A Llittle" Make-Up for the Front of Our House

Did I ever mention that we moved into a previously owned, Granny home?  It's really a cool brick ranch that was built in 1968, maintaining elements of that mid-century vibe (even if it is the later part).  All it really needed to start off with, was a little "lipstick" that would brighten up it's tired appearance from the street.

I guess you could say, that even though we are both designers, we really are very subtle people.  Therefore, we didn't want to rock it out with crazy, highly-saturated colors on the exterior of our classically-inspired house.  Just a clean, high-gloss, dark-black accent is all that those tired granny shutters really needed.  

This was a seriously easy project because we only have (5) windows on the front of our house!  We opted to keep things clean and even paint the front door the same dark-black since we added a nice storm door with a sophisticated black frame. 

The steps were easy:  Wipe, Sand, Wipe, Paint.

We didn't even remove the shutters from the façade.  Instead, we painted them while directly attached to the house.

 

 

As you can see, our little man, Ryles, wanted to help Daddy with the sanding.

 

 

We used a medium-grain sandpaper to "rough-up" the shutters so that the paint would have something to "grab onto".

 

 

The metamorphosis is beginning to take shape!

 

 

Notice that we have added the original window mullions or grids if you like, back in.  We both agreed that the mullions helped add a bit more of that classical architectural interest to the façade of the home.

 

Now the front door seems to "pop" by sheer virtue of high contrast.

 

The outcome...a bit more Stately!

 

Stay tuned, because there are many more improvements to come!