Home Remodel: Before and After Exterior Paint

We weren't originally planning to paint the exterior of the house before moving in, so when we made the last minute decision to have it painted we had 1 day to choose the colors! I quickly began searching colors online and asking friends for any input or suggestions that they could offer. I knew that I wanted to paint the exterior grey, but there are about a billion shades! I found a picture on pinterest, here, that I really loved. I have also always loved pictures of colorful front doors, so we decided to go with a bright and cheery yellow front door! You can't really tell in the before picture above, but the roof was green, so we also painted that as a temporary solution until it is replaced in a few years. We also have future plans to one day get rid of all the rock in the front yard and replace it with grass.

Here you can see that the house originally had a beige block with green accents. We also replaced the front light with a vintage barn pendant from restoration hardware. 

 BEFORE PAINT

AFTER PAINT

BEFORE PAINT

 AFTER PAINT

BEFORE PAINT

AFTER PAINT

 We painted the exterior block and walls with Dovetail Gray by Sherwin Williams

We painted the trim White Dove by Benjamin Moore

The front door was painted with the color Daisy by Sherwin Williams,

however he added some white to match the color Lemon Twist (shown above).

Mixing it that way allowed us to get the paint in an exterior quality paint.

The roof was painted black using Behr Masonry and Stucco Paint.

Fireplace Makeover

Here it is...the fireplace before in its awful messy condition and finally looking finished! The before picture is the condition it was in when we bought the home. Just want to make it clear, that is not my mess. :) We debated different options for remodeling the fireplace, like stucco, eliminating the bench, drywall, and others. However, we decided we wanted to keep it inexpensive so we stuck with mostly paint to update it. We (and by "we" I mean my wonderful brother-in-law) drywalled over the brick above mantel. We also drywalled over the brick to the right of the fireplace. The beams were removed from the ceiling in the family room to help the room feel open and the ceiling higher. That left us with holes in the brick above the mantel (shown below). This is what led us to the decision of drywalling over the top portion. We still need to place an outlet cover on and do some final paint touch ups, but for the most part it is done! My friend Alexis, with Design by Lexi,  did a great job staging it for me.

 Here is the fireplace in the in between stages, and my little helper.

We painted the fireplace brick in Benjamin Moore's Anchor Gray.

We painted the mantel and the tile on the bench in Benjamin Moore's White Dove.

Our wall color is Benjamin Moore Gray Owl.