We are on a house painting ROLL! Well, we were. We got a little side-tracked mid-week this week with another project that kind of took precedence...more on that later. Our goal was to start painting the exterior trim sometime this spring and thanks to the craziness going on, we got a head start and are halfway done. I'll share more pictures when we're done but we started on the least seen side of the house last week and are now almost finished with the back (which includes the big car port). This is what that first side looked like before we started:
After painting, it looks like this:
It's really hard to tell in pictures (especially since one was taken on a cloudy day and one in bright sunshine) but we went from a yellowy-beige trim color to a creamy white (China White by Ben Moore mixed in Valspar paint...man that's a mouthful). I also had a half hour on my hands during one of the kids homeschool breaks one day and weeded the landscaping bed so it's looking much better all around. Also, can you believe those azalea bushes were almost as high as the trim last year??? They were seriously overgrown. I mean, when you looked out of that middle window, all you could see was green. We majorly cut them mid-summer last year, to the point that we didn't know if they'd survive the trim. But hey, they're back and already need another chop! And, you can't see them because they're still so small and just starting to bud, but there are two hydrangeas we planted in those big gaps that we're hoping will fill help fill this side of the house in nicely.
Here's another picture where you can see the difference in paint color:
The ceiling and trim around it are all the new white and the window trim is the old yellow. It's all feeling much more modern and we are loving it. After I had painted the first few feet of trim, I freaked out because it looked so much more white than I had anticipated (and than the sample read to me). But I think it was just the transition from dingy to bright because now that we're halfway in, that fear is all gone. Phew! I can't wait to get the rest painted and a good reveal in!
Until then, let's focus in on our utility boxes attached to the side of the house (thankfully, that least-seen side). Before, they were a sight for sore eyes:
I'm pretty sure two of them are totally unnecessary too which hurt even more. But removing them would mean a tedious job of tracking down wires and so for now, they stay.
BUT, I wasn't about to let them stay looking like that on a freshly cleaned and painted house. Nope. Instead, I pulled an old Young House Love file out that I read long ago, gave them a quick wipe down, sprayed the rusty electrical box with oil-based primer (so I could maybe stop the rust in its tracks), did the best job I could picking a paint color that would blend in (it ended up being SW Beige Intenso), and painted them - every box, tube, and wire that was noticeable.
And now?
Still not exactly eye candy status, but at least not sores on a wall. (P.S. the before picture was taken on a dreary day and the after on a sunny one so that's why the brick looks like a different color in each. I'll have to go take an after on a cloudy day so I can get a better side-by-side but you get the picture, right?)
I think the side view is even better.
I just used a sample pot of paint and that's not really made for exterior use (as far as I know) so these will probably have to be repainted every year but I'm totally fine with that. It was a twenty minute date with my paint brush that was totally worth it. Plus, the color matches fine but I might go a little darker next year.
We also did the same thing at our old house but we were able to use the same exterior paint that we painted the siding with. This is the only picture I could find:
Thanks great ppost
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