AO House Tour: Exterior After

Welcome to our house:

Seriously cute, right? This is what this house looked like in my mind every time I pulled up to it. I was SO happy when we finally had it painted.

Pretty much everyone looked at us like we were crazy when we mentioned that we were going to paint the brick..."What? Paint brick? But the upkeep! The maintenance!" I guess the need for my house to be as pretty outside as it is inside outweighed the complication of paint.

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm kind of glad it took us a while to pull the trigger because my ideas of what to paint it changed over time. I was originally planning for off-white which I think would be just as pretty...but driving around one day a couple of years ago we spotted this light green house with white trim and a red door AND I WAS IN LOVE. I knew the red door was going to happen no matter what so when I saw it paired with green, I was totally convinced.

I will say our roof made this whole painting thing really complicated. I pine for the day that I will have a black/gray roof so I can paint my house white with black shutters. I really dislike the sandy brown/clay red situation we currently have with our roof, but I think the colors we ended up with work ok with it.

And let's not forget the teensy bit of landscaping that we did that I think goes a LONG way. We settled on a hedge of skip laurels that will stay green through the year, a Muskogee crape myrtle that blooms lavender in summer and, this summer, some petunias that kicked booty in those flower boxes.

Speaking of the flower boxes...HUGE difference those made. They gave the house just a little bit of architectural detail that it really needed. And by adding the red bench to our walkway, we finally gave the outside some dimension so it wasn't so blah.

And finally, our awesome front door got a coat of glossy candle apple red paint, a vintage fox door knocker, a new all-glass storm door (I fought for no storm door, but was overruled) and new chippendale light fixtures which...wait for it...were $25 EACH (on sale). Madness, right? And made SUCH a huge difference in spiffing up our entry.

I have a couple of more to-dos out here - keep layering the landscaping with additional plants, a new mailbox and door number and dentil molding on the fascia board. Carter and I would also LOVE to ditch our craptastic carport that is wicked ugly. It's not pictured for a reason...

This concludes the house tour!!! There are two spaces in the house you haven't seen - the 2nd guest bedroom and our master bathroom. Both are in blah, non-special stages so once they have some polish I will share. I hope you've enjoyed the glimpses into my world...

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SOURCES

House Color - Georgian Green by Benjamin Moore

Trim Color - White Dove by Benjamin Moore

Door Color - Candy Apple by Glidden

Chippendale Light Fixtures - Portfolio White Outdoor Wall Light at Lowe's

Fox Door Knocker - Vintage, via High Street Market

Storm Door - Lowe's

Red Bench - Grandinroad (don't see it anymore but Grandinroad has other great options)

Flower Boxes - Charleston Window Boxes via flowerwindowboxes.com

Bushes - Skip Laurels

Small Tree - Muskogee Crape Myrtle