I hinted at this in my newsletter about a month ago, but the time for our exterior makeover is finally here! We’ve had so many plans for the interior since the day we bought the house, but our Mid Century House Exterior Makeover is something I spent the past winter scheming and planning for.

*BEHR Paint, Troy Lighting and Targett’s Windows & Doors sponsored this post, but all thoughts are my own.  Thank you for supporting the brands that make PMQ for two possible.

The Plan for our Mid Century House Exterior Makeover

The plan here is to unify, revitalize, refresh, and repair. This house is a diamond in the rough, and our job is to make it shine again. Much like the kitchen reno, the bones are good, but there’s been some wear and tear over the years that went without repair.

Check out how much we’ve done in the one year since we bought the house.

The house needs a new paint job, new lighting, a new door, and a new balcony. We’ve lined-up all of these projects, and scrimped and saved to make it happen.

What our house looks like now

The Abbitibi siding was painted a blueish grey, to pick-up on a shade in the stone. It’s a pre-fab type of siding that was popular at the time of construction, and has aged relatively well. I hold no particular attachment to it.

The windows are original to the house, and probably need to be replaced, but that’s just not in the budget right now.

Over the years, the previous owners added a few things, removed others, and in the process of prepping for the house to be painted, a lot of random elements have been removed. We’re stripping the house back to it’s era appropriate bones, so that when it’s painted, everything looks cohesive again.

BEHR’s Marquee Exterior Paint

No surprise, we’re using a palette from BEHR’s Marquee exterior paint line! I first found inspiration for the exterior paint when I was perusing the Colorfully BEHR blog. They did a post about easy exterior updates, and I loved the white they chose for the first palette.

I don’t have a lot of experience picking whites, so relying on a pre-tested palette felt like the smart choice. I opted not to use the blue for our door, but only because we’re getting a new one (and it comes painted by the manufacturer). 

We were initially unsure about painting the stone siding, but our neighbours painted theirs and it looks amazing. We’re using White #52 on the body of the hose (siding and stone) and Pure White on the window trim. We debated going the trim in black, but decided against it for the moment. All our inspiration images had white on white, so that’s what we stuck to.

New Exterior Lighting

There’s no point going through the process of painting the exterior, if we’re not going to update the dusty old lighting. These lanterns are def original to the house, but they look dirty (even though they’re clean) and the scale of them is way off. Time to refresh! As always, we looked to the Hudson Valley Lighting family for our selection, and found quite a variety within the Troy Lighting brand.

We chose the Tisoni lights for the front of the house, the basement patio, and are adding a new light by the mudroom entry. To say I’ve been waiting just as long to do this as I have the painting, is 1000% true.

We’ve got some more lighting to tool around with, including some more task oriented configurations near the garage, but it will make everything come together in such a cohesive way.

p.s if you saw me walking around the exterior of my house at all hours of day and night, holding up lights with a quizzical look on my face, it’s because dang those things take a while to decide.

New Front door

Whoever decided to remove this house’s original front door, and replace it with this frosted glass monstrosity should have their design license taken away.

I’m returning the front of the house to its previous (assumed) glory, with an era appropriate exterior door from Targett’s Windows and Doors.

I’ve chosen the Sydney door to match the interior doors, and it will be cased on the inside and out using the same trim.

 Picking an exterior door is something I’ve wanted to do for a while, and once we found out we were going to be painting the house I jumped at the opportunity to complete the look. 

The Sydney is a classic silhouette, and one that completes the front of the house, without trying to overwhelm it. And when we update the garage door, we’ll get it to match!

New Balcony

We have a lovely balcony that runs the length of the house (about 45′) and connects the living room and principal bedroom. The previous owners thought putting carpet over two layers of linoleum was the way to go. Unsure why. Needless to say, the whole area needs a new shine, especially since it sits right off our main living area.

We partnered with MultyDeck to re-do the area, and I’ll have a video about that in a week or two. 

Landscaping 

This house sits on a great big lot full of mature trees, with lots of greenery. The state of things when we moved-in was one of badly needed upkeep. Shrubs were enormous, flower beds hadn’t been maintained, and since we don’t really have a green thumb between the two of us, we decided things needed to be streamlined.

We’re removed a BIG shrub that was obscuring the front of the house (hence the giant dead patch in the pictures), we’ve decided to trim and maintain others, and will eventually remove some entirely since they seem to have grown willy nilly. 

We also tilled and then planted trees in the garden along the driveway for enhanced curb appeal, so we’re off to a good start there.

All this to say, we’ve had a busy spring, and we have a busy month of June ahead of us! But hopefully by the time this is all done, we can appreciate our home’s exterior for the beautiful space it is.