Facelift, part 2!

Are you ready for this? Oh man, cause this is one exciting update for me to write about! As previously mentioned, in this post, we've been doing a little 'beautification' project. And as promised, here is the update/finished product.

When we bought our house, we knew she needed lots of updates... one of them being her exterior. She's been neglected to say the least, and well- we're just not fans of the whole 70's motif we have going on. So for a simple, (read: inexpensive) update we decided to paint the shutters! That way we could break up the monotony of brown, brown, brown, and more brown. Let's just say I'm MORE than thrilled because with fall approaching (aka. after the colors have faded) we'll have even more brown surrounding our house, so adding a pop of color I hope really helps liven things up.

First, we laid out a bunch of cut-up cardboard boxes to help cover the ground so we didn't up with blue grass. And fortunately since we've just recently moved- there's no shortage in supply of cardboard boxes in our house.

From there it was pretty basic- lay out the shutters, grab and shake a can of spray paint, and go at it. One thing I read and found particularly helpful is to do light, even coats- keeping in mind that at least two coats will be needed to cover the surface adequately. I found that by doing this, our end result was smooth, consistent, and exactly what I was going for. So just a thought.

After one coat- here you can see what I'm talking about with needing another coat.

I tell ya- reading the label on the spray can is the most effective thing you can do. I realized that a second coat could be applied as early as 20 minutes after spraying the first, but also definitely needed to be applied within 24 hours of painting them. I also realized that for 6 shutters, only 5 cans were needed since roughly it was just a little under 1 can per shutter for 2 coats.

Waiting for all of the shutters to dry enough before applying the 2nd coat.

Unfortunately it began to drizzle while I was waiting, so in a frenzy I leaned them all against the house (don't worry the backs were dry so no blue paint got on our white painted brick). I had to wait until the next day to get the second coat on but like I said, the can said 'within 24 hours' so I made sure to do that, and I am really happy with what we were left with.  When I did get to paint them the next day this is what I found waiting for me on one of the shutters-

Who knew we had so many fun bugs around our house? Wait did I seriously just say that? 'Fun' + 'Bugs' in the same sentence... I must be coming down with something. (In case you don't know... I HATE bugs. I am scared of them and they're scared of me (or rather me when I yell for my hero-husband to come save me from them. aka "squash it squash it!!! Now flush it down the toilet so it can't come get me again!"). *Don't worry, no bugs were harmed or killed in the process of this project*

Alrighty, enough stalling from me. Here is the final product:

Before:

After:

Mm hmm. Ain't she a beaut? Much more cottage-y for sure, and definitely a nice break up of the brown! And for under $20 bucks  (5 cans of spray paint at about $3.50 a piece), totally worth the cost for a good facelift.

Hooray!

Facelift, part 1

So while most of our projects have been focused on the inside of our house, we took this past Saturday to venture outside and tackle one that we hope brightens the house a bit. See our house, as much as we love it, needs a LOT of TLC....especially on the outside. It was a rental home before we got our hands on it and let's just say it's been a bit neglected in terms of aesthetics and all things eye-appealing. Then add that it was built in the late 70's and hasn't been updated much since then- and yah, well you get the idea.

SO what did we do you ask? Well...

we decided that we'd paint our shutters! Right now our exterior consists of two colors- white and brown.... LOTS of brown: the siding, the stucco, the trim, the fascia, and the shutters. But not for long!

In order to get to the fun part of painting we had to do a little prep work- you know, take the shutters off the wall, sweep them off, rid them of all the DISGUSTING spider and caterpillar nests on their backsides, wipe them down with a wet rag, and then finally- paint!

Basically this is what it looked like:

Oh yah- we umm, tried to wait for this couple to finish their biz-nass but moved these stick bugs with a stick so we could continue on in our project. 

Once that was taken care of we unscrewed and took all the shutters down.

We cut open and laid out some cardboard boxes to spray on.

Used very 'official' tools to de-bug all the backs of the shutters. (I'm referring to the obliging stick, not the power tool =P)

 Exhibit A: All the nasty spider and caterpillar nests on the back of the shutters.

 (Ewww eww gross gross... sorry still creeps me out)

(look at them all!)

Once all the critters were off, we swept and wiped off the shutters too.

TA DA! All the prep work was done and it was time to paint!

Tune in soon for the painting and finished product shots! We're still in the process of deciding if we like the paint color enough to continue with spraying or to change the color. =)