Tag: Home Improvement

Come & Knock on my Door

Can you hear that?

Listen really hard… hear it?

That faint clucking noise is the sound of smug satisfaction in Joules-town. It’s like Funky Town, but with more failing arms and karate kicks.

Yeah, that’s right – I finished another house project!

One of the first things I added to my house list over a year ago was to paint our outdated evergreen colored door (apparently the previous owners really liked green). The door is a really nice one from Pella, so I really didn’t want to replace it… but the color was just so BORING. And early 1990’s.

old door 2

The door was green EVERYWHERE too – both inside and outside. Oh yeah, AND the inside surrounding trim. Blegh. Just the trim around the door though… the rest of the entrance has white trim. My husband said it best when he assumed they must have been thinking, “Holy crap this door is ugly, maybe we should paint the trim the same color so it blends in more?”

old door 1

With my mission to bring our door into 2013, I grabbed a bunch of fun colored swatches from Home Depot and we taped them up and stared at them for a couple of days…

swatches 1

Then we narrowed them down and stared a little more…

swatches 2

We wanted something that went well with the rest of our house and also worked well with the existing glass door. Finally, we picked a winner (Clover by Behr) and bought a quart of paint. And then… nothing. Life got busy and it sat in the coat closet for a few weeks.

This past holiday weekend was the perfect time for me to get my painting groove on and I finally had a chance to give the door a quick sanding (just the outside because it looked like there was a herd of bugs stuck in the old paint) and throw on my first coat. And yes, the first coat always looks horrible and you run around all confused wondering why you made such a terrible, terrible mistake…

coat 1

Then my second and third coat.

coat 3

Oooh, check out that fresh white trim! Here are some more saucy poses…

new door -1

new door 2

I LOVE the finished door. My husband tentatively liked it but said that it’s totally growing on him. So he’ll probably be joining me in giving it long lingering glances as I pass by it throughout the day. The only thing I’m not crazy about is the hardware, so I’m going to keep my eyes peeled for something fabulous next time we stop by the ol’ HD.

How was your holiday weekend? Did you finally finish a project that has been waiting in the wings (or hall closet) for ages? Do you walk past your front door and give it sexy bedroom eyes?

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Feeling Blue… Navy Blue

Even though the pollen was fighting me this weekend, I still had the urge for a quick and fun little outside painting party.

When we moved into our house last year, we found that the previous owners had left us two old outdoor chairs. They were a faded hunter green color and had some nasty old cushions on them that were moldy and had probably served as a romantic place for some gross spiders to do the nasty.

I decided to paint them a happy yellow color, throw on some new cushions and call it a day.

entrance - before 2

I was okay with it until a month or so ago when I started thinking that my “happy yellow color” looked more like a “come into my Mexican fiesta” color. There was just something about the combo of the color and the cushions that was rubbing me the wrong way. Maybe it was just a little too LOOK AT ME on the front porch?

entrance - before 1

This weekend I grabbed some Rust-oleum outdoor paint in Glossy Navy Blue and went to work. I ended up using part of a can (with a cheap brush that I didn’t mind throwing out afterwards) and a little more than one can of the spray paint version of the same color. I painted the first coat on, followed by an extra coat on the flat areas like the top and armrests. Then, after letting it dry, I sprayed on another coat so I could get in all the crevices.

entrance - after 2

It took me less than two hours and I really like the new look! I also added a couple solar lanterns that were on sale at Target (they charge during the day and then flicker at night) and kept my cute little yellow bird for some color.

entrance - after 1

Oh yeah, and if you’re wondering what’s happening on the other side of the porch… it’s this guy!

entrance - after 4

So there you go, the first stage of my front porch project. I’m also planning to paint my front door (inside and outside) but I ran out of time this weekend.

How about you, did you work on any fun projects over the weekend? What do you think of my sultry blue chairs – do you like them better or did you prefer my fiesta chairs?

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