DIY Exterior Refresh: Front Porch Edition

One of my fondest memories as a little girl is sitting with my family on the front steps and counting the number of a certain color car go by. (I always picked red!) So, when we found our home, which happens to be on a main street, with a gorgeous front porch I knew it was meant to be.

The only problem, no one else knew it was gorgeous! The porch was blocked by overgrown rhododendrons. The railing was painted the same color as the house and the deck boards and shutters were royal blue which made the house look like one giant blueberry!

First, we trimmed back the rhododendrons and painted the porch railing, lattice and columns white. We then removed the shutters and painted the silver storm windows white so it would blend in with the white trim. Painting the storm windows is by no means a solution since new windows are desperately needed but for now it’s good enough!

Next, the royal blue deck boards were painted Benjamin Moore Chelsea Gray.

We were on the verge of finishing the porch refresh when I decided the storm door needed to match the wood front door. So, I stripped years of white paint from the storm door, stained it to match our existing door and replaced the hinges. It turned out to be my favorite part of the porch refresh, even though it took way too many hours! And if you give a mouse a cookie well then, that mouse needs to replace the porch light too!

If only I could find our porch mailbox and house numbers I ordered over 6 months ago, and get enough energy to re-lay that brick walkway we could cross this project off our to-do list. Does anyone else stuff things away and forget where they put them or get their project to 90% and then call it done? Just asking for a friend.