A New View

Well, I can add this to my Why Didn't We Do This Sooner list.

Our house has been sporting sage-ish green shutters and front door, since, well, probably the 80's. There were many touches to our house that screamed country and dated...which isn't really my style. We've slowly been making improvements on these things (the roof, mantle, front yard, etc).

Brushes in hand, we went after the shutters and the door with some black Behr Exterior paint - and voila! The sleek black offers a lot more pop and doesn't look so dingy. It really wasn't hard at all - and only cost about $25 for the paint (of which, we have a ton leftover, and I've already got other projects in mind for it).

(sorry for the dark pictures - it's been a lovely rain-filled week - we were actually racing to finish this before the rain hit)

However, there are a few tips that would have been helpful for us to actually think about before we started in on the project:

• When taking off the shutters - number them or label them somehow. We are essentially lazy and were not interested in remeasuring and rehanging - we didn't even take out the old nails - just popped them back in their original holes. The kicker - we didn't take our laziness into account until after they were all down and mixed up. So it was trial and error X 6 to put them back up...as it was pouring rain...

• Be ready to clean up the gunk that has made itself at home behind the shutters - spiders, hornet nests, etc. We weren't expecting to have to clean all that as well!

• It really helps to paint them standing up, instead of laying them flat - you can get into the crevices a lot easier, and it's just plain easier for you.

• Use a small little brush (we actually found that a 1/2" craft brush worked best) and then a small foam roller for the bigger parts. I also used the foam roller on the door (ours is metal faced) - with mixed results... I don't think I waited long enough between coats, so it's a little patchy looking, but honestly it's really not that bad. Regular rollers used for walls aren't the thing to use here - they will leave little pricks in the paint.

• Don't bother taping your door off or taking it off it's hinges. I didn't and it turned out just fine - I was just really careful around the edges (again, a tiny brush helps here). I did get paint all over the glass on the door where the cross hatches are - but a razor blade takes that right off.

I love the little improvement this simple task makes. A little curb appeal doesn't hurt!