My Curb Appeal Makeover

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I’m so excited to show you and tell you about my May assignment as a Lowe’s  Creative Ideas Ambassador and to tell you as well about a fantastic giveaway, too.  When I found out the assignment was a curb appeal project I nearly jumped for joy, because I’ve wanted to paint my front door for years!!!

The budget allowed was $100.  So here we go.

First, we sanded, primed, and painted the front door. (Yippee).  The poor thing was so weathered.

Here are the before and after pictures of the front door. We went with a green that matches the plate around our doorbell and a light fixture on the wall near the front door.  To add some drama and pop, we used a chocolate-raspberry color to frame it and left some white showing to give it depth and definition.

One of the really nice features of our local Lowe’s Paint Department is they will mix up sample size paints for a minimal cost so you can take them home and test them out.  We brought home two samples, one red and one green.  When we tested them out on the door, we didn’t like either, which is exactly why the sample sizes are so great:  We weren’t stuck with a gallon, or even a quart, of the wrong color paint.  Check this out!

At first, we were going to replace the doorknob, but we found some Brasso cleaner at Lowe’s and my husband cleaned up our original.

Next, there was a neglected path (there’s a small pond to the right) overgrown with grass and ice plant.  When we cleared it out, we discovered some long-forgotten stepping stones.  So we bought some bark at Lowe’s to remind us the stones are there.

Here’s the same path before and after from the opposite direction. The color of the bark is very close to the chocolate-raspberry around the front door, so it ties it all together nicely.

We had a lot of terra-cotta pots of different sizes stacked up in the backyard.  So we painted them with the green and chocolate-raspberry paints we used around the door and replanted them with some cactus and succulents we’d been neglecting in the backyard. Then we placed them on the front window sill. (left before, middle after, right close up)

We bought quite a few plants from the Lowe’s Nursery.  There were so many wonderful choices we ended up having to take a few out of our cart.  But we stayed in budget and still came home with quite a few beautiful plants including (from left to right on bottom of collage) a Black Dahlia (picture doesn’t do it justice), 4 six packs of Lobelia, two six packs of African Marigolds, a flat of Ice Plant with fantastic red blooms, and a beautiful Weeping Japanese Maple. In all, there were enough to plant a separate flower bed (top left of collage below) in addition to filling the pots near the front door.

Using those flowers brought a lot of light and color to our garden, here are the before and after pictures of the flower bed.

What do you think?  We had a lot of fun doing this project, and I smile every time I get to my house and see my beautiful green door and flowers.

 

Here’s a list of the items we bought at Lowe’s:

• Green paint for door $12.37
• Chocolate-raspberry paint for door trim $2.94
• 2 Sample paints $5.88
• Painter’s tape $3.93
• Foam paint brushes $3.34
• Brasso (for doorknob) $3.49
• Brown mulch (bark) $3.49
• Plants (Black Dahlia, Japanese Maple, Marigolds, Lobelia, Ice Plant) $53.80
• Potting Soil $4.98

With sales tax, about a buck and change over $100!

Here’s what we had in our backyard and garage already:

Terra-cotta pots, primer paint (leftover from earlier project), cactus, succulents (on window sill), doormat, sandpaper, rollers, trays, rags, stepping stones.

I want to invite you to sign up for the Lowe’s Creative Ideas Magazine, it’s free! Also, check out Lowe’s at Pinterest, a great resource for ideas and pics to get you started on your own projects at home, and don’t miss the Lowe’s Creative Ideas website where you can find all kinds of great ideas.

Now, tell me about you. Have a room that needs a makeover? A project you would like to get started? Are you feeling overwhelmed because organization is not your strength?  Well, how about a cool giveaway to get started?

Win it!

Lowe’s has generously offered one (1) $100 Lowe’s Gift Card for one lucky Mama Latina Tips Reader!  How cool is that? And participating for the chance to win is easy.  You just need to leave me a comment telling me what you would do to improve the curb appeal of your home if you were the winner, that’s it! That is your required entry.

Would you like more opportunities to win? I have a few of those, too! These entries are optional:

1. Subscribe or already be a subscriber to my blog by email or by RSS - 1 entry
2. “Like” Mamá Latina Tips on Facebook (or let me know in a comment if you already have)– 1 entry
3. Share the link of this giveaway in your facebook page – 1 entry
4. Like Lowe’s Creative Ideas facebook page – 1 entry
5. Follow me on Twitter and tweet the following:

Enter for the chance to win 1 $100 Lowe’s gift card @mamalatina http://bit.ly/KgcG0P #LowesCreator

(one tweet per day, just please leave me a comment for each with the link of the tweet) 1 entry per tweet.

Please leave me a comment for your required entry and for each option (1,2, 3, 4 and/or 5), so I know how many entries you have, thanks.

This giveaway will end on Friday June 15th, 2012 at 11:59 p.m. PST. No purchase necessary. Open to US residents only. Winner will be randomly chosen and notified via email. Winner must respond to notification email within 3 days or a new winner will be chosen. Void where prohibited. Entries/Comments that do not follow the submission guidelines will be invalid. Have fun and good luck!

 

 

Tagged as: African Marigolds, black dahlia, curb appeal, front door, Giveaway, Japanese Maple, lobelia, Lowe's, paint, plants