It’s almost May can you believe it?! We have had a beautiful April so far. I’m a little later getting our front porch ready for Spring this year. When we built this house three years ago the plan was to stain our front and back patios. Well we decided to finally DIY the front one last weekend and it didn’t turn out quite like we envisioned.

We had smooth concrete installed when we built so that we could stain it later. Well since it wasn’t sealed it absorbed every bit of mud and and everything else. It looked terrible. Here is a before:

Those two white blobs are left from rotting pumpkins! They must be acidic. We tried everything to get them up with no luck.

The below pic is from winter so it looks really bad but you can see the brown stained concrete there.

We bleached the porch first to get the mud stains up then started staining with a charcoal color. Long story short, it looked good until we put the clear coat on. It turned shiny black! Not the look we wanted. Keep in mind if you stain, the wet look sealer will turn your color much darker.

Paint to the rescue!

Look how much better it looks! We decided we had to paint it because there was no way to get all the stain up. We needed a solid color. I chose Classic French Gray by Sherwin Williams in their patio paint. It has the sealer built in. One coat and done.

The porch looks so sleek and clean now! I wish we had started with paint!

We also gave our old rockers a fresh coat of black paint. They aren’t perfect but I love the contrast of the black with the white.

The best part was getting to partner with Old Time Pottery for new planters and accessories!

They have several weather proof woven planters that I love.

I chose a bigger rug this time and I really love it here. Also the pop of black of the Hello doormat.

A new wreath to add some greenery to the door!

The tall black planters are perfect for my ferns. They really show up now with the gray patio.

I went with another one of my favorite side tables from Old Time Pottery but this time in a concrete look. I just love the shape of it.

Black and white pillows to tie everything together in the chairs and swing.

I feel like our wood accents really stand out now against the gray floor.

We really love the new porch! Wish we hadn’t spent a weekend staining and then trying to remove it but we learned a lot. Just paint it 😉

Thank you to Old Time Pottery for really helping our porch look fabulous! Check them out for all of your outdoor spaces!

Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO,

Jo