Miss Flo progress : front porch

Hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! I am happy to say we had a very productive one. Lots of projects finished, a few more started and we even squeezed in some pool time :)

I completed this project last week, and it would be safe to say I'm pretty proud of this before and after.

Honestly, when we first saw Miss Flo, I wasn't digging the orange rock surrounding the front door and it's been on 'the list' since we moved in. I just thought something more muted would look better... I don't know. I can't always articulate why I think something looks bad or why it would look better a different way. (which can cause issues when it comes to trying to convince the Hubs that certain projects are necessary). I just SEE IT. Anyway. I did a lot of research about how would be best tackle the rocks. I knew I didn't want to straight paint them because I still wanted them to look like rocks and not.... painted rocks.

SO I went to the paint store and explained what I was trying to do and the lovely paint professionals quickly came up with a plan for me. I picked a color and they mixed it at 150% in an outdoor, flat paint.

The reason they mixed it at 150% is because you mix it with water and diluting it makes the color less intense. So, to get the color that you want, you have to have more color in the paint. Essentially, you pour the paint into a bowl (that you don't care it about) and mix it with water. You should do about half paint and half water. Aim for a milk-like thickness. It's should be pretty thin and runny because you have to do lots of coats so you can get the exact color/coverage you want. The main reason you don't just straight paint the rocks is because you want to be able to see some of the color variation of the rock. Here is my first rock after about 2 coats.

Honestly, it would have taken much less time to complete the project if I had made the mixture more paint and less water. However, since this was my first time doing this, I figured doing a lot of coats would be easier than getting it way too thick.

After I was done with the rocks, I knew I had to say goodbye to my red door. As much as I love a good red door, black is better in this case.

Yes, I blurred my house numbers. Safety first! Also protected by ADT in case you didn't catch the sign :) Close up of the 'after' rocks:

Super pleased with how this project came out. Honestly, the satisfaction I get from figuring out how to do something myself CANNOT be beat.

Let me know if you have questions or if you are planning to do something similar!