Boosting Our Curb Appeal: Front Porch & Landscaping

Well, it's been a minute since my last blog post. Or three months. Whatever.

For those of you on Instagram, I do tend to post small (generally un-exciting) updates more regularly there (@littlehouse.onthecorner). 

Anyway, we've made a bit of progress in our kitchen remodel, but I'll save that for another day. Today, I'm just sharing some simple improvements we've made on the outside of our house.

Back in May, we had the house exterior painted (see the reveal here). It was a major upgrade, and since then I've felt increased pressure to up our curb appeal game in other areas. It started with tearing out some overgrown, ratty-looking hedges in our landscaping, which have been replaced with some flowering (bee-friendly!) plants.

Home Exterior Painting Reveal: Quest for the Perfect Gray

Hello again, friends — I have a lot to fill you in on since my last update two months ago! Although if you choose to just skim through and look at pictures rather than read my long post, I won't blame you.

If you'll recall, I was internally tortured with deciding on the perfect gray for our home exterior. Well, we finally did settle on Benjamin Moore Kendall Charcoal at 75%. (The 75% is an important detail, as you'll find out later...)

Label from my sample container. We had it matched at Sherwin-Williams even though it was a Benjamin Moore color.

Since this was one of the few projects we were not going to DIY, we hired a small local painting company (after getting three different quotes) and got on their schedule for June 11. Well, they called me up on May 20 and said a client had cancelled so they could actually start on our house the next day. Yikes! I felt a little un-prepared but couldn't turn down the chance to have the house done even sooner.

Home Exterior Painting Decisions: A Gray Area (Part V)

Did you think I would be done with this dilemma after Part IV? Oh no, my friends. It's not that easy! 

If you've been following along, you might remember that we had narrowed our gray paint colors down to Benjamin Moore Kendall Charcoal, Benjamin Moore Chelsea Gray, and Sherwin-Williams Gauntlet Gray. The two BM colors appear to be a bit more gray-gray, whereas SW Gauntlet Gray leans a little warmer, brown-gray in comparison.

In an effort to look at just one more option and try to find something a little lighter than Kendall Gray but darker than Chelsea Gray, I decided to get a custom sample of Kendall Charcoal at 75%. You can see this compared to the original Kendall Charcoal in the photos below. (I still have SW Westchester Gray at the bottom, which I never repainted from the first round of sample colors. But it's out of the running because it's a little too blue-ish/cool toned). 

It's a pretty noticeable difference, right? I was pleasantly surprised at the color achieved by having Kendall Charcoal lightened by 25%. [Note: I got this custom sample mixed at Sherwin-Williams, even though it was a Benjamin Moore color to begin with. That's because we're probably going to go with SW SuperPaint for our exterior, and I wanted to make sure the sample is going to be an accurate representation from where we end up buying the paint).

And just around the corner of the house, here are the three different Benjamin Moore colors for additional comparison. I'm digging the 75% Kendall Charcoal, with Chelsea Gray as a second favorite. This is the first time I've ever experimented with getting a standard paint color lightened, but it could (hopefully) be the answer to our quest for the perfect gray for our home.

So, what do you think of these latest options? Have you ever painted your interior or exterior with a custom color?

Home Exterior Painting Decisions: A Gray Area (Part IV)

Someone send help. I've been sucked into a world of grays and I can't get out. If you can't tell by the post title, this situation has gotten a bit out of control. What started out as just three paint swatches grew to five, then ten, and now... 

I've somewhat reined myself in when it comes to buying actual paint samples though — only seven of those (so far). After initially debating between several Sherwin Williams colors in the gray family, I decided I'd be doing myself a disservice if I didn't also check out some Benjamin Moore colors. Upon a visit to the paint department in Ace Hardware, it looked like Ben Moore offered a couple promising gray options: Kendall Charcoal and Chelsea Gray. 

Once I painted these two samples on the house next to those from the first round, I definitely liked the Kendall Charcoal better than SW Peppercorn (which now appeared more blue-ish and too dark). Kendall was like a happy medium between the Peppercorn and Gauntlet Gray.

