Easy Curb Appeal Makeover – Before and After!

Here’s an easy curb appeal makeover that won’t break the budget! Does your front door need a lil pick-me-up? Mine sure did! Here I’ll show you my front door makeover, DIY style.

(Scroll down for the BEFORE and AFTER pics!)

As you can see, there was absolutely nothing redeeming about my old front entrance. For years we used the back door, exclusively, in the hopes that no one, ever, would attempt to enter through that nasty old front door. In the above pic, you can see the standard, very worn, builder grade door complete with the peeling trim and rotten wood at the bottom on both sides. That wood had to be cut out and replaced. On either side of the door were tiny, 30 year old, outdated sconces and then there’s the grime that seemed to be the color of the stoop. It all had to go, but without breaking the bank and without breaking my back. So, I took my time and did it little by little…

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Step 1: Replace the light fixtures to maximize curb appeal

The first thing I did was replace the tiny, tired sconces with a couple of lovely Kichler sconces similar to this one, below. It’s important that your sconces are big enough to make a statement. In general, your sconces should come close to being approximately 1/3 the height of your front door.

WHAT a difference those sconces made! Though everything else was still a mess…

Step 2: Paint the door

Next I painted the door a soft black. I chose Benjamin Moore, Wrought Iron. While Wrought Iron is definitely black, it’s not at all a harsh black. I love it!

The door and sconces looked great, but the porch and trim were awful. This is what I had at this point:

Step 3: Power wash the stoop

I was thinking I’d have to find a way to cover the stoop, possibly with wood, since it was just a dirt color. I didn’t realize that it was actually just dirt! LOL All it needed was a good power washing and that’s exactly what I did. I rented a power washer for a day from my local home improvement store and got to work.

It was a MIRACLE – my porch came to life! I couldn’t believe what I was seeing while power washing. What a relief! One less thing to think about…

Step 4: Fix and paint trim

But that trim though…ICK. It continued to peel. The inside bottom portions of each side were rotten and needed to be cut above the rot and replaced. We used a variable speed oscillating multi-tool like this one to cut out the rotten wood:

Once the rotten wood was replaced, it was then time to caulk, sand, prime and paint – WOO HOO! The last steps before the fun of styling the entrance for this curb appeal makeover…

The newly painted/repaired trim made a HUGE difference in our home’s curb appeal makeover! My entrance instantly went from ‘still needing work’ to really pretty nice. It all looks brand new! 😀 I am SO happy I took on this curb appeal project! I now love my front door entrance and I’m pretty sure I just raised the value of my home. 🙂

Check out the curb appeal before and after:

In case you’re wondering, I got the striped mat on Amazon. It’s an indoor/outdoor mat which is important, since we don’t have an overhang. The mat on top came from Target – Magnolia Home! 🙂

You can see in another pic, above, that I originally had a different mat that wasn’t necessarily an “outdoor” rug. Not a good idea. That first rug got soaked with the first rainfall and absorbed much of the brown/tan coloring of the natural rug on top and stained terribly. This striped rug is an “outdoor” rug and didn’t do any of that! It’s now been on my front stoop for several months and STILL looks brand new! 🙂

100% RECOMMEND this rug!

Just ONE thing missing…a while ago we had replaced the doorknob with another standard doorknob to effectively change the lock, but OH how I’d LOVE an Emtek door handle like the one in this pic below! Don’t you think this handle would be absolutely gorgeous on my door??! DANGIT

I want it. -_-

Patience is a virtue…

That’s a wrap, folks! Time for me to get grateful and get dinner too…

I hope this Easy Curb Appeal Makeover – Before and After has inspired you to freshen up your front space. Comment below and tell me your thoughts!

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