Front entryway makeover reveal...

After paying so much attention to the inside of my house in the past year, redoing pretty much every room, we decided it was time to give the outside a little TLC. The house has so much charm inside, but the curb appeal was lacking a bit.

In the photos above, you can see what the house looks like now, after some work. We still have some landscaping to do, and the big picture window still needs to have the trim painted, but as you’ll see, it already looks much, much better. 

Here’s what the house looked like before:

It didn’t look awful, but some of the bushes were out of control, and the front step, railings and doors all needed to be freshened up. We cut back the bushes last fall, took out the one I really hated this spring and put in some new plants. The landscaping still needs some work, but I think the house somehow looks more welcoming without the too-big bushes. My gardenia, which is the giant bush in front of the porch in the photo above, is coming back beautifully, I’m happy to say. It should bloom again next year.

Some more before photos ~ the porch door and the white frame around the front door needed to be painted, the railing needed help and I wanted a new color scheme since I had inherited this one when I bought the house eight or nine years ago.

Here’s the house with all the painting done, the siding cleaned and the bushes under control. We decided on yellow for the door (you can see more on the front door makeover here), and a sort of charcoal/chocolate for the steps. The door frame and porch door were painted white, and we replaced the black hardware on the storm door with white.
And of course my faded pink flamingo had to find a home.

In the photo above, you can see we still needed to fix the gutter, which has since been done. We had to do quite a bit of work on the railings, as you can see below. We sanded them down to get rid of as much rust as possible and then repainted them a lovely flat black with some Rust-Oleum paint. The flat black really looks nice against the other colors.

Here’s another shot of the front step, from last winter. I had just cut the gardenia in front of the porch way back. You can really see in this photo how much the entryway needed help, I think.

Once we painted the step (hooray for non-skid paint), I realized the sidewalk leading up to the front door really needed to be painted, too. It just detracted from everything else. We went ahead and put the same color on the sidewalk and it really helped the whole entryway look more polished.

At some point in the next year or two, I want to plant something on either side of the sidewalk that runs through the middle of the front yard. I would love to plant lavender on either side that could sort of waft up as you walk, but I’m told that doesn’t do particularly well here. I’m sure I’ll figure something out.

And then, since we got the front entryway looking good, I decided the porch needed a few additions to help tie all the colors together. I bought some yellow and pink pillows and just this week painted our old white rocking chair the same yellow as the front door. I also have a new rug to go on the porch once we get the ceiling fixed and the new ceiling fan in ~ that should happen in the next week or two.

Wishing all of you a lovely weekend...

I am linking to:
Pink Saturday at How Sweet the Sound
Creative Weekends at The Pink Home
Make it Pretty Monday at The Dedicated House
Home and Garden Thursday at A Delightsome Life
Home at Rose Chintz Cottage
Home Sweet Home at The Charm of Home

Photos by The Art of Living Beautifully