Y’all.

You almost made it.

The long weekend starts tomorrow.

YOU CAN DO IT.

Sunshine and sweet tea and sleeping in and an entire season of North and South are just around the corner.

And maybe a project or two.

So because we are friends, just in case you have a little extra time in between reading and relaxing, just in case you needed a project idea?

I want to help.

Here is my MOST PINNED project from last year (and it’s still going strong now). I am so happy every single day that we did it and it’s easy and makes SUCH a difference without spending a lot of money.

Can you guess?

Drumroll, please.

My most pinned project from last year is……

THIS CONCRETE PORCH

Can we still be friends if I show you this?

YIKES.

Our house doesn’t have a garage. Instead, we have a carport attached to the back of the house. For more days of my life than I can count, I have pulled into this driveway and parked in this carport and opened and shut the car door and looked at this.

Concrete.

Yards and yards and yards of concrete with leftover paint stains and years of wear and tear and more miles on it than a Rand McNally atlas.

Concrete that absolutely positively was not cute.

I just accepted it. I knew it wasn’t cute and I thought it never really could be cute and I told everyone to use the front door.

And then?

We painted the brick steps on the front of the house. You can see that project here. We had tons of paint leftover and one day I looked at that concrete and it looked back at me and I went all Thomas Edison and had a lightbulb moment.

Why not paint it?

The mini-porch is 4′ wide and 24′ long.

It steps down into the driveway where you pull your car in.

Here’s a close-up of the concrete.

There are three doors that lead off this mini-porch.

There are the front doors that go into the family room.

There’s an outdoor storage closet and then there’s the door to the laundry room.

I’m about to show you the after, but before you do, I think it’s important to note that this porch was transformed with 2 gallons of paint and FrogTape.

That’s it.

Are you ready?

Here’s the after.

CAN YOU EVEN BELIEVE IT?

Please go back and look at the before from the same angle one more time.

Or wait.

Better yet.

Let me add it here again.

BEFORE

AFTER.

Paint and FrogTape.

And a little elbow grease.

BEFORE

AFTER

AND AFTER

And oh wait…..

AAAAAAAAAFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTTEEEEEEERRRRRR.

I think this is one of my favorite makeovers we’ve done at the new house because:

1. I see it every day
2. I had given up hope that it would ever be cute
3. It cost less than taking our family out to dinner
4. It made such a difference to an area of the home that everyone forgets about.

Want to see the step-by-step?

Oh, good.

I have it all ready for you.

Before and after back porch

Supplies:

FrogTape

Cityscape SW 7067

Grizzle Gray SW 7068

paint brush

Step 1: Clean your concrete

We completely swept and cleaned the concrete.

Patch any holes and make sure the surface is COMPLETLY clean of any debris.

You don’t want a piece of dirt to get caught on your paintbrush.

The thing I love about this paint—just like when we painted the brick we didn’t use a primer.

Step 2: Tape off and paint porch

We taped off next to the house and driveway with FrogTape and then painted Cityscape SW 7067 as the base coat.

We went ahead and painted two coats and painted the door frame Extra White SW 7006 trim paint and the doors with Tricorn Black SW 6258.

It was super rainy and humid, so we let the paint cure for about a week before we taped off the diamond pattern.

Step 3: Tape off the border

Here are the dimensions for the project:

Porch dimensions: 4′ wide and 24′ feet long

Border edge: 2″ from the side of the concrete and 2″ wide

We also added a border to the step, too.

This border is 2″ wide, but it’s only 1″ from the edge of the step.

I love how the stripes layer each other.

We taped off the stripe and then painted it Grizzle Gray SW 7068.

It needed two coats of the Grizzle Gray.

Here’s how the stripe looked like after we pulled up the tape.

Step 4: Tape off the diamonds

Each of these diamonds is 20″ x 20″.

My husband (the mathematician behind this project) suggested taping off the border first and then dividing the remaining area by the number of diamonds that you want to paint.

It’s important to note—when we were figuring this out—we did NOT take the step into account. We just acted like it wasn’t there and just let the diamonds fall where they may.

Here the porch with the diamonds taped off.

Make sure your tape is scored and all of the edges are firmly attached to the concrete.

Step 5: Paint the diamonds

Here are the diamonds painted with Grizzle Gray SW 7068.

The paint is still wet and hasn’t dried yet.

That’s the perfect time to pull up the tape.

Step 6: pull up the tape

I cannot recommend FrogTape ENOUGH for a project like this.

I have done zillions of projects using FrogTape and it hasn’t let me down yet.

There’s something so satisfying in pulling up the tape and seeing that beautiful clean line without any paint bleed.

Quick tip:  when pulling up tape—always pull away from the paint. This helps make sure your lines are extra clean and sharp.

One more time.

Just because it makes me so happy.

BEFORE.

And here’s the after again.

Do you have a space in your home that you look at every day that needs a little refresh?

Is a little encouragement.

You got this friend.

Truly.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend.

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