Oh, Shutter, Shutter

Now that we've been in our house for a year (holy cats, a whole year!) we decided it was time to shake up the outside appearance a bit. The faded hunter green shutters and front door just weren't our bag. I knew I wanted to paint them and since the house is white, we felt the color choice was pretty obvious. Black. Classic, simple. I wanted to do the door in a fun color but all my suggestions were quickly vetoed. Black, it is!

You probably can't tell but this is a before picture. The shutters are still green here but because it's rather dark, they probably already look black. Admittedly, the green was dark but it had to go anyway. Taking down the shutters was quite a feat. Some of the screws were actual screws, albeit rusted. They came out with the ease of a drill. Others were big, thick plastic shutter screws. not so simple. Our choices were to pry them away from the shutters to start, and then unscrew them by hand. I chose that method. John chose the cut-off-their-heads-rendering-them-useless-and-pry-out-the-shaft method. I wonder whose worked better.....? Suffice it to say, he had to go back out and purchase 24 new screws. More on that later.

Once all 6 shutters were down, I got to work. John thinks he's a good spray painter. He subscribes to the "thicker is better" theory. While I, having read up on the subject, know that multiple light coats are preferred. On the vinyl shutters, we used Rustoleum Universal in Black Satin, by suggestion of the Lowe's salesman. I purchased 4 cans but used only 2 1/2 on 6 shutters, 2 coats.

Here they are side by side, old and new.

And here they are all lined up

The painting was the fast part and we had some nice weather that day so they dried pretty quickly. The day before, when taking them off the house, the weather was not so cooperative. We also discovered that our ladder is a smidge shorter than the lower roof on the house. Oops! John went through the window instead, after we spent 15 minutes cursing while figuring out how to remove the screens. We are quite a pair when it comes to home improvement. Let me tell you!

Our brand new screws were far too shiny. Time to remedy that! Wouldn't you know it, not 5 days after I ruined this box with spray paint, my brand new Shox that came in the box started falling apart. I'm hoping Nike will be nice and take them back anyway. I've only worn them about 10 times! I digress.......instead of getting my fingers even blacker with paint than they already were, I shoved them in this shoe box. It worked like a dream.

When the shutters and screws were dry, John hung them all up on the house. This is the only full shot I have. I realize in this crappy picture you can't really tell they're any different from before but, trust me, they are!

I love how they turned out and the project was easy enough. Taking them down was the worst part, and that's what I thought would go the fastest. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Back tomorrow with how the door turned out. Stay tuned!