{"id":19836,"date":"2019-08-13T14:12:02","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T14:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.homedepot.com\/?p=118082"},"modified":"2019-08-19T17:42:36","modified_gmt":"2019-08-19T17:42:36","slug":"southern-front-porch-makeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homeimprovementblogs.com\/hg-blog\/southern-front-porch-makeover\/","title":{"rendered":"Southern Front Porch Makeover"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The first impression your house makes on new guests is in its curb appeal, particularly the look of the front porch area. To make his home feel more inviting, Mike Poorman of Woodshop Mike<\/a> took on a full front porch makeover inclusive of fresh paint and stain, and a few key product replacements from The Home Depot.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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We knew the front porch of our fixer house needed a massive restoration when we first moved in. With peeling paint, filthy siding, and rusted, drooping ceiling fans, nothing about it screamed \u201cWelcome home!\u201d\u00a0 In fact, our delivery guy even admitted he wasn\u2019t sure anyone lived here when he first pulled into the driveway. How\u2019s that for some restoration motivation? Now that we\u2019ve gotten the help of The Home Depot, follow along to see what we\u2019ve done to completely revamp our southern front porch! You can also see the full tutorial here<\/a> on my YouTube channel.<\/div>\n
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Southern Front Porch Makeover Steps<\/h3>\n
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  1. Clean Vinyl Siding<\/li>\n
  2. Prep Painted Surfaces<\/li>\n
  3. Strip & Condition Decking<\/li>\n
  4. Install Fans<\/li>\n
  5. Install Outdoor Lights<\/li>\n
  6. Replace Doorbell Button<\/li>\n
  7. Paint Railing and Shutters<\/li>\n
  8. Stain Deck<\/li>\n
  9. Install New Front Door<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Step 1: Clean Vinyl Siding<\/h3>\n

    To kick off this front porch restoration, I sprayed the vinyl siding down with Wet and Forget<\/a> with my low pressure sprayer<\/a> and let it soak on the surface for 15 minutes. This product is typically meant to be applied and then left to work its magic as rainwater washes it off, but I knew that would be difficult under the roof of my front porch. I grabbed a soft wash brush<\/a> and scrubbed the surfaces, then sprayed everything down with water. The amount of grime that trailed down the siding was truly impressive! Who knew the house was actually white?<\/p>\n

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    Step 2: Prep Painted Surfaces<\/h3>\n
    The paint on our wooden railings was original from the house’s construction in 1997, and was long since ready for a new coat to relieve it from its duty. Before I could paint, I needed to remove the chipped layers and scrub it down thoroughly. I used Quick Strip Discs<\/a> on my angle grinder<\/a> to quickly remove any chipping paint.<\/div>\n
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    I then applied phosphate-free TSP<\/a> with a low pressure sprayer and scrubbed the surfaces with a deck brush<\/a>\u00a0I rinsed it off with my pressure washer<\/a> on a low setting and then allowed the surfaces to air dry.<\/div>\n

    Step 3: Strip & Condition Decking<\/h3>\n

    Sections of our decking had poorly applied remnants of an orange stain, while others were worn down to bare wood. I needed to get everything back to a clean slate before applying new stain. I used Behr Wood Stain & Finish Stripper<\/a> stain on our back porch project<\/a> and loved it so much that I bought it again for this front porch restoration. Then, I applied it liberally with a polyblend roller<\/a> and allowed it to set for about 45 minutes.<\/p>\n

    \"Front<\/p>\n

    Using a deck brush<\/a> I scrubbed the surface and watched as the old stain came up easily! I repeated this process across the entire deck and then used the pressure washer<\/a> to rinse everything off.<\/p>\n

    To neutralize any residual chemicals from the stripper and condition the boards for new stain, I applied Behr All-In-One Wood Cleaner<\/a> using a roller. After 15 minutes, I scrubbed the deck and sprayed everything down with the pressure washer once more.<\/p>\n

    Step 4: Install Ceiling Fans<\/h3>\n

    The first thing my wife noticed about this house was these terrible fans. They were too small for such a big front porch, as well as rusted and completely useless. We couldn’t wait to install new fans and actually catch a breeze from them!<\/p>\n

    \"Front<\/p>\n

    First, let’s remind everyone at home that electricity can kill you! If you aren’t comfortable taking on this step of the project on your own, please hire a professional.<\/p>\n

    I first cut power to the fans, removed the old ones, and trimmed the vinyl siding to fit the new fan’s mounting plate. I then installed the new Hunter Mill Valley Fans<\/a> according to the manufacturer’s directions.<\/p>\n

    Now, isn’t this view a far cry better than before?<\/p>\n

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    Step 5: Install Outdoor Lights<\/h3>\n

