Front Door Makeover

Our 1958 home has these darling front doors. Yep, 2 of them. They have their drawbacks, we only open one and its not as wide as the average door. But they are uber charming and one of the historic features that I love about owning a home that is over 50 years old. They are solid wood, have beautiful detail and they don't look just like the neighbors next door. Swoon!

Despite all of their current pros I still wanted to take them up a notch. Lets paint them! Colored front doors are something I have always wanted and an easy/inexpensive way to add some pop to the entry to your home. That is all the convincing I needed and I put it on our Home Project List.

I had been admiring a blue/teal color on a house along a neighborhood street nearby for years. This was my chance to take that admiration to another level. So the decided color was blue/teal.

My mom was in town about a month ago and since Molly had Mother's Day Out while she was here we made that our project day (see playroom art).

Some people leave the doors on to paint but with the narrow space they are housed in and the detail of the doors we opted to take them off. Once we got them off we laid them down in the garage and got to work.

In total it took us 3 coats of an exterior primer and paint in one. We let them dry for about 4 hours before putting them back on (we could have waited longer but it was getting dark).

Voila! Painted doors!



And because a before and after is always necessary.

Before:



After:



And a night shot for good measure.




I can't wait to have all our planting and yard work done for Spring. Then its really going to pop!

I would also like to replace our light fixtures and do something different with the mailbox. In time.

Home Projects: Quarter One

I have a long list in Evernote of all the things I want to do to my house. Some are very realistic and others are very not. And we are constantly playing the game of "is this worth it for this house?" Since this is not our forever home or even our 10 year home we don't want to do too much. But I also think its silly when people spend money upgrading their house right before they sell when they could have done it years earlier and actually enjoyed it. (constant argument over and over in my head when trying to rationalize things)

After all this back and forth there are a few projects/design things etc. that we are going to attempt to tackle in the first quarter of this year. Some depend on budget, some depend on time but all are things that I definitely want in this house.

In an attempt to make it more real and not just a tidy list in my Evernote account I thought I would share it. This also might keep us accountable. Of course, as we do these things, I will post about them.

Without further ado, THE LIST:

1. Paint front doors
2. Paint kitchen cabinets white
1. Inside large pantry door chalkboard paint
2. New kitchen hardware
3. Re-cover mid century chairs
4. New house numbers
5. Better lighting in guest bath
6. Drywall laundry room and garage
7. Sod front area (early Spring)
8. New buffet/bar
9. New bookcase
10. Sleeper sofa/love seat
11. Chandelier light in entryway

I know, long list right! I am being very optimistic about what we want to do but gotta set the bar high right.

The first thing up is painting our front doors. We have gone back and forth on replacing them or painting them, finally landing on painting. Our house was built in 1958 and it has many charming elements, one being our double front doors. The width of each door is super tiny but they definitely add character. So instead of spending upwards of $700 to replace we are going to give them new life with a fun color.

I have had my eye on a soft teal blue color. Just the pop of color I want. And a nod to my mid century style. Hoping to get the project started this weekend while we have an extra day.

So what do you think? My project list too long? Am I crazy for picking such a bright color for the doors? 

and the trees came down

One of the bigger investments we made in our backyard project was paying for tree limb removal and general tree cleanup.  We have 5 trees in our backyard that have pretty much been left alone to grow wild all over the place.  We knew we needed to trim off a lot of dead limbs but after having a few arborists or "tree whisperers" (self proclaimed nickname) out to the house we realized we might need to make a bigger investment and really clean and shape up our trees.







One of the biggest advantages of the tree work is getting a lot more sun into our backyard.  Previously it was pretty much entirely shade for 70% of the day...this caused problems when it came to planting flowers and veggies that need sunlight.  Now we have a lot more sun coming in which means better growth and an all around happier back yard.

Now that the trees are cleaned up, let the sod work begin!!