Front Porch Makeover:: Before and After

Last week I painted the inside of the front door black, click here to see the before and after.  It was so nice to finally get a coat of paint on those orange-y oak colored doors!  

My next project was to beautify the other side of those doors and make our front porch look a little more welcoming.  We come in through the garage so I hadn't noticed how neglected it was looking until we started working on the flower beds in the front. 

Here's a pic right after we bought the house.  That's the original 1970's avocado green paint on the trim, shutters and front door. And those two bushes were the only landscaping in the front. 

Sorry about the quality of this photo.....it's an iPhone picture of a picture. ;)

Shortly after moving in we took down the shutters, painted the trim a creamy off white color to go with the brick and painted the front door dark brown.  Or what I thought was dark brown but it turned out to be more like chocolate brown with a green hue that I lovingly referred to as baby poop brown.

Ok it doesn't look that bad in the picture. 
So the first step was to paint the front door black.  I sanded down all the flat panel pieces which is what you see in the photo above. 

I put the first coat on last Tuesday while the boys were at school. 

And here's what it looked like after painting the sides which took me two hours.  

It takes along time to paint all those curves next to the glass! 

It looked like this for the next 5 days due to high humidity.  

In the meantime, I planted flowers in my planters.   

 And here it is after two coats of black paint!  

I love how it looks so nice and clean and less baby poop-y.

I added a new Ballard Designs Geometric indoor/outdoor rug I scoured for $19! 
They still have them on sale if you want one! 

 Here's a closeup of what I planted: lambs ear on the left which was free (I transplanted it from my flower bed in the backyard), purple Coleus ($1), and white Geraniums ($1 on clearance).  

Not bad for $2!!

It looks so much better!

Now I won't be embarrassed when we have company over and they come in through the front door. 

BEFORE

 

AFTER

I hope you enjoyed my latest before and after project, I'm really happy with it.  I just hope I can remember to water those flowers!!!

Linking up to the parties on my sidebar.

~Beth