Front Porch Makeover Reveal!

The last two or so months I’ve been working very hard on a big project I’m finally able to share! Lately I’ve taken to only posting on my blog when I’ve got an impressive project, and I hope this time you won’t be disappointed. My front porch makeover reveal is ready and you will not believe the before and afters! First, let’s remind you what the porch looked like when we bought the house…

You know last summer we completed a large scale exterior renovation that included new siding, soffits, facia, and gutters. We also moved the patio door to be right off of this porch from the dining room area. New cement was poured as well and at that point, the porch was looking like this:

A lot better, but still not as welcoming or charming as I would’ve liked.

Wood Plank Porch Ceiling

The first thing I did was plank the ceiling with thin plywood. This gave some warmth and interest to the space as well as covered a lot of holes, rot, and issues with the beadboard that was there.

Watch the how-to video here:

After the ceiling was installed, it already looked so much better!

Clubhouse Makeover

This porch had a creepy closet off the side of it that was in awful, smelly shape. I spent two weeks of this front porch makeover redoing this little room. I constructed walls with plywood, built shelves, replaced the door, painted every single surface, and made this an area my kids could play in as their “clubhouse.”

This video is fun to watch because the before and after is truly surprising!

I also redid a kids furniture table and chair set to go in the clubhouse as an adorable feature.

So cute, isn’t it!?

Porch Wood Flooring Makeover

The floor on the front porch had a patched area that wasn’t in good shape and previous termite damage in the clubhouse. As I dug into this project, it ended up being more damage than I realized! When I took up the patched area, a large area of the floor joists were rotted through. I ended up constructing a new joists system and cutting in a larger patch. The new patch I painted with a geometric design to look like a DIY rug.

See how terrible the rot was under the porch in this video:

The rest of the floor I simply painted fresh!

Fixing the Front Elevation Foundation

The porch makeover would have looked sad if I left the front elevation as it was. I took the time to patch the cracks and prime/paint over the cement foundation. I also covered the wood plate with a plywood veneer and capped it with aluminum flashing to protect the plywood from moisture damage. Here’s hoping this solution lasts me a while, but I know it’s unusual. I guess we’ll see how it weathers over the Minnesota winter!

Build Porch Bed Swing

Now everything on the porch itself was fixed up, it was time for me to build the star of the design! I dreamt up a bed swing and talked my building design over with a few people. After weeks of piggybacking, tweaks, and thinking, I finally began creating what is probably my most impressive and complicated build to date!

I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out!! If you love it, too please pin this image!

Front Porch Makeover

I did other little DIY’s for the space like the “Sit and Relax” sign hanging on the back and more of my hanging wood planters for some greenery above the porch railing.

We sit out on the bed swing all the time – it’s like an outdoor living room! I’m so happy I took the time to transform this front porch, it really ramped up our curb appeal.

I hope you loved coming to the blog today and I surprised you with everything I completed for our front porch makeover. If you want to stay up to date with me on a daily basis, Instagram is probably the best place to follow me. If you want to see all my videos, come subscribe to my Youtube.

Thanks for reading!