Home Exterior Painting Decisions: A Gray Area (Part III)

I don't know if you've been following along with my last couple blog posts, but I have a problem and it goes by the name of "Gray." This should come as no surprise to anyone, as I've had plenty of experience with gray paint in our house. This decision feels a little more nerve-racking than usual though, since it involves painting the entire exterior of our house (and paying someone else to do it).

The latest update in the saga is that I've tried out five samples of Sherwin-Williams colors:

• Dovetail
• Classic French Gray
• Peppercorn
• Gauntlet Gray
• Westchester Gray

Home Exterior Painting Decisions: A Gray Area (Part II)

Has anyone else ever tried the Sherwin Williams ColorSnap Visualizer? (No, this isn't an ad for it... just a recent discovery.) Last week I bought a sample of Gauntlet Gray and Dovetail and painted them on the side of our house to test them out. 

The Dovetail, while a nice color in general, was way too light for what we want. So of those two samples, Gauntlet Gray won out. But I still struggled with wanting to try out some more gray colors before settling on it. 

Gauntlet Gray... winner of Round 1

Rather than making another trip to the SW store right away (where I would inevitably spend forever debating between swatches), I decided to try this Visualizer tool first to see if it would clear up any of my gray confusion. I'm not sure if it made the situation better or worse... and the more I look at these mock-ups, the more they all start to look the same. 

Home Exterior Painting Decisions: A Gray Area

Okay, February. You almost got me. You almost slipped by before I could get a blog post in. But I refuse to let that happen! Surely I can handle at least one post per month this year, right? 

Here's the thing. I have no progress to report on any of our DIY renovations (which primarily involves the kitchen). Although I'm pleased to announce that we finally got around to ordering a new KitchenAid dishwasher this past week — we've been without one ever since ours went kaput about, oh, a year ago. It'll take a few days to get here (via Lowe's free home delivery), but I'm looking forward to the end of my hand-washing days soon!

Also, the unseasonably warm weather this week is making me realize I should get the ball rolling on another project. If nothing else happens this entire year, we desperately need to get the exterior of our house painted. It's been 10 years since we moved in, and she's looking pretty shabby when you get up close (aren't we all). Plus, I'm tired of the nondescript, blah beige color. 

Having had plenty of experience with the world of grays during interior painting projects, we've picked out two Sherwin Williams colors that feel like pretty solid contenders: Dovetail (SW 7018) and Gauntlet Gray (SW 7019). These have brown undertones, so shouldn't end up looking bluish or greenish or any other -ish hue. 

Probably leaning toward the darker Gauntlet Gray for some extra "oomph" and contrast with the white trim. Either of them should hopefully look good with the red brick we have. It's supposed to be really nice this weekend, so I might end up testing these samples out on the side of the house for real-life comparison.

Since we've never had our house painted before — and I've always done my own painting when it comes to the interior — I have no idea what to expect for the cost once I start getting some quotes. All I know is this is one project I'm not DIY-ing!

Which shade of gray would you pick?? Have you used either of these colors before? Any other pointers or recommendations when it comes to hiring someone to paint your house?

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Home Improvement Projects that Boost Curb Appeal

Have you heard of Modernize.com? It's a place to gather ideas and see how other homeowners have transformed their homes. The site features lots of ideas for home improvement, plus pretty pictures to inspire and motivate you. Following is an article that Tim Smith of Modernize.com wrote for Little House on the Corner, and I know we can all relate to this topic!  

Home Improvement Projects That Boost Curb Appeal

Tune into a home improvement or home-selling television show and chances are you will hear the host or narrator mention the phrase curb appeal. There's a good reason for this. Those little touches can make a huge difference in your home's appearance. If you doubt it, drive through a subdivision that's more than five years old. Even though the builder may have used only a few identical blueprints to produce the entire neighborhood, you will notice that some homes stand out from the others. In many cases, the only difference is that the owners have taken the time to fix up the front view of their homes. Enhancing your home's curb appeal is surprisingly easy. The view of a home from the curb is like its face. Think of adding curb appeal as giving your home a makeover.