Front Entry {Before & After}

Over the years, we’ve slowly worked on improving the exterior of our home, although most of the time I feel like I still don’t know what I’m doing!

A few years ago I painted our front door red. Here’s what it looked like BEFORE:

And here’s what it looks like TODAY:

Hubs built these pretty window boxes for me for my birthday this year. Excuse how small the flowers look in them! They’re still in the beginning stages of growing.

Sometime in the near future, we’d like to add shutters to the windows to add some more character to the front of the house. It’s on the loooooong project list! You know how that goes. We had a loooong project list when we moved in five years ago, and it seems like the list never gets shorter!

I painted the “No. 39” onto the door using the same method that I use for painting signs – using carbon paper and craft paint.

Our house is a very traditional-looking brick American Colonial. It’s not exactly the style I would prefer (I’m in love with cottage-y looking homes), but I’m discovering there are things I can do to “cozy-it-up” and keep it from looking too traditional.

Some things we’ve done to add the “cottage” look:

  :: Removed traditional-looking (ugly) shrubbery and planted flowers that look more casual, like hydrangeas and roses.

  :: Painted the front door.

  :: Added window boxes.

  :: Planted small flowering trees.

  :: Painted house number on front door.

  :: In the works – Add shutters to windows.

It’s been a work-in-progress, but we’ve learned a lot and enjoy playing in the dirt!