Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Before and After... Well, Really During!

This is the front of my house.  It really needs a new look.  It has 30+ year old aluminum siding that has chalked and faded in stripes (look at the second story - that is not shadows, that is siding that has changed color, but only in some places!).  The whole thing really needs resided or painted.  Neither of which is in the budget for this summer.

It also has a reddish roof (which I have always hated) and a hard to color coordinate - almost white washed - brick on the front lower center section.  It had, I say, "Terracotta", most say "peach" color shutters - which I never really liked, but they were suggested by the landscape architect we hired to design our front gardens and porch addition, and they matched the brick and roof.  So they have stayed for the past 13+ years!  I guess I needed to get my money's worth out of that suggestion we paid good money for!
So, in light of all of its challenges, I have and decided to make the best of it...

The easiest, quickest and cheapest way to change the look of a house... shutters!  I got on Benjamin Moore's website and uploaded a picture of my house and played around with different shutter colors.  (warning - this can be addictive!).   I have kind of gone out on a limb with the color, but I was so tired of the "matchy/matchy" color we had, and it really did look the best with what I had to work with.
Can you say... "purple shutters"!  I know it is quite a statement!

But they really do look good against the brick, and they make the roof look redder than it actually is and I don't hate it so much!
I still have the problem with the vertical siding fading/chalking on the second story, which my hubby says he is going to paint this summer - just that section - we'll see how that turns out!  I guess it really can't look worse than it looks now, so "what the heck" - a couple gallons of paint - just don't fall!
But all things considered, I really do like the change!  I can't wait to have it all finished.  I have shutters on every window of my house, and the front door.  26 shutters to be exact, and right now I only have 12 finished!  And to make matters worse, most are really tall - like 6' tall shutters!  I still have a ways to go, but will be happy when it is done!

Now I need some suggestions for a new door color and maybe even something for the garage door.  If you have suggestions, please leave them in a comment!  I really am stumped on these 2 items and need some help!

The shutters repainted, a new front light fixture and some new house numbers to be installed, hubby painting the upper portion of the house and I will call this "make-over" done for this summer!

I'll post more pictures when it is done!

3 comments:

Maggie said...

Wow - what a difference. I didn't think I would like purple shutters, but you are right, they really work.

Can't wait to see what you do with the rest!

Lori McDonough said...

seriously i can't believe what a difference it makes! Wow...i was skeptical, too, but it is fabulous! LOVE IT!!!! xoxo

Sandra Egts said...

I LOVE the change and think a yellow door - fairly bright would just rock - or a burnt orange....being afraid of color was never one of my problems....!