Our pretty new patio doors

Well hello and happy Friday! 

I'm back with an "after" of the project I mentioned earlier this week. If you missed that post you can see my tips on picking out the perfect paint color and how I worked with Sherwin-Williams to find a fun new color for our exterior doors: 

(The winner of the giveaway is announced at the end of this post!) That spot was looking a little sad, right? I'm so thrilled with it now! It's beautiful! 

I used a new paint for this project called SnapDry and it was AWESOME: 

This paint is perfect for painting doors because it dries SO fast. You don't have to worry about taking the doors off the hinges or keeping them propped open to dry. There are things to consider when painting with this paint though and I'll cover those in a second. 

Before you do paint any door you'll want to do two things -- first, make sure it's not painted in oil-based paint. I tell you how to determine that in this post -- it's a very simple check but important. You may have paint peeling off of your door if you don't check that first! 

I knew these were painted in latex so I was good to go. Before painting you'll want to either do a light sanding or at least clean the surface well: 

This is especially important outside where things get dirty easier. Let it dry and then start taping off anything you want to avoid painting. I am pretty good at cutting in nowadays but I did tape off some of these doors.

I was a little giddy when I opened the can -- this color (called Refuge) is so pretty!: 

As I mentioned earlier in the week, I picked this color to work with our outdoor rug and accent colors on the deck and patio:

It also works beautifully with the wood stain on the deck and the dark brown trim color. But more than anything I wanted to break up the expanse of beige siding on the back of our house and I'm so glad I did! 

I did NOT paint the plastic mullions on the doors. I've given that up because of the disastrous first time I tried to paint them on a door and then when I painted them on the interior of the doors it was a total pain in the butt. Never again will I attempt that -- they look fine as they are. ;) I am good at cutting in but I did tape these areas off:

Even if you are good at cutting in I recommend taping this off -- you'll need to be able to work somewhat quickly and having the tape there makes that possible. 

Here's a few tips and things I noticed as I used this SnapDry paint: 

• The staff at the Sherwin-Williams store were super helpful and recommended that I brush and then roll right over immediately to avoid brush marks. This helped a ton -- I would brush the areas next to tape or along the sides and then immediately used a sponge roller right after to smooth it all out. 
• You do need to work fairly fast with this paint but not so quick that you can't adequately do the job. I focused on one part at a time and moved on -- no going back over something a few minutes later. 
• It was a SUPER hot and humid day when I painted (and in full sun) and it didn't dry too fast. If it was hot and dry and sunny you may have to work a little bit faster. 
• I did one section at at time -- side, top, side, bottom. Here's a graphic that shows you how I do paneled door: 

What I LOVED about this paint is that it was dry to the touch literally within minutes. I was able to get subsequent coats on much faster than usual because of that. 

When I stood back I was so happy with it, but the sore thumb of a light was looking awful. We went super cheap with the exterior lights when we moved our doors around a couple years ago and they had not held up well. I grabbed a new coach light for by the door: 

It's so much bigger and makes a statement unlike the other one. 

I filled the pots with new flowers and now this spot has been transformed!:

The color on the doors is such a good match to the outdoor rug nearby! 

A few of you asked about brush strokes with this fast dry paint, and as I said, if you brush and then roll you shouldn't have any problems: 

I ended up touching up a bit next to the plastic mullions and you can't see where I brushed there -- the paint still levels out nicely. 

I'm so happy I went with COLOR for these doors!:

I have big plans for the exterior here but it will wait till next year. They will look even better when I get that done! :) 

Here's the new light fixture up -- it's so much better than our little washed out lights: 

We have two more to replace on the bay window but that will have to wait till the budget allows: 

Moving our back door from the bay window to this spot is one of the best changes we've ever made in our house. The flow is SO much better and the amount of light they let in is awesome! 

Here's my favorite part -- where we look back at the before shot: 

And see the difference some color makes!: 

It was totally worth sweating buckets while I painted them! Another good reason to use SnapDry -- if you are painting outside you'll finish up much sooner! ;) 

The winner of the $200 Sherwin-Williams giveaway is Alyssa who will visit the #8147 location in Dublin, CA! Alyssa please email me by the end of the weekend (thriftydecorchick @ gmail dot com)  to receive your prize! :) 

Have a great weekend my friends! 

This post was sponsored by Sherwin-Williams but all experiences and thoughts are my own. I only work with products I use and trust. 

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EASY, inexpensive and beautiful DIY spring wreath!

These are my favorite kinds of projects/posts my friends! Quick DIYs that are easy to replicate and aren't going to break the bank. This one is especially easy! 

I found this tulip wreath and fell. in. LOVE with it: 

But the price? Seventy dollars?? 😳 It's gorgeous but I knew I could make my own. 

