It's the details...

See that giant swath of white skirting under the porch in the photo below? We've owned this house for almost 10 months now, and over the course of  those 10 months, that white skirting has made me absolutely crazy! Based on this old photo, I was hoping that we'd find the original wood skirting underneath the vinyl. Unfortunately, when we popped a small section off, the original wood slats were nowhere to be found. Damn it! After endless obsessing (a.k.a. sitting on the lawn with a beer this weekend, staring at offensive skirting), I finally grabbed some paint and set to work painting that beast. I used Rust-Oleum's Charleston Green, which almost perfectly matches the paint color we've used for the doors, kitchen cabinets, and chicken coop (that color is Valspar's Forest Canopy). The photo below is from the Fall, right after I cut down all of the hydrangeas and overgrown bushes...

and here's another look at the after. My hope was that the dark green would shift focus to the porch instead of the skirting...

I think it looks much cleaner now, and I really do think the dark color makes the skirting recede. Did you happen to notice how I painted the bottom of the rain gutters, too? I'm not afraid to say it, my friends...it's details like that that make me tick. I also started repainting the actual porch floor, which will clean things up even more. I'm still not in love with that vinyl railing, but I'm going to spend some more time obsessing before I take on that project. You can see more 'before' exterior photos here. What do you think?