June Monthly Challenge: A Refreshing Porch Revamp!

Hello lovers!  How was your weekend?

I missed you folks on Friday, but it was worth it.  I took the day to revamp and refresh our sad and neglected front porch!  And boy oh boy does it feel amazing!  So amazing in fact, that it was where I spent my few minutes of down time throughout the remainder of the weekend!

As a reminder of where I left off, I took a risk and painted our front door in Behr's Harbor.

I was so gaga over the update that I couldn't stop there!

Our home is blessed with a little front porch.  However, as awesome as it is to have, I am kicking myself for not making better use of it sooner.  We have owned our home for almost 12 years now, and I think I used the space more this weekend, than the entire time we have lived here!  It has always been on "the list", but seemed to take a backseat to interior projects.  I wish I would have prioritized our home projects a bit differently from the start, and taken on the exterior projects first so that when we need a break from the interior ones, we would have a place to kick back, put our feet up and enjoy the great outdoors.  Oh well, live and learn I suppose.

So, back to this front porch of ours.  After our long winter, here is a true to life vision of the front porch.

Up to this point, I had done nothing but purchase a plant!  See that nice fern in the corner, it really made the space amazing right?  Ha!  Nice try Jen, but seriously, this space was going to take a lot more than a nice plant to make it warm and welcoming.

Speaking of, this is the first thing you see when you walk up to our home.  Did I mention that I wish I wouldn't have waited so long?  This front porch should reflect the interior!  It should reflect our family.  It should make an impression.  And an impression it may have been making, but it wasn't a good one....

So, I started this project as I would any project, and removed everything.

It was already a zillion times better.  A good sweeping and I was off to a great start.  But then I started thinking, how can I make this special and unique?  Two seconds of thinking and I knew exactly what I wanted to do; paint the porch ceiling!

So, I taped off the ceiling with green painters tape and got started!  Here is the photo I shared on Instagram as a teaser.

Y'all figured out what I was up to right away.  And you even taught me a little somethin' somethin'.  Apparently painting your porch ceiling a shade of blue is called a blue haint ceiling.  Never knew!  You can snag all of the interesting details here.

So, yes, I was creating my own blue haint porch ceiling, only mine was done with Behr's Ice Folly.

Here it is after the first coat, still in the drying phase.

When selecting the porch color, I wanted to do something uber subtle, so that the front of our house didn't turn into a circus tent, but a relaxing place to sit with a cup of coffee.  So, I took the paint swatch from the new front door color, and moved all the way up the swatch to the lightest shade of blue.  I painted the ceiling in a semi-gloss exterior paint & primer combo paint, and it ultimately covered in two coats.

Once the paint dried and I pulled the tape, the nice and pretty clean ceiling made me realize that the rest of the house needed a scrubbing!  So, I sprayed down the siding and scrubbed it with warm soapy water, along with the windows and trim.

The next step was to update the little white table.  It was beginning to show it's age, and with all the white and gray, it was time to bring in some color!  So, a few coats of Rustoleum's glossy warm yellow spray paint, and it was updated and looking oh-so-happy!

Although we have some planted flowers out front, I wanted to add a place to put fresh cut flowers, again, to make the outdoor space feel like an extension of our interior. 

1. I began with a plain IKEA Socker vase.
2. I cut out the word "five" with my Silhouette on the double sided adhesive paper.  Five because we are a family of five, so it is special to us.
3. I decided to try my hand at gold leaf for the first time!  Since the double sided adhesive paper is sticky once the white layer is removed, I just stuck the gold foil to the top of the cut adhesive paper.
4. Using a soft brush, I gently brushed away the remainder of the gold foil, only the word "five" remained on the front of the vase.

Boring vase no more!  It is now customized for us!  And in a super sassy way!

Speaking of gold.  Our teal planters flanking each side of the front door, were looking a little boring and I was contemplating ways to spruce them up a bit.  They originally came with a black medallion attached to the front, but I wasn't a fan so I turned the planters around and left the front empty while the medallion lived on the backside.  After seeing the gold leaf on the vase, I knew I wanted the medallions to be sprayed in a pretty gold spray paint.  So a little Rustoleum Pure Gold later, and they were beautiful!

We already had a couple of hosta plants out front along the sidewalk, but I wanted to add a little color, so I planted a few flowers too.

In the far corner, the fern was begging me for a little height.  Trying to be resourceful, I pulled the thrifted stool from our lower level bathroom, gave it a coat of the gold spray paint and had an instant plant stand.

A basket with a soft throw and magazines make for a cozy afternoon, and can easily be toted inside.

Ooooh!  And we hung a little white sunburst mirror too!  I stole it from our guest room, but I have a replacement mirror for that spot so it was time to swap it anyway.  It was a total front porch game changer.

Paint, spray paint, scrubbing, cleaning, more spray paint, some accessories and lots and lots of love and what do you get?

A colorful and welcoming space that now reflects us!

I have been hoarding our old seagrass dining room chairs for a chance to put them back to use.  Although they didn't make sense with our new dining room setup, I was so in love with them that I just couldn't part with them.  After some research, I found that they are suitable for covered porches since they have a protective coating {they just shouldn't be out in uncovered exteriors full time}.  I will just have to bring them in during the harsher winter months when we wouldn't be using them out front anyway.

How about some more up close and personal pretty porch eye candy?

 

And a view looking back...  I just adore how it all plays off of our stunning painted door!

Happy happy joy joy!  Wanna know why I am so goofy giddy about this update?  The before and after says it all!

The power of a little elbow grease, cleaning, drive and lots of paint is an amazing thing! 

Are you taking this monthly challenge as seriously as I am?  How do you give the exterior of your home the same personality as the interior?