Tag Archives: painting furniture white

Front Porch Makeover #3: Just Add White!

I think this could literally be my mantra “Just Add White!” I LOVE LOVE LOVE all things white! White flowers, white walls, white furniture, white towels, white pillows, white bedding, white t-shirts…..WHITE RULES in my books!

In today’s post, I’m going to demonstrate how the simple act of adding white can dramatically change a piece/space! (Although this is a front porch post, I will say this is also foreshadowing our dramatic master bedroom makeover….stay tuned!)

We installed a cedar porch swing when we bought our house in 2008. It was starting to look pretty sad and I briefly tossed around the idea of staining it, but quickly settled on going with a durable exterior white paint instead.

BEFORE: Not only does this show the sad state of the swing, but of my porch in general!
AFTER: I know many people hesitate to paint out wood as they feel they are somehow damaging the integrity of the piece. I don’t think there is any denying that white paint took this swing from sad to spectacular!

When we moved into our 1921 home in 2008, the basement could not be described as “finished” but there were some walls up and a few different shelves and cabinets. This nasty little shelf was one of them. It was wobbly and pretty much useless, but nevertheless we must have seen some potential in it. After collecting dust for more than 10 years, we finally decided to give it new life!

Tim cut a back and top from some scrap wood. This of course not only helped to give it more of a finished looked, but also took the wobble out. He also added some little salvaged caster wheels we had on hand. I painted the shelf with exterior white paint and found the perfect spot for it on the front porch.

Stay tuned for the final Front Porch post and see how it all comes together!