Ranch House Front Door Makeover – When we first moved into our house, I did a lot of work on the inside – adding an entryway, turning a small bedroom into an office/playroom, adding lighting, etc. – but other than doing some (necessary, thanks to the drought) xeriscaping, I pretty much abandoned the outside of the house. It was brown and dusty blue—an orange-brick “accent wall”—and sure, I thought I could paint it…but it still looks like this: a more or less personality-free ranch house built in 1969. It’s “my architectural details and Emphasize singular flair!” Not the kind of house that screams that. Because on this home, details and flair are nowhere to be found.
But still, every time I drove home, it bugged me how much I didn’t like it. So the first thing I did was paint my door pink. It’s pretty poorly done, because I did it myself, but at least it helped (a little). Then I decided the orange brick was the next worst place and my friend Erin helped me wash the mortar over it. And
Ranch House Front Door Makeover
, when we finished our cooking, I was so impressed with how excellent and affordable the painters were that I asked for a quote on painting the house and: yes. (FYI, if you’re local: I used Master Painters. If you click over to their site you’ll see pictures of this makeover, but not because they did the work for a discount or anything – I liked them a lot, so I gave them the pictures to use in their gallery.)
Curb Appeal Makeovers
What I decided to do: give a sort of nod to the house’s 1969 construction date with a Mod-ish color palette of white, black, and pink, and then figure out a few places to add high-impact details.
I knew I wanted to go for a white body with black accents (and a pink door, of course), but that wouldn’t look good in white-on-white and black-on-black homes (due to reflection issues and such). I took some samples and painted swatches on all four sides of the house (so I could observe them over the course of the day and see how they changed with the light), and ended up going with these shades:
If you look closely at the before and after, you’ll see that I didn’t put the blue over the dark gray everywhere else – I limited the trim color to the rain gutter and fascia. I surprised the painters by not wanting to add any more accents or paint the posts dark gray, but I wanted to keep the trim simple and feel substantial… and I had other plans for the posts.
: I initially thought about painting the brick white, but all I was told was “I painted on my brick because I wish it wasn’t there.” I wanted to try to make it a real accent wall and worked with my friend Erin (she’s a genius) to do a mortar wash (aka “German smear”) which softened the color, added dimension and gave the brick a more aged, distressed feel.
Remarkable Transformation Of A Mid Century Ranch Home In Aspen
: My initial plan with the posts was to wrap them in barn wood to keep them cool and reclaimed, but that ended up being more pain than it was worth. I ended up hand-distressing and hand-painting them to look like expensive reclaimed wood…and it worked. (Indeed.)
: This is a separate project, because it was born out of necessity (city workers tore out part of my garden strip during the great drainage disaster of early 2017 and I decided to go ahead and rip out the rest. My back in the process), but still: losing those huge hedges makes the property much brighter. And I think more open. What I did was use a pry bar and sledgehammer to cut away the rest of the concrete in the strip, then filled it with black mulch and added an autumn blaze maple tree and some low plants that do well in full sunlight.
As a final touch, I tried to find inexpensive accents that would really pop on the house (basically, maximizing bang-for-buck). What I added:
Ekena Millwork Cathedral Shutters: These are black vinyl faux shutters (meaning they don’t close). I’m fine with that, because the point of them is purely decorative, and the vinyl actually looks like real wood (except it’s a bazillion times cheaper). The type I chose can be customized to fit any size window you have (and if you’re not sure what size to get, this guide is helpful).
Photoshop Redo: Craftsman Makeover For A No Frills Ranch
Sea Gull Lighting Jamestown Lanterns: The amount of time I’ve spent talking and thinking about lanterns over the past two months has honestly been depressing. But they actually make a big impact, and man can they be expensive. I considered a whole bunch of lanterns at a wide range of prices, and ended up choosing the ones you see here as my favorites — even though they’re one of the least expensive options, at under $80 each. I like the thinness of the frame and the simplicity of the glass (it’s not inlaid, has no bubbles, etc.), and the curved handle gives it a bit of elegance that I think would fit well in a home. I know these are too many feelings to have about wall sconces.
Garage Door Accents: Growing up in New York City, I didn’t know that garage doors were something one liked or disliked. Aren’t they just doors? Isn’t their purpose to go up and down? However, they are clearly a thing that people get quite design-y, and an expense
Money on I learned this because I looked at the cost of replacing our garage door with windows (or something non-boring, really) and it was out of my budget. So I picked up a carriage-house style garage door hardware kit, attached it to the door, and presto: not boring. Or at least
But at this point, I think I’ve done more with less. I love the result – I literally walk outside at night and look at the stucco wash – and can’t believe my blah little house has turned into exactly what I was looking for.
Modernized Ranch Style House In Oregon
“Ten years ago, after a truly amazing career explosion, I created Ramshackle Glam to follow my experiments (and often failures) in the fields of fashion, beauty, entertainment and home decor, and in the years since the site has grown into something I never saw coming.” Good morning friends! Today I am sharing my design plans for the exterior of our home. We’ve lived in a brick ranch since the 60’s-70’s and lately I can’t get the idea of moving it out of my head. Since an addition isn’t reasonable or feasible for us, these changes are definitely doable, more budget-friendly (with a lot of DIY), update our home, and ultimately increase the overall value. I created a design board so I could stick to my original vision and not get distracted by the many great ideas out there.
Ultimately I want the exterior of my home to be Craftsman style, a style that has always had my heart. If you are in a similar situation and are thinking of updating the exterior of your home, this post will give you some ideas that you can probably implement!
Here’s a nice first look at the exterior of our house so you can see what we’re dealing with:
Since we moved in, I’ve lightly white-washed the brick, which helped a bit. We painted the front door and shutters, installed carriage-style hardware in the garage, and added a little bistro set to our front porch. Those are pleasant changes, but I’m ready to make some more drastic changes.
Ranch Home Back Porch Addition — House Full Of Summer
Let’s start with the columns, shall we? Honestly this has been bugging us (specifically Bruno, my husband) since we moved in and was really the kick-off point for the rest of the changes to the exterior of the house.
We want to put in some colored columns (special walnut from Minwax) and add a 3rd column on either side of the front door. Stain Stained planter boxes combine with…
…and a wood-look craftsman-style front door. Since the front door is a big purchase, it may take some time to replace it. But we will get there… 😉
I wanted to update our shutters with some fresh craftsman-style, v-groove shutters and paint them a lot less aqua than they were in the past: Wythe Blue by Benjamin Moore. Let me tell you a secret – I’ve already built these, but I can’t share them with you yet! 😉 Hurry though!
Modern Ranch Exterior
I also like the dark hinges shown below and the shutter color is similar to what we are doing so you can get an idea of what it will look like.
Another big change is our plan to paint the brick. Half of our house (including the entire
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