Porched.

Our exterior has a colonial/Victorian flair to it. It's a pink white-washed brick, white cylinder columns, detailing woodwork between the porch columns, and dark shutters around the windows. That does not reflect our interior AT ALL. We knew we had to update it, but what we had to figure out was what is the least amount of work we could do or the least amount of money to get the biggest impact.

We decided to cut out all the detailing and case in the columns with new wood (square columns), and paint it a really organic color. Not sure if "organic" is the right word... But I love it. I use it to describe the natural, outdoorsy, living, rock, moss, green look. Makes sense to me!

Ben's parents came into town a couple weekends ago and helped us execute this. Thank God they did!! They brought a suburban full of tools that made this project exponentially easier. We had to case in 7 columns total. Mitering all the edges of all the planks was the most time consuming. Other than that, painting with the oil based paint was the next trickiest part. If you read my post about me painting our baseboards... you know how I feel about oil based paint!

Buying a pre-fab column from Home Depot costs $100-128/column. Hand making all our columns cost <$57/column. Woo hoo!

We chose paint from Behr, and it totally changed the vibe of our house. All we need to do now is purchase a couple boulders to put in the front garden... and maybe steal a couple outdoor chairs from my parents :).