It feels like ages since you last saw the front of the duplex (winter will do that), but today it’s getting some long-overdue attention. And let me tell you—THINGS HAVE TURNED A CORNER!
There’s no finished landscaping yet, the grass is still patchy, and Sean the contractor’s giant sign is holding its ground…
…but wow does she look good compared to where we started. We removed all of the non-original additions—the weird plastic wagon wheels, the abacus trim from the 70s, the tiny plastic shutters, the broken vinyl porch railing, the satellite dishes, and even the duct tape along the roofline. At the same time, we restored or replaced original-feeling details: a metal porch roof, larger operable shutters, square porch columns, corbels along the roofline, wide brick steps, and those charming diamond windows that give me cartoon heart eyes.
We’ve already written about many exterior choices—siding, roofing, and shutter color—so today we’re focusing on the front porch updates in detail.
First: the elephant in the room. Or rather, the mouse on the porch—those postage-stamp doormats. I genuinely thought they were regular-sized until they arrived and turned out to be doormats for ants. We’re switching to larger mats because they’re ridiculous as-is. Put that aside and look at the other wins: matching mailboxes, visible house numbers, oversized lanterns to light them, composite decking (no rot!), potted plants, and teak benches. I’m very excited.
We don’t have a great close-up “before” of the front door area, but you can see the mismatched storm doors and general condition in earlier photos. Those storm doors were gone immediately.
Despite some artsy photos with a “SOLD” sign, the old porch was in rough shape. The structure and support beams were rotten enough that the entire porch had to be removed and rebuilt, while carefully preserving the original transom windows above the doors.
In the past year and a half we’ve made a huge leap forward.
Once the mismatched storm doors were gone, we decided to embrace the original front doors. Because the house is in a historic district, the town’s review board requires approval to change door styles, so we were glad we liked the originals from the start. Initially, we considered painting the doors the same mint color as the shutters, but since the shutters already get a lot of visual attention, we wanted the doors to introduce a complementary tone.
We longed for a natural wood look. A contractor stripped and sanded the original doors in their shop to remove lead paint and get them as raw as possible. The doors are thinner than modern ones and had some repairs, so stripping stopped before compromising their integrity.
Even after a professional strip that cost $400, the doors still showed stubborn paint in cracks and recesses. Close up, there were cracks and glue bubbles that a clear sealer or light stain wouldn’t hide.
We considered a dark gel stain like we used on another project because it offers thicker coverage and can mask imperfections. Once we installed the porch lights, mailboxes, house numbers, and hardware, a different idea took hold: a rich charcoal paint that would coordinate with the metal porch roof and balance the mint shutters.
We love Sherwin-Williams Urbane Bronze from past projects; it’s a layered color that sits between black and a warm, dark bronze. It felt like a perfect match for the tin roof and the other dark accents we planned for the porch.
Even though we mourned the original wood-tone idea, the painted doors were the right call. The paint hides cracks, glue bubbles, and remaining paint remnants, and it reads beautifully with the operable shutters, oversized porch lights, wall-mounted mailboxes, and new house numbers. We still brought wood tones back into the scheme through planters and teak benches.
Installing the house numbers was straightforward: we used off-the-shelf numbers that mount flush. They come with a template on the package, which we adjusted for spacing, taped to the siding, and double- and triple-checked for level and centering. We originally planned small decals on the mailbox, but local code requires numbers to be at least 4″ tall and visible from the street for emergency responders—so we installed proper numbers before final inspection.
To reintroduce warmth after losing the door wood tones, I added basket-style planters (they’re ceramic-like) and the big teak benches at the porch ends. Once we pick larger doormats—maybe one long runner that spans both doors and reaches each planter—that will increase the warmth further.
We also brought in faux outdoor trees for easy, no-maintenance greenery. They’re the same types we’ve used on other porches and they add instant life. The ones in the photos hadn’t been fluffed yet, so they’ll look even better once arranged, the mats are replaced, and the landscaping is in place.
If you follow our newsletter, you already saw the doors open; we painted the stair risers to match the interiors on each side (Sherwin-Williams White Truffle on the left, and Oyster Bay on the right). I love that swinging open the dark doors reveals a different bright color inside each side—it’s a fun surprise.
That’s the full porch update for now. We’re crossing our fingers the groundhog was right and spring arrives early so we can finish landscaping, add a path, plant grass, and complete all the other exterior details. We want to get the place photographed and listed for summer rentals as soon as possible—Airbnb should be in the mix this April—so there’s still plenty to finish inside and out.
P.S. To see the full scope of work over the last 1.5 years, there’s an entire category documenting our duplex progress.
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