We knew our house needed a little something to add curb appeal, but couldn’t figure out exactly what. Someone suggested painting it a bright color (to match some of the other brightly colored homes in our eclectic neighborhood of old houses). I thought about it and decided I wasn’t into that idea. I truly love a white house, but I still knew ours needed a pop of something.
I’ve been feeling the color combo of black and white lately, so after doing some heavy design thinking, I decided to get black shutters put on the front of the house.
Our siding needed some brightening, so we did have an awesome company come and paint the house white again. While they were at it, I decided to have them add a “haint blue” to the underside of all our porches (we have 3 in total).
After doing some research, I decided on “Pool Blue” by Sherwin Williams. For some reason, I just liked the brightness of the color. It’s almost tropical looking to me.
Learn more about the history of Haint Blue via the Sherwin Williams website by clicking here.
After the painters finished, our shutters thankfully became available (there was a delay because of COVID-19). It’s amazing how timing just works out sometimes.
The shutter installers only took about an hour to install them all and THEY.LOOK.FABULOUS!
Overall, it wasn’t a super cheap makeover because my husband couldn’t really do this one himself. Our house is three stories, so we let the professionals come and do the work because they have all the ladders and tools necessary to work on our house.
If you have a house that isn’t quite as tall as ours, it’s definitely a self DIY project you could do on your own. The painters sprayed on the paint to give it a brush free look BUT they had to do a lot of prep work (masking off windows, etc). So, brushing or rolling on paint onto your house may be quicker if you are DIY-ing it all. Home Depot has lots of shutter options that aren’t too pricey and there are many DIY shutter ideas all over Pinterest.
OUR ADVICE FOR YOU
One thing my husband and I highly recommend: GET LOTS OF ESTIMATES! For both the paint and the shutters the prices came back at all different levels. It was amazing how one company came in with a $10,000 estimate for painting, when another came back with $7,000. After reading reviews (and checking on guarantees, etc.), we OF COURSE went with the lower estimates. And those companies did a fantastic job. They were very professional and very communicative (which good communication is KEY when you are hiring someone to do work for you).
Many people fear that a lower estimate means that their work won’t be as good or their product won’t be as good. I’m here to say that’s not always the case. We also like to meet with the people, have conversations and get a feel for the overall person (usually the owner or the estimator of the company). If we don’t get a good vibe from someone, we often go with our instinct and steer clear of that company.
Many of our DIY’s can be found on our YouTube channel, “Carolyn Braden”.
If you have any questions for us, visit our Contact Us page and send us a note! We love helping other DIYer’s out there!
Pin me! www.carolynsbloomingcreations.com
Designed by Carolyn and Tommy Braden
Pin me! www.carolynsbloomingcreations.com
Designed by Carolyn and Tommy Braden
Pin me! www.carolynsbloomingcreations.com
Designed by Carolyn and Tommy Braden
Pin me! www.carolynsbloomingcreations.com
Designed by Carolyn and Tommy Braden