I was sitting around my home last week and said out loud, I’m bored. In reality, there’s no reason to be bored. I actually have lots of small and large projects, both inside and out to tackle! There’s no better time to stop, be grateful and love on your home! Plus the weather is slowly warming up across the country and I have a feeling it’s going to be a beautiful Spring and since it looks like we’re spending most of our Spring at home.

Now is the time! Today I’m sharing my budget-friendly ideas to tackle on your exterior during Shelter in Place, these are all projects I’m currently working on around my house.

FIVE BUDGET-FRIENDLY EXTERIOR PROJECTS TO TACKLE DURING SHELTER IN PLACE

ONE // PAINT YOUR FRONT DOOR - Spring cleaning your front door! Spring is the perfect time to clean and repaint your front door. Front doors are often in need of love and repainting. You can easily paint your front door with a quart of paint and opt to buy your paint online and pick up in-store; both The Home Depot and Sherwin Williams now have this option. Our front door takes a beating since it’s our main entry and exit point to our house (fingerprints etc.) plus it receives full sun throughout the day. Over the weekend, I gave our front door a good cleaning using soap and water (I used Dawn soap because it’s gentle and tough)

Sources: Door Color Antiquity by Sherwin Williams, Mailbox, Modern House Numbers, Hanging Planter (similar) Hello Welcome Mat, Chevon Planter, Ceramic Windchime (similar) and Garden Hose Holder

TWO // UPDATE HOUSE NUMBERS & MAILBOX - Over the weekend, I gave our mailbox a quick clean and quick makeover. I love the power of paint. I will love the style of the mailbox but was looking faded and I never loved the oil rubbed bronze finish. I used Krylon black spraypaint and quickly gave my mailbox a makeover. Those little exterior projects we all put off add up and quickly give our home a nice refresh. I’ve rounded up some of my favorite modern mailboxes to give your front entrance a new hello. Also, consider updating your house numbers, I love these house numbers. This is a quick inexpensive update!

SHOP THE LOOK

THREE // ADD HANGING PLANTERS AND GET PLANTING! - Now is the perfect time to plant pretty flowers in your garden. I love hanging planters, outside my front door and back porch I have hanging planters I got from Ikea ages ago. I love to add colorful flowers in them, and if I’m good and water properly they grow like crazy! I love this beautiful terracotta hanging planter, it would look amazing with succulents, flowers or terms!

FOUR // HOME MAINTENANCE - All the little projects you’ve been putting off outside, now is the time! Clean your windows, sweep the front porch, weed & feed your lawn. Trim your bushes, dig up that old bush you hate! Get all your outdoor ‘stuff’ organized. We recently added the KOLNJORN Indoor/Outdoor Cabinet from Ikea to our garage. It’s the perfect compact solution to hold outdoor patio items (outdoor dinnerware, grill stuff, and outdoor cushions) It was a pain to put together! But I’m so glad we got it and I already feel more prepared for this Spring & Summer.

FIVE // NEW DOORMAT = NEW WELCOME - One of the happiest and most affordable updates you can make to your exterior is updating your welcome mat! Over time they shred and fade, Spring is always a great time to add a new greeting! I just added a HELLO doormat to our porch and it makes me smile. Check out this blog post: 10 Quirky Statement Doormats for more ideas on welcoming guests (whelp in the future!)

I hope you’ve enjoyed my list of five budget-friendly outdoor projects you can tackle now! This is my little push to you and myself to not mope and around and declared myself bored, instead go outside and make things pretty to enjoy now!

I have a confession, I’ve been seriously neglecting my front porch. I’m talking ignoring the dead plants sitting in containers and the overgrown butterfly bushes. Basically it's hot mess central! By the third month of crazy hot temps in Sacramento, I usually throw my hands and up and tell the 100+ degree days you’ve won and I’m tired of watering plants that are dying. Last week, I finally got sick of looking at the mess and decided it was time I visited a few of my favorite nurseries (both local and big box) for some plants to spruce up my front porch for fall. When I got home from the nursery, I went right to work and forget to snap before pictures!

I brought some so many pretty flowers and bushes! In my large planter, I planted a large variegated flowering dogwood bush. I just love how pretty the leaves look against our grey home.

I planted yellow cone flowers, one in the ground and one in a large planter. The lady at the nursery told me they bloom all season, just make sure I dead head the blooms as they fade. In my other planter, I planted poppies,

Decorating my porch has always been a struggle for me, because on one side we have front + porch and the other side is our large front garden bed, the layout doesn’t give me enough room to place larger planters on the right side of my front door. To create some visual balance with the large trio of plants I have on the left side, I added a large marigold. The marigold is so pretty, I picked it up at The Home Depot for under $13.00 run to Home Depot and grab some for your porch or patio!

Next on my front porch project list, is to repaint our front door. Nope, I’m not changing the color at all. In fact I love this color so much! Instead, I’m giving the door a good cleaning and painting it Saturday morning. It’s in need of a fresh coat of paint, with our home facing South West it gets pretty much gets all day long. I plan on getting up early knocking the paint out and then coffee date with Hasani! Basically coffee + painting sounds like the perfect Saturday morning!