Let me just start this by saying that I’m a bit embarrassed to show you the “before” situation here. I’ve come to realize that while I’m pretty good at decorating the inside of my house, (if you can call my granny chic – flea market – thrift store style decorating) I am completely lacking in the outside decor area. My version of decorating the outside of our home has mostly involved hanging a wreath on my front door and painting my yard flamingos, “Johnny and June,” when their paint started chipping. So last month when I was suddenly inspired to paint our front door I knew I better jump on that train before it passed by and never came back.
I found some great swatches of my favorite color – what I like to call “vintage turquoise.” You know that color, right?! If not, come on by my house and I’ll show you, because it’s EVERYWHERE! I was really excited when I sent the swatches to our HOA for approval, and then really bummed when they denied all of them. Apparently our neighborhood has a thing for beige, beige, and sometimes a little grey. So after complaining for about a week about how lame the HOA is, I finally decided on the least offensive color in the pre-approved packet that came with my denial letter: good ‘ole grey. I definitely gravitate to cool colors, so grey > tan, brown, cream, beige… Once the door was painted I started pulling in my beloved turquoise in the form of flower pots, a basket, a new wreath (obviously!) that I made from vintage fabric, an old quilt, and the cutest little birdhouse that Kingston painted. And I hung some turquoise bottles from a tree in our front yard.
And you know what? I think it worked out great! All those fun little accessories wouldn’t have worked if I had painted the door my original choice!
Also, I’m turning into a bit of a weird plant lady. I’ve been planting a lot in our backyard and am actually enjoying taking care of all of them. The other day Anderson saw me watering some flowers for the second time that day and commented on how it had rained the night before, so the plants were probably fine. And I said, “No. Some of them need a lot of water. Trust me – I’ve been taking care of them, and I know what they need.” Whoa! As soon as it came out I was like, crap. I’m old. And I’m a crazy plant lady!
My favorite part about decorating the outside of our house is all the color it adds. The outside is finally starting to look like the inside!
Side note: I’m dying to hang some fun pieces on the outside of our house, but it’s stucco. And everything I’ve read says it’s not a good idea to drill into the stucco. Does anyone have any advice? Have you successfully hung stuff from your stucco walls?