Exterior Gratification!

We finally got our shutters hung, so I can show the fruit of my labor over the past few weeks!

As always, I love to go back to the beginning and track the progress. 

Here's the house when we bought it.

Add a little greenery...

(ferns, shrubs, and monkey grass walkway)

I painted my railings white and painted my door white in preparation for staining.  Since I'm working with the existing lavender grey paint for now, I thought a lighter "beachier" look would compliment the pastel house color better.  I'm really not a fan of these railings and columns at all, and so I also felt like white would make them blend and disappear a little more.

And finally...

I painted the shutters white as well, and then stained and layered paint onto both.  I think it gives the house more of a "shabby chic" look.  The turquoise mailbox was just a little fun hit of color.    

So here's the recap.

Before:

After / For Now:

Although, this is the way I see our house in my head...

Until we have the change to make that happen, I think it's looking better in real life too.  

All the little improvements I have made so far have been basically free.  My mom gave me some ferns on sale and two shrubs she had decided not to use.  I dug up the brick walkway liner myself, and transplanted some monkey grass.  I painted the door, shutters, and railings white with some leftover trim color paint we inherited in the basement.  I stained our door and shutters with leftover stain from our floors and leftover paint from our interior (I'll give more details on that in another post).  The mailbox is painted with leftover paint from our kitchen cabinets.

So although, it's still not looking like the house in my dreams, I think for $0 spent, it works for now!   

Thanks for reading!