I gathered my supplies -- this grapevine wreath I had already. I recommend grabbing one when they're on sale (I believe this one was $5 after half off). I love these because they're SO easy to stuff with seasonal items:

Then I went to Hobby Lobby because their fake flowers were half off. I grabbed way more than I needed just in case (they're usually half off every other week so I wanted to make sure I had enough): 

So pretty! 

I used my wire cutting pliers and started cutting the stems off the bunches: 

Then you just stuff them in! It really is so easy. Just place them where you want. 

I thought it looked pretty with just a couple bunches on there:

But I wanted a fuller look so I went with six bunches total: 

LOVE it! Mine was $24 and is even bigger than the one online. Score! 

I used six bunches at $4 each. I had the wreath, but as I mentioned, you would easily come in under $30 for a very full and large wreath. If you go with a slightly smaller grapevine wreath you'd be able to make due with fewer flowers too. 

I use a Command hook to hang my wreaths on the glass door. This is what I use and it's made for wet locations. We don't get any of the elements on the door, but I used it just in case. It's stayed up for years and held HEAVY wreaths: 

It's hard to get a photo of the glass door without me in it. ;) You don't want to see me in my comfy pants so here you go: 

SO pretty! I just love it! Mine measures about 24 inches across, bigger in some spots. You can make it bigger or smaller with your placement of the tulips. 

Of course you can use any fake flower or greenery for a wreath like this! I love that I can take them out, keep them for next spring and reuse the wreath for summer. It takes maybe ten minutes to add the flowers in once you've got them cut. 

If you don't want to DIY this wreath these are some BEAUTIFUL options. I'm so ready for spring!:  

White and yellow full tulip wreath

White and yellow tulip wreath 

Pink tulip wreath

LOVE the pink!

Light and dark pink tulip wreath

Affiliate links included for your convenience! 

Our fall front porch (and new landscaping!)

Hey all! I hope you had a lovely weekend! I celebrated my 41st with friends and family and it was just perfect. The 40's have treated me well so far. :) 

I got an early birthday present when we had some landscaping torn out up front a few days ago. We planned to do this forever and haven't made it happen till now. I saved up a bunch of coupons from our local nursery and we got new plants at a discount. A friend's son did the tearing out and replanting for us at a great price, and I'm SO HAPPY to have this done!

If you remember, we had our small front steps torn out last year and replaced with wider cement steps. Still one of the best changes we've made to our house -- I can't believe it took us that long to do. 

The next phase was this simpler landscaping. I planted azalea bushes in the front shortly after we moved in years ago and they did great...too great. They were overgrown and eventually half dead because they had no more room to grow. 

They are absolutely gorgeous for two weeks in the spring, but in the winter our front landscaping was bare. Also, they were so close together it was nearly impossible to keep up with the weeds and trees that were constantly taking root: 

Note that it didn't always look quite this bad! I let it go knowing we were getting it taken out. ;) It drove me crazy because it was always such a mess. I was constantly pulling tree sprouts and those are not easy to pull. 

I've talked to you about this side of the house before too -- it was a mess: 

I hated the bushes I planted there ten years ago. That rose bush on the corner bloomed maybe a couple times every two years or so. 

We also had lilies that were huge every year but never bloomed anymore either. They were being choked out by the azaleas: 

So we had it ALL torn out. I was so ready! We tried replanting an azalea last year and it didn't survive. We don't have a good spot for them and the light they need (and they were half dead underneath) so we didn't keep them. I thought I would be sad but I wasn't. :) 

We replaced them with five simple plants -- three boxwoods and two buckthorn trees:

Edited to add -- many have mentioned concerns about the buckthorn in the comments. This is a Fine Line version and it is non-invasive. Sounds like other species of this plant can cause major issues but I'm not worried about these. 

And my goodness, we are both SO thrilled with the change: 

The side of the house looks bare and not so pretty, but we don't even care: 

I'm going to take my time next spring and make a better plan for what we want there. I'll be researching that this winter. 

The front porch got dressed up a bit for fall -- those fluffy mums are my absolute favorite!: 

We had even bigger versions on the patio last year and I'm obsessed with them. 

I did a very simple fall wreath with dried hydrangeas stuck inside: 

The "S" cutout was from Micheal's months ago but I bet they still have it (I spray painted mine). 

It's hard to get a good view of the landscaping from this side of the house because of our trees, but this is how it looks from this angle: 

And here's a reminder of how it looked before: 

So. much. better. Whoot! One more project off the list for this year! 

Our son is a good gauge for projects around the house...if he likes it I know it's a good change. He was hesitant about having all the old plants taken out but when he saw the new, simpler look he said "good job Mama": 

Ha! I always feel validated by the nine-year-old! :) 

This is a start...I plan to add some color in the spring of course. I've missed my window boxes so those are going back up soon. I'll actually be able to get to them now! 

It's a much simpler look but man, I am so craving that lately in our house. I know the holidays will bring more STUFF and I'm just loving editing everything right now. It feels so good and this change was one of the best. The front of our house can "breathe" now -- I'm excited to add on to this next year! 