    We decided to add extra lighting and style to the front porch with new outdoor light fixtures on both sides of the front door. Since we didn’t have existing lights already in place, this job had a few extra steps involved.<\/p>\n

    First, I marked where we wanted the lights to hang and used a multi-tool<\/a> to cut out the footprint of a vinyl siding mounting block<\/a>. I secured the vinyl mounting block with screws.\u00a0 To run the electrical, I had to remove a few sections of our vinyl ceiling, which was made easier by my Malco SideSwiper <\/a>tool. I wired the lighting according to the instructions and installed the lights.<\/p>\n

    We love that these have photocells on top to sense when it\u2019s dark enough to turn on automatically at dusk. Plus, they have LED lights, which help to keep our electrical bill down.<\/p>\n

    \"Front<\/p>\n

    Step 6: Replace Doorbell Button<\/h3>\n

    The doorbell button original to the house kicked the bucket sometime before we moved in, so we bought a\u00a0replacement button<\/a>,\u00a0shut off the power at the breaker, and installed it following the manufacturer’s instructions. Again, only tackle this if you’re comfortable working with electricity!<\/p>\n

    \"Front<\/p>\n

    Step 7: Paint Railings and Shutters<\/h3>\n

    The original paint was oil based, which we wanted to cover with acrylic paint. To do this without issue, we first applied a coat of Gripper primer<\/a>. This product works wonderfully and dries within an hour so you can start painting quickly. We then applied one coat of PPG Timeless paint<\/a> which really transformed the railings to look like new. We used a few key Wooster paint supplies like a\u00a0shortcut brush<\/a>, 4-1\/2″ roller<\/a>, and a Pelican\u00a0bucket<\/a> for painting all of the handrails and trim.<\/p>\n

    Our black shutters were faded and dull, so I removed them and applied a fresh coat of Behr Premium Plus<\/a> in the color “Carbon.”<\/a> It\u2019s amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do!<\/p>\n

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    Step 8: Stain Deck<\/h3>\n

    We chose to use PPG Timeless Transparent Stain<\/a> in “Oxford Brown” after loving how well it’s held up since our back porch renovation<\/a> last fall. I brushed it on using a stain brush<\/a>. This stain was\u00a0dry to the touch in 30 minutes, and ready to walk on 24 hours later!<\/p>\n

    \"Front<\/p>\n

    Step 9: Install New Front Door<\/h3>\n

    After changing the layout of some interior walls at the front of our house, the amount of natural light coming in from our south-facing front porch was really diminished. We wanted a door that would let in as much light as possible. We chose a pre-hung 3\/4 light farmhouse style door from ThermaTru and painted it “River Rock”<\/a> with Behr Premium Plus<\/a> paint using a\u00a0sprayer<\/a> before installation.<\/p>\n

    To test the fit we removed the old door and lifted the new door in its place. I trimmed down some drywall, hardwood flooring at the doorway, and cut new vinyl trim to ensure a perfect fit. We then lifted the new door back in place and secured it to the door frame using the supplied screws.<\/p>\n

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    I transferred the handle hardware<\/a> (which we’d installed a few years prior) from the old door and then filled the gap between the door casing and rough opening with Great Stuff.<\/p>\n

    \"Front<\/p>\n

    I think it’s safe to say that after all that hard work, the delivery guy might recognize that someone lives here now! We’re thrilled with how updated and inviting the space looks, and already find ourselves drawn to spending time there, especially with an ice-cold lemonade in hand while the Hunter fans cut through the summer heat.<\/p>\n

    \"Front<\/p>\n

    We hope you’ve enjoyed our front porch restoration project, and would love to see how this post has inspired you! Just use #woodshopmikeibuiltit with any photos of your own porch projects.<\/p>\n

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    The post Southern Front Porch Makeover<\/a> appeared first on The Home Depot Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The first impression your house makes on new guests is in its curb appeal, particularly the look of the front porch area. To make his home feel more inviting, Mike Poorman of Woodshop Mike took on a full front porch makeover inclusive of fresh paint and stain, and a few key product replacements from The…<\/p>\n

    The post Southern Front Porch Makeover<\/a> appeared first on The Home Depot Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":19838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1783,6,1,1795,1793,1855],"tags":[555,2282],"class_list":["post-19836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-curb-appeal-ideas","category-diy","category-home-improvement-blogs","category-outdoor-living","category-patio-ideas","category-thd-owned-content","tag-paint","tag-uncategorized","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeimprovementblogs.com\/hg-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeimprovementblogs.com\/hg-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeimprovementblogs.com\/hg-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeimprovementblogs.com\/hg-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeimprovementblogs.com\/hg-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/homeimprovementblogs.com\/hg-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeimprovementblogs.com\/hg-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeimprovementblogs.com\/hg-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeimprovementblogs.com\/hg-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeimprovementblogs.com\/hg-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}