Porch Re-Arrangement

Remember a few weeks back, when I said I wanted to make our front porch more inviting and all around just prettier? So far we've completed a couple of projects: painted our front door & tamed our vines. After completed our vine project I played around with the porch arrangement. Below is how our front porch looked for months.

I moved the standing planters that we next to the front to the other side of the our porch. Even though I liked the planters there, they blocked the entrance/exit to our small porch. I also moved the white terra cotta pot from the inside the flower bed, next to our front door. I also added another terra cotta paint (spray painted it glossy red) to our front entrance.

This gives you an idea, of the width of our front porch. I like the new layout better. I'm still planning on painting the faux terra cotta pots (in the stands) a color, just sure what color. Or do they look better, now that they are moved? Our color palette for our house is grey, white, black and now red.....I don't mind adding a 5th color to the mix. Maybe a bright yellow, orange or limey green? Need suggestions!

It was such a lovely weekend to work on outdoor projects, while I was arranging away, Mojo was chilling in the sun.

Up next, I'll be making to two pillows for our chairs in the cheap, and looking for a petite indoor /outdoor rug for the porch. The rug might be on pause until we complete some other projects. What do you think of the new layout, and again any color suggestions on the faux terra cotta pots?

Paint Chips: Front Door Color Options

To kick of our plans to pretty up our front porch, Sunday morning the family and I stopped in Lowes in search of the perfect red for our front door. We I did all the looking  found four top contenders for our front door color.

Color Contenders { from left to right }  Spanish Tile, La Fonda Geranium Red, Cut Rudy and Posh Red

Like most colors reds tend to change though out the day, so we tapped our choices to the front of the house. We wanted to make sure our color looked good against our gray house and looked good in direct sunlight. Our house colors are Grey, with white trim and black accents (shutters, mail box etc.)

The lineup next to the front door { from left to right, top to bottom } Posh Red, Spanish Tile, Cut Ruby and La Fonda Geranium

From a distance the reds really pop of great against our grey house. It's going to make walking up our sidewalk much more inviting.

The color that keeps standing out to me the most is Posh Red { top left } and the color Spanish Tile { top right } I think those two colors look the best against our grey house and red/orange brick on our front porch. I'm thinking the Spanish Tile might be a little too dark since it lends more towards the cranberry shade. Posh Red is a good mix between cranberry and reds. The paint colors are from Valspar and I love using their paint in our home inside and out! I'm really looking forward to tackling this project and breathing new life into the front of our wood door. A few months back we we did our entryway and painted the inside our front door a glossy white.

Out of the 4 color options above which one do think will look best on our front door?

Front Porch Pretty

With the sun shining outside the past few days, its got me thinking about our front porch (I use the term loosely, since our porch is tiny) but it was one of my 'must have' on our buying list. I can't complain even though our front porch is small its come along way since we first bought our house in December 2008. Back in 2008 and over half of 2009 our front porch and house looked like this.

I know its hard to tell { from the picture above }, but we just placed our patio set on the front porch and called it good. After we painted our house gray and added shutters, a new light fixture, new house numbers and redid our flower bed things started looking up.

To me our front porch still looks boring and not that inviting. I think one major change we need to do our front porch is add some pops color that will look nice against the grey. I've been thinking about painting our front door for quite sometime. Mr CLH and I butted heads over our front door color - he wanted black and I wanted a cranberry red. I love red front doors, I know they are the norm in some areas, but I only counted one on our street so I thinking we are going to go red.

I also want to add some either cushions to our bistro set or add pillows to create warmth. I was also thinking spay painting our plastic plant containers on of porch to add more color. Right now the containers 'natrual Terra Cotta color' just blend in with our brick exterior.

Here are some pretty front porches that are giving me serious inspiration for small porches!

Isn't this the perfect sunny spot for morning coffee, I like the cushions and bright potted plants that surround the front porch.

{ via Ladies Home Journal }

This front porch is so charming, I like the bright floors

{ via Ladies Home Journal }

I love the swing on this porch so welcoming

{ via Country Living }

These two pillows are the perfect touch on this porch.

{ via Country Living }

Now that its getting warm outside, I'm really looking forward to added extra oomph to the front of the house. Our project list keeps getting longer and longer, looking forward to the time change when our days get longer too. Have you done a porch re-do? I'd love to see and hear all about it.