Exterior Makeover AKA Operation Add Curb Appeal

Hollie McClintock
Jan 28, 2021
3 min read

Updated: Jan 28, 2021

I'm finally ready to share all the details of my favorite home project of 2020, our exterior home makeover. I like to call this Operation Add Curb Appeal. When we bought our home it was a dull shade of brown, and had almost zero landscaping besides a little patch of grass and some bark. We hardly had any walking room to walk beyond our vehicles to get to our front door. We knew we wanted to brighten up our California home, and make it feel more inviting by adding a welcoming entry, sitting area, and some more greenery. I love decorating for holidays, so I also knew our design had to be equipped with a walkway to line with pumpkins each fall.

First, we played around with various shades of white. I ended up narrowing it down to Sherwin Williams Alabaster, and Sherwin Williams Shoji White. our biggest concern was going too stark white and blinding our neighbors when that bright sunlight hits. We ended up going with Shoji White after researching the web for hours and hours. I scoured through multiple homes in various shades of white, and for our home style Shoji White was the best option. It has a subtle hint of creaminess and a pale greige. It has been one of the most popular exterior whites and I am not surprised! It's absolutely beautiful.

When deciding on accent colors, a couple painters we spoke to were adamant that every home needs to have 3 colors. We ended up choosing 3, but at the last minute I went with my gut and stuck to two. The two accent colors we initially picked were Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze and Intellectual Gray. Both beautiful shades, but something in my instincts loved the simplicity of only using two colors. Urbane Bronze was the perfect accent color because it's not black, but a little softer shade. It contrasts so nicely with the Shoji White and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out!

(See more details and photos below)

AFTER:

Paint: Sherwin Williams Shoji White*

Trim: Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze*

Plant in archway: Bougainvillea

Plants in big pots: Plumbago Blue

Notice how I love drought resistant plants that love the heat?

Large pots: The Madd Potter Nursery (Fallbrook, California)

*NOTE: We ended up getting these paint colors in Valspar Duramax exterior paint (not Sherwin Williams) because we were told it's a much more durable exterior paint.

BEFORE photo courtesy of Google Maps:

This is the inspiration board I created before we got started:

House paint colors BEFORE:

Brown paint, green toned shutters, and a creamy beige trim.

We had this garage door custom designed through Home Depot. It was actually the first thing we did to update our exterior.

Choosing Paint Colors:

Picking up all the paint!

Exterior Concrete and Walkway:

While we were busy choosing paint colors, our contractor built forms for our concrete patio and walkway. This entire area was full of bark and mulch. One of my favorite features is the lights in the steps that light up at night.

Here it is starting to look more welcoming already!

After the top cast was power washed off:

Concrete done, ready for paint!

Let the painting begin:

Backyard:

My Instagram poll when I knew in my gut the two colors was what I wanted (lesson: always trust your gut)

We are loving our new seating area so much! Sitting out here sipping wine, watching the kids ride scooters while watching the sunset is my favorite time of day.

Sources:

3 piece Antonia Furniture Set

Indoor Outdoor Rug