interior design: Looking better all the time!

Time to share another progress update of our yard and house rejuvenation project!

But first… can you believe that Susan, from the terrific blog Between Naps on the Porch and host of the extremely popular blog party Metamorphosis Monday, is fast approaching her 1 year blogoversary?! How fantastic is that?! And to celebrate this tremendous milestone she’s giving a little something away each day of her blogoversary week!! So once you’ve read my little post, be sure to head back to Susan’s Between Naps on the Porch to enter her give-away (today, every day!!) AND to check out the transformations shared by her many, many Met Monday blog party participants! Congratulations Susan!!!

Now… my Metamorphosis Monday contribution :-)

This weekend… we painted our house.

Our little 1939 working-man’s bungalow before:

And earlier today…

Not quite finished (story of my life!!), but ohhh so close!

We (well… specifically, my brother Brad) painted the house a lovely, warm, rich Gloucester Sage (Benjamin Moore) which I HEART, and now it’s my turn to paint all the trim which… as you can see… will be black. Finally, I’m using Butter Cream (also Benny Moore) on all the railing spindles. I still have to finish the deck railings… and, after my husband re-sides some areas, I’ll be painting the stair base in the next week or so in more Gloucester Sage.

Speaking of my husband… while Brad and I were working on the house Brian was busy, busy, busy digging, tramping and building more retaining walls!! In the photo above you can see that he’s almost finished with wall #3 (close to the house) and he’s finished the first row of wall #2 (just behind the first wall). He’s doing an absolutely wonderful job!!

Wanna see how crazy I am??!!

The two photos below were taken when I was up, painting the fascia at the peak of the house… I was certainly a little terrified! In the picture on the left… waaaayy down by the side walk… you can barely see Brian, where he was working on #2 wall!! Yikes!

Finally back on solid ground… I painted the front door!

On the left, the original door. I liked this door allot, but one of the panes of glass in the leaded window was cracked and the door panel was a single, skinny piece of wood – that and the fact that there was a mail slot in it (i.e., a hole!) meant that cold winter air would seep in very easily! So last fall we replaced it with a great AND insulated door. Of course when dressed in white it was only a little bit special.

Now that it’s RED, though, it’s really, really special!!!

I LOVE it!!

Okay… now I need YOUR help with TWO decisions…

One: In order to relate the Butter Cream I used on the railings back to the house, I decided to paint a detailing on the fascia in the same colour. The thing is… I’m not sure whether I like the look. Take a look… Brian says he’d prefer to have it all black… what do you think??

Two: I LOVE the Sundried Tomato I used on the front door… my issue… you can’t really see the door from the street :-( How sad that only people climbing the stairs can enjoy this wonderful colour!! So I found myself wondering if and where I could incorporate the red colour in the house. Of course I could do it with flowers and other plantings… but then I thought of this…

…painting a red strip just below the black of my stair & deck railings. Above is just a sample – I only painted one coat so it’s not quite as red as it would eventually be – but a little something to give Brian and I… AND YOU… and idea of how it could look. Again, what do you think? I’d carry this colour all around the front deck, too.

Please share your thoughts on my two queries above!!

And then make your way back to Susan’s Between Naps on the Porch for more fun transformations!!

Thanks everyone!!