Still Making It My Own

We moved to the new place in June and as I've said before on this blog, I've been anxious to transform it. This morning, a big piece of the puzzle fell into place, the shutters . . . ahhhhh . . .

I LOVE plantation shutters. They are like a piece of furniture in your window and when they are closed, they really block out the light. They saved us from baking in our old house with the sun beating into the tiny family room during the summer.

Here is a "before" of the new house. I had the outside painted a color called Antique Tin by Beher. The neutral stucco and brow trim was boring and had zero "pop". (The landscaping will be a huge summer project).

It took me a try or two to get the color right. Here is Light French Gray by Beher. It looked great on the chip, but when I got it onto the stucco, it was baby blue. Not right for this style of house.

I decided to go in the opposite direction and went with a very dark gray which looks nice against the white trim and gives the "pop" I was going for.


Those washed-out garage doors really stand out. I live on a busy street and have gotten lots of compliments from neighbors and walkers about the improvements. I don't think anyone noticed this house before and now between the new paint, shutters, and all the crazy garden stakes, it's bound to get some attention!

I was thankful to have window treatments when we moved in, but I think these must have been original to the house built in 1973. They had a way of entrapping flies and ants that made them a pain to clean; I had to stick the vacuum inside of them. The man who made and installed the shutters told me he had seen these types of shades peppered with dead insects. Gross.

They were some kind of synthetic nylon and had gotten dark and dirty over the years.

There are also some homes in this subdivision with these fake window panes. I loved them in my old house where they were original and real, but these were stuck on the inside with metal clips and were painted brown on the side that faced the street. They had to go.

I use a guy named Mike Goodrick in Kansas City for my window treatments and he is a pro. He did the wonderful Austrian valances in the Midland downtown.

The blades on the shutters are beveled and this adds some wonderful detail.

What a difference!

And the tiny shutters for the sides of the front door.

Tahh dahhh! Beauty and functionality since I had nothing over these windows before.

And I drove by the old house the other night and for the first time in six months, I felt nothing. I think I'm putting my mark on the new one, making it mine, and identifying with it. The old house is sure cute, but now it's just somebody else's.