Pepper Design Blog

Curb Appeal: Our Saltillo Tile Porch

It is officially curb appeal month at the Spenlas. Make that season. I’m sure all of these projects will take us at least the rest of the beautiful summer season .

Kevin is traveling for a crazy project that he is undertaking (more details soon… crazy is the only word I have for it right now) but before he left we worked a bit more on the front of the house. This particular project is one that he finished up a while ago but that I haven’t had a chance to mention here on the blog just yet, and being Curb Appeal month it fits right in!

Our front yard has always been high on our priority list. When we first moved in the very first task we took on was transforming the entrance and street level view of our home into something warm, inviting and well-loved. It’s a great way to meet new neighbors (nothing like working outdoors to meet dog walkers, bikers and stroller mommas), too!

The most recent updated may not appear to be all that exciting… but it has made a world of a difference when you’re walking up and down those front steps everyday. Kev’s new weekend project was to grout and seal the saltillo tile on our front porch.

I know, I know, exciting stuff. But finishing a project is always a plus (especially when it was started four years ago) and a grouted front porch landing has made all of the difference! Sometimes it really is that last 10%.

This project involved renting a power washer to really clean the tile and clear out any debris from the cracks. Next a wet gloss sealer was applied directly to the tile, a roller brush is helpful for application. Grout is prepped and smoothed over all adjoining tile spaces and any excess is wiped away with a wet rag. Last but not least, another coat of wet gloss sealer after the grout has cured.

I was not on top of it and completely forgot to take pictures of the naked cement porch and the porch with just tiles. But here’s another shot of the house a couple of months before we bought it and you can kind of see the bare brown slab that originally occupied this space.

The beauty about saltillo tile (which is very traditional Spanish and will look great with the new paint color! on our little Spanish bungalow) is that it looks better and better with age. It’s supposed to be weathered, a bit messy, not-so-perfect.

All great features for a front porch that will see plenty of wear and tear.

While grouting the front, Kevin went ahead and tackled the back patio as well. Here’s a shot post-grout, pre-wiping down the tiles of excess wet grout shot.

Keeping up with the theme of front porch, Kev also pulled our wood slatted bench out of the entrance and applied a honey shade of stain followed by a coat sealer.

(That’s the power washer in the foreground.)

The bench was a housewarming gift from my parents and I love how it looks on the porch, especially with its fresh coat of glaze.

One more curb appeal project down! Plenty to go through summer, but you can read all about that here.

Have a great weekend.

PS More Curb Appeal projects right here.

Tackling A Few Summer Projects

Busy week! We went to a beautiful wedding on Saturday night, took a mini vacation to visit my parents and each tackled a couple of projects on our summer list.

Our house painting project is underway. Thrilled to see the first layer of Olympic’s Dusty Trails tan exterior paint on the garage. 100 square feet down, many many more to go.

Go ahead and ignore the slightly messy back patio .

Check in with me tomorrow when I reveal my stool transformation (for Liv’s bathroom) for this fun challenge (which I’ve been participating in every season for a while now, and this weekend it’s been a great little distraction). Hope you had a relaxing, calming, productive weekend, too!

Curb Appeal: We’re Painting the House!

Kevin and I headed up to San Francisco for a quick trip to celebrate our 5th anniversary and we had such a great time! Thanks to those who left a comment or sent an email wishing us a great day!

Now that Kevin is out of school for the summer, I cannot think of a better anniversary present than spending some time together working on a few big changes for the front of our home. We tend to reserve major renovation projects for when Kev finishes up classes for the summer (which, by the way, I’m so proud of him for right now! Three of his hardest years down, two to go until he finishes up his degree in architecture ), and he just wrapped up finals last week.

This summer is no exception with a big wrap around deck (side yard and back), pergola, outdoor eating area, side yard wall, landscaping and overall outdoor beautification on the list. I am even more excited about that fact that we are once again partnering with Lowe’s to help participate in their Trend & Design theme for the summer – curb appeal!

The above is our home today, and here’s a quick reminder of where we started at:

Not too shabby so far, right? But we have BIG plans, starting with painting the house!

Olympic and Graco have offered to partner with us for this project and of course that made the reality of such a big undertaking feasible for us to move ahead with as early as this upcoming weekend! Wow.

I have been patiently looking forward to updating the traditional white on the front of our home since the day we moved in four years ago and excited doesn’t even begin to capture my feelings at the moment. Overwhelmed, giddy, smiling ear to ear might get me a little closer.

Olympic has a helpful tool that allows you to upload a picture and then play with paint colors. I can’t get too color carried away as we live in a Spanish style house and I tend to love these particular bungalows in beiges, tans and browns anyway, but that’s where we’re starting our search.I uploaded our current outdoor photo into ColorClix to get a better idea of what our home would look like in a few favorite shades.

The first step is to use the tool markers to identify what is a paintable wall vs plants vs roof, etc. (these same steps apply for interiors, but identifying interior walls, furniture, windows and trim instead).

Then it was time to experiment away!

This light Vanilla Brandy is a favorite:

As is Dusty Trails with its ever so smoky-tan appeal:

A slightly darker option is Stony Creek:

Applesauce Cafe rounds out my fourth favorite tan (I sometimes wonder where these names come from – what a fun job) with its honey undertone:

Kevin really digs the idea of a mossy grey house. If we lived in any other style I think that I would be on board (or at least seriously consider the option), but I’m not such a fan for our home:

Will keep you posted on the progress! We are deciding colors asap and it’s quite daunting.

Next up on the paint list is trim. I’m thinking white, but perhaps a dark brown would be option 2. Spanish homes are known for their creative trim-on-trim styles and maybe an even better, dual option is out there somewhere… this is when long walks with Liv and sneaky iPhone camera shots of my favorite homes in the neighborhood become very helpful as local inspiration. It’s not odd to pretend like you’re talking to someone at arms length while you line up a shot of the neighbor around the corner’s home, right?

Any home painting tips, thoughts? or do you have any big projects lined up for this summer?