Front Porch Makeover {For My Mom!}

I love having my mom live relatively close to me. It allows us to visit often and help out where needed. I recently tackled the exterior of her home and today I am sharing the front porch makeover!

This post is sponsored by HomeRight. The thoughts and opinions shared in this post are 100% my own. This post contains affiliate links.

Front Porch Makeover

I originally set out to simply paint her porch railing. But it ended up being a "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie" scenario where once I started, I kept adding to my to-do-list.

Cleaning The Siding

My mom has a well and unfortunately the well water is very rich in iron. She has a crazy filtration system for inside her home, but the outdoor spigots are not part of that. As a result, over the last 40+ years, her house has turned orange. I used a product that was safe for grass and plants. Then I sprayed it on and scrubbed like mad. I was pretty impressed with how clean it became. The places with the most orange did stay a bit tan. But it is not noticeable from a distance.

Painting Porch Railings

The biggest job was definitely going to be the railings! The paint was peeling, chipping, and flaking off. The bottom half was also stained from the sprinklers.

Due to the age of her home, my mom had a professional come out and test for lead paint before I started the removal process. You can also buy a testing kit at Home Depot or Amazon.

I was introduced to a tool from Wagner called the PaintEater and it is my new best friend! I was amazed at how quickly it took the old paint off. Watch my video to see it in action.

Make sure to wear eye protection, a mask, and use leather gloves when using it. It is powerful and really does eat the paint of QUICKLY!

After I had hosed it down and it had dried, I went ahead and caulked any gaps or cracks with exterior paintable caulk.

Once the house was tarped, it was time to paint! I used Behr PRO E600 exterior paint in satin. I filled my trusty Super Finish Max sprayer and had the railing looking like new in no time at all!

The Super Finish Max sprayer comes with multiple tips to use depending on what product you are using in the sprayer. Red is for primer and latex paint. Green is for latex, chalk and milk paint. Blue is for stains and polyurethanes.

Painting The Front Door

I decided part way through this whole porch makeover process that I wanted to paint the door too. My mom loves pink so I brought her a bunch of paint chips and she picked Rose Rocco by Benjamin Moore. I had it mixed in Behr Premium Plus enamel exterior paint.

After sanding it and cleaning it well, I used the Super Finish Max to paint the door.

Front Porch Plants

Along with cleaning the siding and painting, I also landscaped added some hanging ferns, and my mom planted flowers in her planters.

Shane was able to lay these very heavy cement blocks in the ground to create flower beds. These bushes are called Danica Globe arborvitae and they won't get much bigger than they are now. You don't have to trim them at all and they are cold hardy down to zone 3!

Personal Touches

The cute black dinner bell is from my mom's childhood home and has always looked perfect mounted to the porch post.

This church pew is from my mom's church that she grew up going to and has been on the front porch my whole life. It was a favorite spot to sit in the evenings.

I'm really happy with how it turned out and more importantly, so is my mom :)

Are you lucky enough to have a front porch?

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