A Tour of Our Home: Front Porch Makeover (Before & After)

I really hope I'm not the first homeowner to admit that decorating the exterior of our home was not at the top of my to-do list when we first moved in.  There were SO many things that Kevin and I wanted to do inside of our house that the outside ended up getting neglected for the first seven months we lived here.  Granted I did do a little decorating for the holidays (you can see my monster window silhouettes here and the Grinch lawn ornament here), but wasn't able to put up anything meant for the long-term.  Until now, that is.

Like many people Kevin and I rarely use our front door since we're always entering the house through the garage, but I felt like it was finally time to give our front porch (or "stoop", as my side of the family calls it) a little love.  Here's what it looked like before:

And here's a look at our stoop now.  I still need to find a wreath for the door, but hey - it's progress!

Can you believe this was being sold as garbage can?

One of my favorite finds was the old window/flower box which I bought from Roost, a new antique/consignment shop that just opened up in our area.  I probably could have made something similar myself, but it was so perfect for the space that I just couldn't pass it up.

As you guys probably know, no makeover is complete without a few bumps in the road.  After I brought the window box home I thought I'd be able to hang it from the siding using two large nails.  This worked temporarily, but once I filled the box with soil and flowers it became so heavy that the nails couldn't support the weight.  Until we come up with a better solution for hanging the window,  I'm using a junky little table that I found on the side of the road a few years ago to support it.

When I first found this table I gave it a coat of glossy black spraypaint, but since the dark color didn't tie in to any of my other decor I decided to give it a facelift using some FolkArt chalk paint that I found at JoAnn's:

I forgot to take a "before" shot of the table, but did get one "in progress".....

After the paint dried I gave it a coat of clear satin polyurethane to protect it from the elements.  While the table is a bit small in proportion to the window box, it's a decent solution that will work until we're able to come up with something better.

Another piece I added to the stoop was a wreath stand that I picked up from an art fair earlier this year.  Originally it looked like this:

After some debate I decided to give it a distressed coat of FolkArt chalk paint so it would have the same look as the window/flower box.  This was also sealed.

The last DIY project for the front porch was this "Welcome Sign".  I stained a scrap piece of wood that was stashed in our garage and used chalk to draw out the text before painting it with some leftover latex paint from our living room walls.  I then sealed it with the same polyurethane used on the gray table/wreath stand and attached some twine to the back using a few eye screws.

I filled the flower box with a few different flowers and planted the extra blooms in a white bucket that I found at Bed Bath and Beyond (which is actually sold as a garbage can!).  I picked up the old wood chair from Burlap and Lace, another consignment shop in the area, and the pillow was found at JoAnn Fabrics.  I also made a stop at our local Menard's and picked up a hose reel so ours wasn't laying all over the pavement.


Update: I recently decked out the stoop for the 4th of July.  Normally it's not a holiday I decorate for, but JoAnn's had so many good items on sale I just couldn't resist!

Now that Kevin has been honing his handy man skills and building a bit more I'm hoping he can construct some sort of bench that we can put in this open area of concrete in the front.  One step at a time, I guess :-)

Source list:
-Window/flower box: Roost
-Gray table: found on the side of the road
-Metal star: Bed Bath & Beyond
-Chair: Burlap and Lace
-Pillow: JoAnn Fabrics
-Wreath stand: craft fair
-"Welcome" sign: DIY
-White bucket: Bed Bath & Beyond
-Key rug: Target
-Patriotic burlap banner and flag pillow: JoAnn Fabrics