I know I haven't shared a garden tour this year -- and we've focused SO much on the exterior of our house this summer. We had the pergola and deck stained, had the trim on the house painted of the first time in 12 years, painted the back patio doors a pretty blue and this project of course. We didn't do new mulch this year to save some money and overall my garden didn't do as well this year either -- it was really weird. It was an odd year for most of my hydrangeas. I may still do an exterior tour sometime this fall when the leaves change though! 

Fall is a GREAT time to plant! Do you have any landscaping projects coming up before the winter hits? 

**I realized the other day I forgot the before and after link up AGAIN this month so it will go up next week. Winning.

How to pick out the perfect paint color

Hello all! I'm getting back into the groove after some time out of town with what else…a little DIY project. School is starting soon and I'm starting to feel the excitement of getting on a schedule again and preparing for fall. This is a fun time of the year for me because I'm usually fairly lazy over the summer (although I've been more productive than usual this year) and I get amped up to get things done. 

For this project I joined up with Sherwin-Williams again to share more tips on picking out the perfect paint color. I KNOW this is something so many of you struggle with. I've been there. Remember my orange office? :) You will save yourself so much time and effort if you are sure of your paint color before you begin. 

I'm working on a smaller project this time (more info in a minute) but I wanted to share how I picked out the perfect paint color. I've heard about the new ColorSnap system in the store (if you ever watch HGTV they've been sharing this) but when I walked in it was even better than I imagined:

THIS, my friends, is brilliant. I love it! I geek out about this kind of stuff, really. 

It's so easy to find the color you're looking for because you start with a broader tone. Love. Neutrals are big and I think always will be, so one end is more of those. I gravitated towards these two because the are the gray/beige tones that I love: 

When you turn one of the squares around (bring your kids -- they'll be entertained for hours) you get an array of colors in that tone: 

Before paint chips were always arranged by color, which works of course, but they had about six colors per paint chip. You had to pull out each one to see everything. This is so. much. easier. 

I found my beloved Analytical Gray (most of our house is painted this color) very quickly: 

They are still arranged by tones, which is helpful as well. 

As much as I love neutrals I was looking for something different this time. I'm painting our patio doors and really want to create some contrast and pull in some of the gray blues I've incorporated into the decor outside: 

It took mere seconds for me to find the square I needed:

Isn't it pretty? I told you a couple years ago how I've completely changed my views on using blue in our home. I used to dislike blue but now I use it everywhere -- it's my favorite color. 

When I turned the big square around I was excited to see my blue/gray options:

I found a bunch I liked immediately and just kept pulling: 

You see the direction I'm going with this? Kind of a moody blue. It will make a statement on the back of our very neutral house. 

These are the colors I ended up with and I also grabbed a chip of our shutter and trim color to compare them in the store:

This is the thing though -- do what I did. Grab as many colors as you like. You won't regret it -- I ended up going with a slightly different tone than I originally wanted. 

Here is a before photo for you…the flowers are barely hanging on right now: 

I painted that trim black last year and liked the dark contrast. We had our house trim painted this summer (for the first time in 12 years, yikes!) and they went ahead and repainted with the dark brown we use on our shutters instead. 

This area gets full sun so I made sure to check out the paint chip in the area where it will be painted. This is important folks! I know it's easier to grab a chip and decide in the store but I cannot express to you enough how important it is to take it home or get a sample before you buy. 

Check out the sample in the space you'll be using it. The same color will look different in different areas of your home. Darker rooms will look different than those with natural light. Paint in a room with fluorescent lights will look different than one with LED bulbs…there are a lot of variables. 

So when I got the chips home and started checking them all, I went with a color with a lot more aqua in it than I originally planned:  

Refuge for the win! I really, really love it. It's a beautiful blue, right? And it pulls in the color of our outdoor rug nicely. 

The helpful folks at my Sherwin-Williams store helped me pick out the perfect paint for this project. I'm excited to try it out! It's called SnapDry and it's made to dry quicker so it's great for doors. I'll show you the makeover later this week!

Now I have some fun news -- if you need paint for an upcoming project this weekend is the Sherwin-Williams Love for Color sale. It will run this Friday through next Monday and all paints and stains will be 35 percent off. Here's a big time tip for you…listen close. :) If you go into the store and buy untinted paint during the sale you can take it back later and have it tinted when you need it. So if you know you'll need paint for an upcoming project but don't know the color just yet, this is an AWESOME perk. Be sure to check with your local store before you buy!

To kick off the sale, the lovely folks at Sherwin-Williams are offering a $200 gift card to a lucky reader to spend as you wish. This giveaway is now closed.

I'll be back with my finished door makeover later this week! 

This post is sponsored by Sherwin-Williams but all opinions and experiences are mine. I only work with companies and products I know and trust. 

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