10.18.2011

front door pin project

this has been the front of our little homestead since we moved in 5 years ago:


gray with black shutters. and the firetruck has not been there for all 5 years.

there are about 7 other houses on our street with similar layouts built by the same builder (we dont live in an actual neighborhood) and our color combo is by far my favorite. i even loved the bold (for our old-fashioned, conservative area) color they used on the front door:

red! with yuckster gold hardware.

but the hamster got really spinning in his wheel when i saw this on pinterest:

hey! that house is gray and black like ours. and that yellow door looks so cool!

there are so many house projects out there that we cant do just because, doy, all houses are different. so when i saw a cool, modern looking update that we might actually be able to apply to our lil' old house, i was pretty excited to try it out.

desert glow by behr. its a little golder than the one in the pinterest photo, but i'm down with that

primed and started. maybe i should have left it like this. its very "cadbury creme egg."

and the final after with an all-yellow door and oil-rubbed bronze spray painted hardware from this DIY pinspiration bonanza:

"oh, hi! i'm a very yellow front door. does my enthusiasm turn you off?"


and the whole new frontal look.

it was at this point that i started fretting. my brain starting spinning off into the creative space i fondly know as, "controlled progressive hysteria." the progression: it is too yellow. it is too trendy. it's too "forward" for our town. people are going to hate it. they are going to think we're whacko hippie freaks. they are going to laugh at us. they are going to throw rocks at our house. they are going to beat us up.

jesse eye-rolled me back to planet earth. but i still thought it was a lot of uninterrupted yellow. so i put on our green year-round wreath:

better, but not the AWESOME i was going for at the onset of this adventure.

enter etsy. i did a search for "metal address numbers" and found the wonderfully helpful and talented folks at dropmetal. i chose from their many font, size and finish options and commissioned these guys for $18. (if you buy from them, tell them putapuredukes sent you, because they might hate me because i was so over-involved and specific...but they were amazing to work with!)

perfectly cut 6" high metal numbers. smooth edges. pre-drilled holes for hanging- by request. LOVE!

we screwed them onto the center of our door and stood back to admire the view

i LOVE this. i think it looks so cool and contemporary but also informative and friendly

it also is perfect because our mailbox is across the street from our house and people sometimes have a hard time figuring out which house is actually #56. well, no more! this is some incredibly clear labeling.

the happy new view as i come home each day:

i feel like a pretty unique and fun family lives behind a door like that.

the bright yellow paint and oversized house numbers may not be for everyone, and i know i can and will do better in the wreath department (ours is SO old and busted up), but painting the front door was a quick little DIY project that made a big impact (you could even just stencil-paint the numbers on yourself...the possibilities are endless). bonus points for the fact that you could un-do it yourself in a flash since the door is such a small surface area and requires so little paint and effort.

if your front door is to your house what your smile is to your face, a new paint job is like a round of crest white strips. our house now has a polished, sparkly and inviting grin.

12 comments:

  1. I gotta say.. after the first after picture, I thought you were really stretching me! After the wreath and numbers I'm totally smitten! Very modern!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. ok so i pretty much never comment, but i read all the time and i have to say this is AMAZING! i love love love the contrast of the yellow and gray! and those house numbers? to die for. it's making me so sad that i live in a townhouse community where i can make ZERO changes to the exterior of my house... so i will just live vicariously through you. hoorah! way to go!

    ReplyDelete
  3. oooooh! i love the yellow! it's driving me to excessive exclamation points! but i really really love the big house numbers in the middle of the door. my husband, though well-intended, bought some pretty boooring house numbers for our small victorian abode. i wish i had the motivation to change them!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love it! I love how the house numbers look in the middle of the door, and the pop of colour the yellow gives.

    Out of curiosity, is the other side of the door yellow too?

    ReplyDelete
  5. @rycrafty, haha no the inside of the door is white with a charming baby handprint smudge finish. actually the thin left width side of the door had been painted red and i didnt paint it yellow, so when the door is opened and you look in that seam, its a very ketchup and mustard look. need to fix that STAT!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I LOVE it! Gray+yellow is my latest color combo obsession and I am totally into this. Awesomeness. You're totally getting pinned when I get to a real computer! (When is Pinterest going to get on board with an Android app? Yeesh!)

    ReplyDelete
  7. LOVE IT! A million times more fun than the already-fun red door!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love it! I even like it more than the red simply b/c it is different.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Those numbers are sexypants! Girl, you're on a roll!!

    ReplyDelete