Removing The Scalloped Trim On The Porch For A Cleaner Look

Since you see the front of our house all the time in the journal header, you may be surprised to learn that it is due for a major overhaul. Sure it looks sweet from afar (especially when all those azaleas are in bloom) but the sad truth is that up close it is certainly less than picture ideal. The old slate path is jagged and chipped. The country looking scalloped header above the porch is totally not our style. And the screen door is old and rotten. We tried to save it for a little while by painting it a cheerful yellow, but sadly it had still seen better days.

So yesterday I said “smell ya later” to the ‘ol screen door and exposed the much better looking wooden door behind it (which I painted a crisp black along with the shutters). Such an improvement. Although we are considering repainting it a sophisticated lipstick red in the near future. But in the meantime, I could not wait one more minute to attack that terrible scalloped header.

And attack it I did. It was far from straightforward (in fact it was an 11 step, 6 hour process that had me crying, bleeding, and crying more) but I waved the victory flag after a looooong day of pulling, peeling, hammering and muttering obscenities. Here is what the ground looked like when I wrapped up (told you we need a new walkway):

And here is what the porch looks like sans scallops.

Of course all the work paid off- we think it is so much cleaner and it certainly looks more like a 50’s ranch and less like an 80’s country lodge. And it looks about a million times better from the inside of the house, too. We will take ya waaaay back to a pic of the living room right after we picked up the house nearly two years ago. See the ugly scalloped porch out the window? At least the busted curtains, weird lamp, and baaaad cube divider near the door detracted attention from the icky scallop view.

But now that we have fully renovated the living room (took out the cube divider, put in a new window, brought in crown molding, and painted like crazy) the perpetual view of the sun streaming in through the scallops annoyed us even more.

It is so much sleeker without those arches conflicting with the rectangular window, right? Burger certainly enjoys the new view.

Oh and we hung some airy white curtains high above the window which truly make the room feel taller. Now all we need are some natural matchstick blinds to hang right below the rod in order to cheat the window and make seem like it goes all the way up to the rod.

So hopefully you’ve enjoyed the screen and scallop removal. Stay tuned for some pics of the soon-to-be red front door, and a complete path overhaul along with some new landscaping ideas. Curb appeal’s the name of the game, and we will keep you posted every step of the way.