It’s August already!
What am I doing, still thinking of new plants + containers to buy?
I’m obsessing about these topiaries!
How sweet would they look inside a pair of these urns?
So what’s with all this landscaping dreaming,
so close to the end of summer?
Here’s what:
We’re finally getting stairs for our front porch!
This means we can now safely plant things next to them,
+ let’s be real.
Is that not the most up front + important spot in our entire yard?
OMIGOSH! LET’S DO THIS!
Calm down — back to those porch steps.
Here they are, in progress, just a few days ago:
A few days later, they’re still unfinished
but are sporting their new lattice “skirts” on each side.
So cute! — + matching the skirts underneath the rest of our porch:
G.O. started painting the new stair treads yesterday.
It was a challenge, as it always is, coming up with the perfect color.
Yes, I chose gray, but not just any gray.
It has to “play nicely with” (a.k.a. complement) all the other grays of our house,
most especially those near the new steps,
on the foundation’s stones + the lattice.
By no means do I mean that I want all the grays to match.
No way!
In my world, contrast is often more important than matching.
Since I really want the stair treads + porch floor to “pop” (a.k.a. contrast),
I decided they needed to be fairly dark.
Here’s the paint color I chose:
Knight’s Armor from Pittsburgh Paints.
Whoa. That’s DARK! — isn’t it?
Disclaimer: I really feared that it was too dark. Yikes.
My instinct was to forge ahead, though.
In the past, I’ve had remorse when I settled on a safer, lighter color
because I’d been too timid to go really dark.
Not this time!
Let’s see how those treads look, in place:
People. I have only envisioned this bit of happiness for years!
It’s like I’m dreaming!
Notice the porch ceiling.
G.O. has started stripping the old paint off the existing bead board,
+ we’ll repaint it a pale blue.
I like that light fixture (something discontinued from Pottery Barn),
but we’re thinking of replacing it with an outdoor ceiling fan.
Dunno yet.
Next, we’ll need some stair railings + posts + stuff.
Here’s what we have, at left, + here’s what I want, at right.
Stay tuned for a cool transformation (I hope!)
This concludes my porch musings, but wait.
Remember the pair of urns + topiaries that I want to get?
My plans are to place one on either side of our bottom step.
Perfect!
Maybe we’ll go shopping tomorrow — stay tuned!
REDBIRD 