Rocking Chair Renovation!

Last year I found these rocking chairs locally for $25 a piece. Dh drove after work and strapped them to the back of his little Audi. They are super sturdy, almost Cracker Barrel quality, but needed a LOT of TLC. The finish on them was the worst, peeling varnish and rough like they had been left in the elements for a long time. Here is what they looked like when they brought them home.

I spent many many hours sanding these... Did I mention MANY HOURS?? lol! But it was so worth it because the finish is so smooth now. Then I began the process of priming. We chose gray to start us off, since I knew our final paint color would be black. It helped to lesson the amount of coats of black paint I would need in the end.

Here they are primed with the gray color:

Finally I put two coats of gloss black paint on them. I decided to leave the rush seats the natural color and I'm SO glad that I did! They look awesome. I added some rocker cushions and pillows that I purchased at Target. They now grace our front porch and look amazing! Dh saw the last photo and was so pleased... he said it looked like they were out of a magazine. Aww... Thanks honey! Total cost was around $55 for the cushions and paint! Yay!

Working on some Curb Appeal

For the past couple weekends we have been working on making the front of our home look different on a very small budget. I don't have after photos yet, because we are still not finished.... but I will post maybe in a few more weeks. Here are some before photos of the home and what we have been working on. I can't wait to finish this up, but it's gonna take a LOT of elbow grease!

Here is our home before with green shutters and a very badly peeling front door. To say that door was an eyesore when you first walked up the porch is an understatement.

You can see the peeling paint below and notice the two different finishes. Polished nickel on the door handle and polished brass on the kick plate and door knocker. I'm embarrassed to say that has been that way for almost 3 years.

Also from the heat here this inner glue like substance would leak from our windows and look like some type of sap. It was sticky and very gross looking and it coated the door under those inserts.

So on a beautiful spring day dh took the door down and decided to strip it and repaint it. The new color will be black.

Since we were changing the door color we also needed to repaint our shutters. So those came down as well for a quick coat of black paint. Here are a few shots of the porch without the lower shutters.

And here is what we found behind all those shutters.... yuck!

Here are some of the lower shutters lined up and ready to be painted. I'm definitely ready to get rid of that green color.

The cost for the paint and paint stripper was $30. So for that small amount of money we totally transformed the look of our home. But we aren't done yet. Planters, an old bench and awesome old rockers that we bought last year for $25 each need to be redone as well. Plus cushions to add some color and flowers for the planters. We're going to try to do it all for under $200. The cushions are the most costly.... we'll see how we do. I'm re-doing the rocking chairs right now, and dh just re-painted the bench. I wish we had taken a before shot of it! It looks a million times better. Tune in for a picture update on each of those projects!