Disclaimer – This is a sponsored post brought to you by Behr Paint Company. All opinions are 100% my own.
The front porch for the Monroe House was a lofty goal for us. It has so much that happened to it – that I really need to write an entire seven-part series on the transformation.
But for today I wanted to share the juicy stufff…the big nasty before and the amazing after! I am so proud of the way it turned out and we could not have done it without the MVP of this project…BEHR® Paint (and stains).
So let me start at the beginning….when we bought the house, the front porch was a huge eyesore. It had a screened in porch and overhang that looked like a very aggressive mustache.
The demo of that really freed the house from the weight and allowed it to look like what it is – a historic home. Obviously the house still needed work but the disrepair was more than we could handle so we brought in pros to pour footers, rebuild the porch and replace all the old mismatched boards with historically appropriate tongue and groove flooring.
At the same time, the house also got sheathing, siding and new paint. You can read all about the adventure of painting the house with BEHR® Paint here. The fresh white paint and blue front door encouraged us to keep rolling so we decided our next project was to stain our front porch!
**Spoiler alert** – I could not be happier with the way it turned out! The new stain color is like the perfect subtle team player.
I will share an in-depth tutorial on how we stained the patio soon…complete with instructions but for now, I just wanted to share the before & after. Let’s face it – I have the patience of a two-year-old in a candy store and I just could not wait to show all these beauty shots first 🙂
So here are some beautiful BEFORE & AFTERS of the space….
BEFORE
AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER
The best part about this project is that the semi-transparent stain that we used allows the natural beauty of the wood to show….we wanted it to be clear that we used almost identical tongue & groove to the historic originals. We used the BEHR PREMIUM® Semi-Transparent Waterproofing Stain & Sealer in Drift Gray ST-137. Also, I love the fact that the Drift Gray color that we picked was subtle and nodded at the color of the original salvaged door.
The entire vibe of the porch feels so patriotic (yes, the flags help) and fresh. Kinda like the American Dream in porch form. The color of the door and ceiling are fresh and clean and it plays so well with the smooth white and the gentle stain color of the floor. I could have gone with something bold and dark but this porch does get a lot of sun and we wanted to prevent it from getting too hot. This was just light enough and I believe it will work with all the holiday decor and still hide dirt.
All that being said – I was extra thrilled because Behr is hosting a Red, White & Behr Sweepstakes where you can tell them about your exterior projects and win a prize to help with your DIY! That’s amazing! I love Behr’s products personally and I hope one of my readers wins because you guys are always so helpful to me with your advice and encouragement! So if you are interested – here is the link – GOOD LUCK!