than ponder some inspirational ideas on how to dress up that porch and put some projects on the honey-do list.  

I thought I might do a quick look at a few inspiring porches over the next few weeks to get the juices flowing and highlight a few design or layout concepts that I think are worthy.

First up:  Simple does NOT mean boring.

With this photo it's hard to know how big the entire porch is.  Could be just this bit and then the front door to the right or twice this large perhaps.  

But given that's it's a fairly shallow space and likely not all that large, there's a few things I truly love about this styling.

​Scroll down for 4 reasons this porch works.

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