Welcome back to my blog. In all honesty, I finished this porch last week but I always have a harder time trying to post this whole process on my blog. Every time I try to sit down, I have two toddlers that want my attention. Whew! So here I am typing as fast as I can to give you guys a recap of what it took to give our back porch a more inviting look and feel.
I took a lot of pictures this time around to really give you a full overview of this project visually. (I apologize about the lighting in some of these pictures because they were taken during different times of the day so some may look brighter than others.)
So this was the before picture of our porch. I have yet to post a video of the outdoor furniture that I created, but I promise that will be the next thing on my list to tackle. :) So the first thing that I did was pressure wash the space. Preparation is always important. Of course our concrete is only several years old but already had red marks and other stains that wouldn't come out even with pressure washing, so instead of buying a huge outdoor rug which ranges anywhere from $100 to $150 for the size that I wanted, I decided to paint. I looked up a few articles on Pinterest about painting concrete and which kind of paint was the best to use for spaces like this.
This project unraveled in one weeks time because I had to pressure wash the pad and let it dry completely, So while, I was waiting for the next day, I decided to pressure wash our house. :) (Just look at me getting stuff done:)
The next day I took my time to paint the door. You may not have noticed it but I painted the doors black. Even though this was a new house, we didn't have much of a say in regards to the finishes of this house because we bought the house when it was complete. I didn't mind the beige color although it wouldn't have been my pick, but overtime the paint started to peel off from the door, so not only the door looked dirty, but the paint was coming off as well. ( I honestly think that they didn't use the right kind of paint on the door.) The one that I used was by the brand called Behr (local Home Depot.) It already comes tinted. I believe it was close to $30 a gallon. (This was latex paint for exterior surfaces.) So this was the paint that I used to paint the door with as well as the design on the flooring. My two color choices were black and white with the white being the base. (Both the same brand Behr and both are already pre-tinted) (see pic below)
I used a brush to outline my concrete pad and then a roller for the whole surface area.
I had to go over the surface area twice to make sure that all of the areas were covered. Since it's a rough surface, you really have to press harder with the roller in certain areas but overall it wasn't that hard. This was day two. I let it dry for several hours and then moved the furniture back into place because I was going to wait until the next day to do the design and also give it more time to cure before taping the areas with blue tape and risking the paint coming off with the tape.
The third day, I used my tape measurer to figure out the dimension of the concrete pad and then to figure out the full design. Initially, I wanted to do triangles in different directions but when I checked the dimension, the design would not have looked that good.
Using a sharp edge blue tape. (more sticky and heavy duty) I created several stripes going away from the door and then came up with two designs on both sides.
I ended up liking this one better, so I had to recreate the same design on the opposite side. I used a straight wooden plank that was two feet long and then a triangular tool called a square to make all my lines straight. (The square is a tool that the is used in building to figure out angels and also help you to make straight cuts.) (On the top right corner of the pic below)
I used a small foam roller to paint over the black areas as well as a smaller precision brush for the corners. Again, I had to go over the areas twice to make sure that there weren't any bald spots. As soon as I finished the second coat, I took off the tape. (it's better to do it when it's still wet because it's less likely that the paint will come up with the tape in some areas) Because this is not a smooth concrete pad, of course some areas bled through the tape, which I used one of my make-up brushes to make all of the lines sharp and straight.
So, now I am going to look for a smaller area rug or just the outdoor door mat to help with the traffic. Most people would probably be skeptical to use white on the floor but not me. :) The paint made the concrete very smooth and actually makes it harder for dirt to stick to it. This project took me about a week to finish since I also decided to update the swing as well. I changed out the rope to match the flooring, the hardware, made the seat a lot wider and lower to the ground, as well as stained it the same stain as my outdoor furniture.
One of my favorite things about this project is that now when you look outside from the inside, the porch feels very inviting. I know most people like to sit on their porch in the spring time but I personally think that this is the best time to enjoy the outdoors.
The next step is to add my coffee table / fire pit. Which is going to be another fun project that I am excited to share with you. Until then, you can browse through my previous projects that are on my blog. :)
What do you guys think about this porch transformation? Comment below :)
Create Coleture, Be YOU
Viktoriya Cole