Curb Appeal // A Porch Makeover - A Year and A Half In The Making

Our front porch finally got a makeover and oh boy, what a difference it made!  I'm sure it would have looked great with just a fresh exterior paint job, or new stain on the deck, freshening the lamp or adding some greenery and an updated rug, but the combination of all of them made it all that much more pleasing.

Sometimes there are projects that I think of and get to work on immediately - others sit in my mind for years before I start on them.  Our porch is definitely one of the latter.  We replaced the old rotting front porch when we moved into the house (actually, before we had even closed...it was a weird situation where we had to do some updates before our bank would sign off.  I'm still frustrated that WE had to do the work, but whatevs.)  Our new porch was a pretty cedar that, once built, was pretty much neglected.  No stain, no paint - nothing.

Here's what it was looking like after a year and a half of battling the elements.  Pretty awful.

While I had a million other jobs to do on the kitchen/nook and painting the exterior, I decided to add another item to the endless to-do list and finally stain the poor thing.  The stain, Behr Premium Semi-Transparent Stain in Cordovan Brown, is the same stain we used for the deck in the backyard.

 First, I cleaned the deck with a bleach and water mixture to remove any stains.

Then I scraped off all my wayward paint splatters and sanded any additional stains or paint drips.
 

After letting it dry, I gave the deck two coats of stain and let it cure for the recommended 72 hours.  While I was waiting for it to cure, I gave our door mat a little makeover of its own with some painters tape and leftover spray paint from my backyard hanging shelves project.

While the front of the house still has a ways to go before I'll be fully content with it (adding window boxes & shutters, painting the door, beefing up the posts and planting some pretty shrubs/flowers), we sure are on the right track.

What projects have you been putting off?