Pages

March 19, 2013

My Porch Has Been Striped.

On Sunday morning our porch still looked like this, with the peeling brick red paint that's bugged us for the entire six years (as of this month) that we've lived here:



By the time the day was over, it looked like this. The day was really over by the time it looked like this, by the way. I knew it was going to rain on Monday so I finished up this project after the kids were asleep, working by porch light in the freezing cold, wearing my moccasins and drinking a beer and being kind of compulsive the way I am when I get really excited about a home project.

Before I opened any cans of paint, I swept off the porch, mixed a bucket of OxiClean and hot water and poured it all over the porch, and scrubbed it with a hard-bristled brush. After I hosed it off and the porch dried, I sanded the especially crappy places (like below) and scraped off any places where the paint was peeling off badly. Then I caulked the big cracks and painted the entire porch Sherwin Williams's "Perfect Greige" using SW's Porch & Floor Enamel. This was the easy part.


The harder part was getting these stripes all measured and taped off. I made 12-inch wide stripes (just like the blogger from Our Vintage Home Love, who 100 percent inspired this whole project) and taped them off and painted the white stripes on (Sherwin Williams's "Antique White") one at a time. When I tried to tape off more than one stripe, I got confused, so I just took it slow and steady.



Worth the effort.



The porch has been a work in progress for awhile now. I painted the front door last August, and more recently spray painted these cafe chairs white. (They used to be red.)

And I found these outdoor pillows at Costco last week. Two for $24, I think. 

 

So ... I love my "new porch." And I love that paint can make anything feel all new ... and for cheap. There's still more to do--like put up that privacy wall I want, and most importantly, new landscaping (we tore our old, dejected landscaping out at the end of the fall)--but all in all I feel like this is a huge improvement and way more us than what was there before. 


9 comments:

  1. Brian HMarch 19, 2013 at 8:22 PM

    I really like what you did with the porch. It emits waves of love that the Nekos Barnes family radiates. You all are so neat.

    ReplyDelete
  2. CosmoMarch 19, 2013 at 8:23 PM

    I love this! So stunning. I never would have thought of this but now a whole new world of porches has opened up to me.

    ReplyDelete
  3. CindyMarch 19, 2013 at 10:52 PM

    Amazing before and after! Enjoy coming home to this each day.

    ReplyDelete
  4. emilyMarch 20, 2013 at 9:44 AM

    I just love it so much!!! I can't quit looking at it! The color palette is perfect now!

    ReplyDelete
  5. LauraMarch 20, 2013 at 10:18 AM

    So pretty! It totally changed the look of your house. Love it. Definitely worth the effort!

    ReplyDelete
  6. MelMarch 20, 2013 at 12:58 PM

    It looks awesome!! I love all of your painting projects. It really is the simplest way to spruce things up.

    ReplyDelete
  7. JamiMarch 17, 2014 at 3:08 PM

    Cute. I love the color on your house. Do you happen to know what color it is?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ellen Mallernee BarnesMarch 17, 2014 at 3:15 PM

      I don't-so sorry! The guy who flipped it painted it this color and I never found out its name.

      Delete
    2. Reply
  8. AnonymousApril 4, 2014 at 9:11 PM

    I love the color of the house too. Painting our house this Spring was also hoping to find out the color :(

    ReplyDelete
Add comment
Load more...

Newer Post Older Post Home