P is for Paint! Series pt. 1
One reason I love owning a house is so I can have some projects to work on. I've always loved DIY/Home Improvement projects, and I have a list 3 pages long of things I want to tweak in our new place.
Fortunately for our wallet, a lot of my projects are paint projects which are reasonably inexpensive to complete but make a huge impact!
You may have notice when I shared our "house tour" I left off pictures of the front. That's because it was in rough shape when we first purchased it. It's still a work in progress - we have almost no landscaping and eventually I'd like to change the color of the house - but we've already come a long way!
First, let me introduce you to our once green fence:
Boy, was it a terrible idea! Step one was power washing. That wasn't that bad. I waited until a rainy day so it would be easier to remove the old paint, and it cleaned up pretty quickly. Then I went to Lowe's and things went off track. My original plan was buy a good primer, white paint, maybe rent a paint sprayer and knock the whole thing out during two nap times, max! The lady who worked the paint counter at Lowe's had different ideas. She recommended I use oil based paint. "You'll never have to paint it again!" she said. Probably because I would rather run the whole thing over with my car then paint that darn thing with oil based paint again!
Step two was to apply the oil based primer. Using a combination of a roller and a brush I slapped the syrupy, stinky stuff on all four sides of each slat of the left side of the fence over the course of a day. By the afternoon, running low on primer, I decided to change up my plan and get an oil based spray paint.
Fortunately for our wallet, a lot of my projects are paint projects which are reasonably inexpensive to complete but make a huge impact!
You may have notice when I shared our "house tour" I left off pictures of the front. That's because it was in rough shape when we first purchased it. It's still a work in progress - we have almost no landscaping and eventually I'd like to change the color of the house - but we've already come a long way!
First, let me introduce you to our once green fence:
Yea, that's pretty bad. Apparently when the previous owners painted the house back in 2013, they didn't opt to have the fence painted at the same time. It has been looking bad for a while.
Have no fear, that mailbox post in the corner is now installed and looking pretty!
The previous owner said he got a quote to have the ~50 linear feet of fencing painted for $300. I took that to mean: a) that means it's probably not too hard or labor intensive and b) why not put that $300 towards something better? Like a new (and much needed!) coffee table!
Boy, was it a terrible idea! Step one was power washing. That wasn't that bad. I waited until a rainy day so it would be easier to remove the old paint, and it cleaned up pretty quickly. Then I went to Lowe's and things went off track. My original plan was buy a good primer, white paint, maybe rent a paint sprayer and knock the whole thing out during two nap times, max! The lady who worked the paint counter at Lowe's had different ideas. She recommended I use oil based paint. "You'll never have to paint it again!" she said. Probably because I would rather run the whole thing over with my car then paint that darn thing with oil based paint again!
Step two was to apply the oil based primer. Using a combination of a roller and a brush I slapped the syrupy, stinky stuff on all four sides of each slat of the left side of the fence over the course of a day. By the afternoon, running low on primer, I decided to change up my plan and get an oil based spray paint.
See how much better it looked after power washing?
Clearly the hand painted primer (on the right) covered better.
Step three was painting. Very similar to step two, just two coats on the whole thing, plus a day touching up all the little spots I missed. The worst part of oil based paint is the cleanup. I gave up and started buying cheaper throw-away brushes and extra roller heads so I could just toss them at the end of each work session. I also got smart and started wearing long sleeves and rubber gloves so I didn't have to spend 20 minutes trying to scrub paint off my skin. Many nap times (and curse words) later, it was FINALLY done and I'm so glad it is!
A project I had some help with was painting our front porch ceiling haint blue. I think it's such a sweet Southern tradition to have a haint blue porch, and there are significantly fewer bugs hanging out around the ceiling these days!
Doesn't she look pretty?
Lastly, we have the door of many colors. When we bought the house, it was painted orange.
Technically orange and chipping
I'm not a fan of the door in general (I don't like the oval window, or the frosted design that I think looks like a centipede) but a new door isn't in the budget right now, so I thought the least I could do was to get rid of the orange. Originally I painted it using the same paint as the ceiling.
It was a big improvement, but, especially from the road, it just didn't look like a strong enough color - not enough pop! I liked the color when up close, but when farther away, under the shade of the porch, it looked almost like primer.
So now it's fuchsia. And I LOVE it!
I know it might not be everyone's favorite color (and let's be honest, I'm putting lipstick on a pig here) but it makes me happy every time I pull up to the house, and isn't that what's important? For the record, I do run these ideas by Branch but so far he is indifferent to the door in any color. Pink for the win!
Even the inside of the door got a facelift.
Out boring white, in beautiful black!
I hope you enjoy getting to take a peek at things I'm painting around here because I'm already working on part two!
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I love getting the peek at your painting projects!
ReplyDeleteI would've told you to run far, far away from the oil-based paint. Yes, it's much better and lasts longer, but the clean up! Gah! I avoid it at all costs.
Isn't it crazy awesome how much difference a coat of paint can make? And it's such an inexpensive update. Love the fuschia door and the pop it adds. And I, too, am a fan of a light blue porch ceiling. I think it's supposed to ward off evil spirits too... :)
Can't wait for part two!