Front Porch Revival

Our front porch was covered in carpet - yep - grey industrial carpet - and it was time to go! My mom and I removed all of the carpet in 40 min, but after the carpet was off, the fun began. Apparently they wanted the carpet to withstand hurricane force winds, so they  troweled on the glue so that every inch of concrete was covered in brown glue. 

BEFORE - Carpeted Porch

Off to Home Depot to get every tool that looked like it would remove rock hard glue from concrete. Orbital sander, chisel, hand held wire brush, wire brush that attaches to your drill....oh yes - we tried it all. Turns out it takes a bit of everything to get glue off of concrete. 

 Then the big question...what do we want to do with our porch? I did not want to paint it because I hate the look of chipping paint on a front porch so we thought about tiling it. Then we measured it...turns out our porch is an optical allusion with each step sitting at different heights - 6", 7", 8" - and every surface was sloping. Tiling - out. So more browsing all isles of Home Depot until we stumbled upon Rustoleum Restore. It is a synthetic concrete that goes on like paint, but it is the consistency of peanut butter, you can texture it to look like concrete, and they say it lasts for 15 years. Sold!

The night before we were going to paint I was out cleaning everything and realized that I completely forgot to fill in a large crack between one of the steps. So - back to my favorite store to get vinyl concrete patcher. Well - that delayed our project by a day, but luckily my mom was more then willing to help with the painting. 

BEFORE - with brown glue

AFTER

AFTER

BEFORE - Brown Glue Texture

AFTER - Texture like Concrete

I feel like we have a new porch - it is textured like concrete, not slick, supposed to last for 15 years, and it is NOT CARPET!!

Desk Chair Makeover

I love a craft project that transforms something you already have and costs less then $20. My mom and I purchased this chair around 15 years ago from a friend's garage sale and did the original makeover, but it has been well loved and was in need of a fresh coat of paint.

Desk Chair - BEFORE makeover

It is a really good think that I work next to Home Depot because I swear I forget something  and always end up there to pick up one last item. Originally I was not going to use primer, but after doing some Pinterest research, I opted to use it.

First I sanded the chair using my new orbital sander. Love love this tool - it is fast, easy to use, and collects the dust for easy clean-up. Then I used 200 grit sandpaper to smooth the surface, cleaned off the dust with a damp rag, and primed it. Rustoleum is my go-to spray paint, so that is what I used in satin grey for the primer and glossy blue for the finish. I held it about 10 inches from the chair and tried to apply thin coats. I let the primer dry for around 45 minutes and then applied 2 coats of my blue paint- waiting only a few minutes between coats. I would highly recommend rotating your piece throughout the painting process to ensure that you did not miss a spot. 

Orbital sander at the ready!

Sanded and Ready for Paint

My mom is the upholstery makeover queen, so she came over to help me with the seat cover. 

New craft room chair complete!

Pumpkin Pie Front Door

I love our front door. It might even be the original - a solid wood door with three square architectural blocks. I have wanted to paint it but the big question - what color. We decided to go looking at house and door colors in the neighborhood that I grew up in...otherwise known as my dream neighborhood...to see what color combos we liked. I was really surprised when we both liked this house:

The green house color with the brown molding and tangerine door. Well - that was it - we were going to have an orange door. Off to the paint store to get a dozen color swatches and the decision was made - pumpkin pie.

If you decide to paint your door, I would highly recommend Sherwin Williams for paint, supplies, and advice. They set me up with the correct sanding pad, roller, and grey primer. I am really excited with how it turned out. Next project to budget for...house painting!

BEFORE

Pumpkin Pie Door!

When I was at the fabric store last week, I stumbled on this fun wood inspired print and knew that I would find a use for it. Well - I used the Oregon paper template that I made for my string art project (see May post) and made an Oregon Pillow. Kinda cheesy, but it makes me smile.

Garden Adventures and Weekend Copy Craft

It is just a little over a year since we moved in but it was still a surprise to see the rose colors and azaleas that sprang up. And I totally forgot about the yellow iris and double blossom clematis! It is one of my favorite parts of spring and summer is the unexpected flowers that were forgotten and are now back and beautiful.  

One of my garden projects that I did not get to last year was up-cycling one side of our old master bathroom medicine cabinet into a succulent planter. I saved it last year and found a nice spot for it by the Adirondack chair. It reminds me of the progress we have made inside and out!

Medicine cabinet BEFORE

Medicine Cabinet succulent planter!

 My garden nemesis - weeds....just when you think you got them, they strike! My mom was kind enough to help build us a path through our roses to help cut down on the weeding and to help us find sun loving perennials to fill in the empty space. It is looking SO much better!

Rose Garden when we moved in...

Then inside the house I really wanted a new piece of artwork for the bottom of our stairs that lead to the basement. I found this link on Pinterest to string art and decided it make the state of Oregon with a heart since Kyle and I love hiking and adventures in this amazing place. 

I bought a 2' square piece of wood, some acrylic paint, crochet thread, and small brown nails and got to work.

OR paper template taped to the board then nails all around

3-D OR art!

Spring Updates!

Like the rest of our house, the front landscaping was very dated when we bought it with each shrub shaped into a ball and "variety" consisting of azaleas, rhododendrons  and hydrangeas  Don't get me wrong, these are great shrubs, but when they are 50 years old, woody, and clumped together, it is not a good look.

My mom and Aunt Nancy ripped out one of the azaleas and my mom and I tackled a second one. This opened up the front landscaping next to the house and now you can see the trunk shape of the rhododendrons that were hiding. We headed to Al's and Home Depot and picked up some fun new plants for the space. I was on the hunt for color and texture to add interest and curb appeal.

The Plant List:
1. David Viburnum - has glossy dark green leaves and metallic turquoise blue fruit. 
2. PJM Elite Rhododendron - I know another rhodi...but this one blooms super early and has beautiful purple flowers.
3. Madrone - there are different varieties and I wanted one with dark cinnamon bark with mini deep pink flowers.
4. Dwarf Japanese Skimmia - shiny leaves with red berries.
5. Forsythia - bright yellow flowers in early spring. This plant reminds me of my grandmother who would make a large indoor display of these branches each year.
6. Kaleidoscope Abelia - beautiful orange, red, and green leaves with white flowers in the summer through fall.
7. Sweet Flag Ogon grass - variegated white and green low height grass.
8. Popcorn Drift Groundcover Rose - Light yellow, as the name suggests, roses that are low to the ground and self clean.

Here are the before and after pics:

BEFORE - shrub balls!

Spring craft! My mom and I also updated the built in dining room china hutch by adding fabric to the back wall. We picked up some tag board and cut the pieces to fit inside the hutch. Then we used spray adhesive to mount the fabric to the tag board and folded over the fabric to  create a clean edge. It is easy to change and I think it gives it a more modern look.

BEFORE

BEFORE