Box Out Curvy Porch Columns, step by step

And I am calling this bad boy done. Commence the rejoicing! And to recap why we hoped to box those columns in:

• the carport has 4 columns that are already chunky and square, so up until this point the house had a split personality with 3 curvy columns in the mix
• boxed in square columns are more true to a mid-century ranch, so we hoped to get back to that (many other ranches in our neighborhood have ’em already)

Back to finishing things up. After getting this far within one afternoon we had high expectations for how swiftly the finishing touches would go. I mean, how long could finishing one column, caulking the seams, and painting take?

Well, it did not assist that we got derailed before even unholstering our caulk gun. When all three columns were done we stepped back and thought the de-scalloped header looked good, but a bit unsubstantial in comparison to our beefed up columns. So we picked up three more 1 x 6″ boards at Home Depot and attached them right over top the original 1 x 3″ header that we brought in with some wood glue, nails, and screws in a few places. You can see how it looked while it was in progress here:

But even that detour did not take too much longer. What did take forever? Caulking. There were so. many. seams. But we did not want to be anything less than thorough, since getting rain or other moisture behind the wood = bad news bears. We used this exact same method in our first house when we rebuilt the header five years ago (primed wood + paint and caulk to keep it all sealed) and it worked out strong without any rotting or warping – so we hoped to make sure we were simply as thorough this time around.

And since everyone asks what kind of caulk we use (that wall full of 10,000 caulk tubes can be intimidating) we like Dap window and door caulk, in the white, paintable finish (paintable is key).

Once the caulk dried, it was time to paint. Since the boards came pre-primed, all we had to do was match them to rest of the porch – and because the previous owners left us a couple gallons of house paint, there was happily no cost here. The labeled said it was “Creamy Color,” which is about the laziest paint color name I have ever seen, so I am glad to discover that it is no longer in the system.

We debated using this as an excuse to repaint all of our trim from “creamy” to white, but we were not ready to tackle that big of a project quite yet (there is trim all around the house, and the back of our house is two stories high at some points).

Predictably, Sherry did the cutting in (look at her brazenly painting the bottom of that column without taping it off) and I was Roller Man.

After one coat plus some touch-ups, we were done. And as you may remember from the start of this post, there was some rejoicing.

Now when we roll up to our house, the outside looks a little more like us.

Getting rid of (well, concealing) the more ornate and traditional columns simply makes our exterior feel crisper and more updated (not to mention it is much more true to the columns that a mid-century ranch would in fact sport). Plus those three curvy columns no longer fight with the four square ones in the carport. Hurrah.

And here is a close-up so you can see the slight detail on each of the posts where the 1 x 8″ boards (on the front and back of the column) meet the 1 x 6″ boards that we nailed to the sides. Note: there is a handy sketch of why square columns call for two 8″ boards and two 6″ boards in this first porch post here.

Budget-wise, our whole cost was in primed boards since we already had house paint and a tube of caulk. Here was the breakdown:

• Four 1 x 3″ boards for original (thin) header: $20.50
• Four 1 x 6″ boards for thicker header: $41.33
• Six 1 x 6″ boards for sides of posts: $62.08
• Six 1 x 8″ boards for front & back of posts: $74.12
• TOTAL: $198.03

If we had known the 1 x 3s were going to be too small we would not have picked up them (which means you could likely recreate this for $20 less). We could’ve picked up cheaper boards for the rest of the project too – like basic whitewood – but I like working with pine because it is noticeably smoother and straighter than the cheapest stuff. Plus, we liked skipping the priming step and this is the same stuff we used for our first house’s porch makeover five years ago (we like knowing that is holding up well half a decade later).

Now that this project is done, we are in the mood for more outdoor projects, so thank goodness spring has at last hit Richmond.

And we are fairly excited that in the three springs since we moved in, the house has evolved quite a bit in the curb appeal department…

What is on your spring to-do list? Any big projects that you are hoping will get the ball rolling? Or are you simply excited to down some lemonade and call it a day?

PS: I was this close to naming this post “Porch-a de Rossi” because it was the only porch pun I could think of. I blame my excitement for the new season of Arrested Development.