Gettin' Fit and Trim

The first thing I noticed when I came to look at this house those years ago was its lack of curb appeal. It did not immediately grab me as an overly attractive or unattractive house from the exterior. Thankfully, the inside had amazing bones and I fell in love with making the inside feel like a home. Unfortunately, the outside was kind of forgotten this year between our high amounts of rain and incredibly hot days.

When we first moved in, I painted the front door to try to give the house a little character. It started out looking like this.

We added a little color with the new red/orange entrance.

Around the same time, we got rid of our old numbers and replaced them with more modern ones that I love.

This was followed by Mom and I attempting to fix some of the landscaping. Unfortunately, it's going to take much more work to get the greenery under control, but at least it became more tame.

It was about a year ago that I was at a friend's house in northern Kentucky who had just worked on the front of their house. Their trim color was a great brownish charcoal gray and I loved it. I asked them for the color name and ended up bringing home the bottom of their last gallon, which was just enough to paint the garage door, large window trim, and around the front door.

This is a color that I had seen on many homes online that had the same colors as our house. The Bedford stone made it a little difficult to color match things, so I had to go by lots of not-quite-the-same reference shots to see how it would look. Overall, they really shared the feel that I wanted to go for. A very modern, cozy vibe that was clean, but welcoming.

I hadn't touched the trim since that day. I put it off because I was afraid that exterior paint would be really expensive and that the color matching would be a pain.

Thankfully, I got a wild hair the other day, when the outside temperatures were very mild and the rain was supposed to hold off for a few days, to continue my exterior trim painting journey. I grabbed the old gallon that was empty and headed to Home Depot. I walked up to the color swatches and within three attempted samples, I had one that fit perfectly. $30 later, I had a paint & primer in one.

It's called Behr Intellectual and it's really dreamy.

 I started with areas that were nearest to that which I'd already painted. For example, the garage door had been painted, but not the surround for it, so I began by giving it some color.

I used a paintbrush for the cracks, crevasses, and gutter and a large roller for the soffit. The painting actually went pretty quickly for me working by myself, and a couple of hours later, I had a first coat on the front. I know that I need to go back and do a second coat to get a richer color and better coverage in some areas, but until it stops raining again, this first coat is going to have to do.

So here is the before.

And the after.

I love it! I think it gives a nice contrast against the stone and really gives the whole house some much needed character.

The darker color also helps our little windows stand out on the ever-forgotten right side of our house. They butt up against the roof and have almost no frame, so the previously tan trim just made them disappear.

Now it feels like we put eyeliner on and really made them stand out as features.

I really love how the yellows and oranges of Fall help bring out the dark, grounded trim color, too. Right now, with our tree bright yellow and leaves all around, the front yard is finally showing the curb appeal it's always needed.

Is it done? No, but this is a really dramatic step in the right direction. I would also love to fix some of our outdoor lighting so it's not so dark. Right now, our front door and garage only have a light that is built into the soffit for illumination.

Yes, I know that the bright yellow bush is dead.

I think that if we flanked them with some modern lanterns, it would really add some nice details to the front. It would also bring more light to our entry area.

Photoshop representation of what it might look like.

But for right now, I'm just happy every time I pull into the driveway and get to see (what feels like) a brand new house.

What do you think? Are you a fan of a bold, contrasty trim? Are you more comfortable with something that blends in or is traditional? Let me know in the comments!

Our Number Is Up!

Our house numbers, that is!

For a long time, Scott and I had our eyes on these very specific house numbers that we had seen on a lot of homes that we really liked. They seemed to fit our style, but not necessarily our budget. Rejuvenation had exactly what we wanted, but for $120 dollars. We found them on a boutique site as well, but as it sometimes is with boutiques, their prices were a little....steep.

$21 each! No way! So the search continued. I had seen them in many Pinterest posts (you can tell I'm an obsessed pinner, eh?) and had fallen in love. The different variant applications of them to their various homes also gave us tons of ideas, which made swoon for them that much more.

At the blog Freckles Chick, the numbers were placed above the garage door in front of the wonderful dark color they had just painted their home. Together, it felt chic and modern.

Photo care of Freckles Chick Blog.

I had also fallen in love with a specific pin that had stuck out in my mind earlier in the year. 4 Men 1 Lady had posted an image to Pinterest featuring a wonderful wooden backdrop to their numbers. It gave a great texture behind the brushed, modern numbers.

Photo care of 4 Men 1 Lady Blog.

What I especially loved about this example was that having the numbers attached to a solid background meant mounting it would be that much easier. When we finally found a house we loved and it ended up with a Bedford stone exterior (yes, we loved the numbers before we even had the house), it became clear that the stone being uneven would add some extra headache. If the numbers were attached to a board and then the board was attached to the house, it would make installation way simpler.

So after finally searching the interwebs and many a magazine, I discovered that the answer to the question of expense was right in front of me. Well, actually it was 1.8 miles down the road. Even though I had checked at other stores, it turns out that Home Depot had had them all along. To really top it off, they weren't $21 each, but $5.99. What a difference!

So the day finally came. I had purchased my Saffron red paint for the front door, and in an effort to add a real impact to our curb appeal, I also picked up our house numbers. I then brought them home and sketched up my vision for Scott to put together while I worked on painting the front door.

This may not be the original sketch, but an approximate re-enactment

To build the base, we would take three equally sized pieces of scrap wood that we cut and attach them to two vertical wood slats (also made from scrap wood) using screws. From the front, it would then give a look much akin to that of the numbers on the board that I'd fallen for on Pinterest, except that we were mounting our numbers horizontally. We also used some of our left over Dark Walnut stain that we had to give a rich, dark finish.

From the front, would would use the included templates that came with the numbers and align them, being sure to tape them to the wood once they were in place. We then marked the holes with a pencil and pre-drilled for the included screws to sink into.

Then, using a mallet so we didn't scratch up the numbers, we proceeded to gently knock them into the pre-drilled holes. This was easier said than done since the included screws were kind of cheap and liked to break, but eventually, Scott got the hang of it and in the end, we were left with something pretty awesome.

I'm not showing you our whole address. The internet is a crazy place, silly!

It's difficult to tell, but the numbers aren't flush mounted, they are actually floating, which gives it a more dimensional feel. It's a nice touch you can really see when you walk by it in real life.

We ended up mounting it near our garage so it would be easier to see from the road. The tree in front of the front door really would have hidden it from view otherwise and it's WAY too awesome to hide. With the new red front door, though, it helps balance out the fancy.

So now, we only have about 10 million things to do, but we're running out of summer, so we're glad to have at least gotten the two main front projects done. Some other things we would like to add to the front is:

-New front window (Our current one is single pane and doesn't open. It's not great on energy costs, nor particulary attractive close up)
-New landscaping
-New sconce lights to flank the front door and the garage door
-Possibly creating a knee-high raised bed under the big window to add some height, since we're on a hill and those plants are difficult enough to see as it is.
-Maybe some shudders around the windows, to really establish the look. We've seen them on some other BStones (Bedford stone homes), and we're torn on how we feel yet.

Besides that and the list of other things that need to happen on the inside of the house, there is plenty left to do (and write about!) over the next couple of years. For only being in the house a month a half, though, we're actually doing pretty well! Go us!