Curb Appeal on a Budget

Why does everything fall apart at once?  Our oven died right after Labor Day.  The front door paint started peeling.  The mailbox rusted over the summer.  Panes of glass cracked in our outdoor hanging pendant light.  Ugh.

Front of the house before the fix

Since the dead oven was an unexpected expense, I had to fix the front of the house on the cheap.  We’ve always had a problem with people finding our house number, so I figured I would fix everything at once.  Paint the door, add new numbers, new mailbox and new pendant light over the front door.

I was just doing a refresh coat on the front door in the same color (Benjamin Moore Bronzetone), so now to find new door numbers. The old ones are above.

Voila!  Big 5″ door numbers in a more modern font.  $5.98 each at Lowe’s.

 
My plan was to paint the numbers the color of our house, so I had to prime them first.

I had some leftover house paint in the garage, so that was easy!

Door getting ready to be painted.  We sanded down the saddle in front to stain it a much darker color to match the door.  The old stain was too light and got dirty very easily.

My (dirty) cracked pendant light.

I found this pendant light at Pottery Barn on sale for $239.  A similar look, but definitely updated.

My mailbox.  Actually, never liked it, but was too lazy to do anything about it.

Rusted and about to fall apart.

The new mailbox is very basic, but I found it in the same color as the front door.  Perfect!  New door numbers dry and ready to hang.

  
Ok, what do you think?  Old vs. new?  Not a huge difference.  You can definitely see the door numbers now.  Mailbox doesn’t have the cheesy gold detail.  The pendant light is similar, but has a more modern feel.  Door looks fresh with a new coat of paint.

I am very happy with the changes.  It looks fresh and updated.

This was a quick and easy update, done in two weeks.  Wish all of my projects were this easy!

the wry home