In March, we started this little makeover by removing most of the hedge in front of the porch as well as some overgrown bushes.

I wrote about it and the chihuahua cabana in this post.

Just that little project made a huge difference.

Then I added some new plants in the flower bed.

Then we went on to other projects for a while.

Well three weeks ago we finally finished the makeover.

Joe painted the front door and installed new hardware.

And I painted all the shutters.

The house looks so much happier now.

Project totals including exterior paint, new door hardware and exterior light fixture: $330 plus the price of a few plants.

After looking around at all the big box stores and not finding exactly what we wanted, we settled on handlesets.com

A quick Google search for coupons codes kept the price under $200 for the whole kit including the special egg shaped interior handle that we wanted.

The shutters only required one coat of paint. The door however….

The door required much more work. We started with two coats and by the next day the paint had chipped in a few places.

Then we decided to read the back of the can.

Oh we are supposed to let it dry at least 24 hours between coats.

Oops.

So we lightly sanded down the door and started over.

Joe was a trooper. He took over the door as his project.

Eventually we got the finish we had hoped for.

Lessoned learned: If you are using paint you are unfamiliar with, read the can first:)

We would love to eventually replace the metal door for a wood arts and crafts style door, but at $1000 we are going to wait a while before tackling that project.

Surprisingly, the easiest task in this whole project was the shutters.

If you are intimidated with changing the color of your shutters, don’t be.

IT WAS SO EASY.

The tall boys in our household removed them. I ran a sanding block over each shutter and then wiped them down.

The freshly painted navy shutters are so happy looking.

And so is the front door.

If you noticed the new height of the front shrub as well as the removal of two overgrown shrubs made a huge difference.

We will hopefully be replacing the whole front porch this year. There is no longer any real foundation underneath it and it has major dry rot. Lovely.

And we would also like to add stone edging to the flower beds….all in good time.

Before:

After:

Paint colors:

Front Door: Sherwin Williams 6508 Secure Blue (ironic name for a front door color)

Shutters: Sherwin Williams Rainstorm 6230

Show me what you’ve got link party, Not Just a Housewife.