Exterior Face Lift Phase I

As you may know from some of my previous posts or from our house tour, we've been itching to tackle some exterior projects.

Our project list included painting the sidelights and front door, replacing the front door hardware, building new shutters, and replacing the wrought iron porch columns.  The very dark green is not our style.  My mother pointed out that it made the sidelights and front door look like a big black hole.  And that is definitely the truth.  I posted about our cavernous front door and choosing a new paint color for it here.  

After much color debate, a decision was made.  And a couple of weekends ago, we checked painting the sidelights and front door off our project list!

But, I will tell you the decision making process and keep you in suspense a bit longer.  We first decided on Knight's Armor by Olympic for our shutters and bright white for our sidelights (we planned to chose the closest match we could find to our white brick).  After deciding on the shutter and sidelight colors, I knew that I wanted our front door to be light blue.  A few weekends ago, I narrowed it down to three options and bought sample cans (the gray at the top is Knight's Armor, the shutter color).

Top: Olympic's Kingston Aqua, Middle: Valspar's Evening Stroll, Bottom: Valspar's Birdsong Blue

I immediately eliminated Evening Stroll - too much gray.  

Left: Kingston Aqua, Right: Birdsong Blue

As much as I loved Kingston Aqua, I kept coming back to Birdsong Blue.  Decision made.

The door took some prepping.  I removed all the old, brass hardware (including the off center house numbers that were driving me cray-zy) and patched the holes.  

The left sidelight had some paint that was bubbling up and so I peeled the loose paint off.

The sidelights and front door got a once over with sand paper and then were wiped down with a mixture of white vinegar and water.  

One coat in...

I did three coats plus touch-ups on the front door and didn't even use half of the quart of paint that we bought (Valspar's Duramax Exterior Semi-gloss paint and primer in one).  The sidelights however took SIX coats plus touch-ups.  UGH....our hatred for dark green grew with each subsequent coat.  We used Valspar's Duramax Exterior Semi-gloss paint in Ultra White.

We replaced the door hardware with this modern set from Lowe's.  I think all of our time and effort were well worth it.

We also removed the rotting shutters (our house doesn't have gutters - something that we hope to remedy very very soon).

Obviously the brick was painted after the shutters were installed.  So, we used some of the paint from the sidelights and slapped up a quick coat to tone down the craziness.

And that is phase I of our exterior face lift.  Phase II is shutter assembly/painting/installation and phase III is building new columns.  

And the unwelcoming black-hole-of-a-door is gone.  For-ev-er.  (Or at least while we own the house.)

In person, the difference is even more amazing.  It was hard to even tell that we had sidelights before and now you can clearly see the individual panes of glass.

I am so in love with our blue door.  It is the exact touch of fresh and modern that I was hoping for.  However, I think we may have to replace our huge black sconces now.  I originally thought we could keep them, but now they are looking a bit too traditional next to our modern front door hardware, aren't they?  I've been thinking about spray painting them silver and trying to "salvage" them.  What do you guys think?  Would silver spray paint modernize them enough?

I'll be back soon with posts about our Fall wreath and Fall mantel.