.jpg)
before After
We decided to do a mini-makeover for the front door area and fall-i-fy the space a bit. As always, we aren't able to do anything permanent to my mom's cottage (where we are staying for this year) so I had to get creative with ways I could jazz it up without hurting the door/window etc. I also had to think through how I could get this area to coordinate with my interior vibe AND the exterior yellow of the house. I'm excited by how it turned out and if this front door is the first aspect of my style one sees when coming to our home, I think it makes complete sense with what you see on the inside. Or will see, once my One Room Challenge space is done ;)
I put together a moodboard of how I achieved this look which is at the bottom of the post. I also linked to my sources there as well, including some alternative wreaths/plants for those of you in a cooler climate.
One of the main aspects of the design were these "malachite" pumpkins. I spent about an hour with Jared and Ellery perfecting our pumpkin painting yesterday afternoon. It involved a lot of trial an error. I am not a DIY blogger so don't
expect perfect tutorials but I will give you a short run-down if you want to try to achieve the look yourself.
You need: A large storage tote A large garbage sack to line the tote Water Spray paint (colors linked at bottom) Faux pumpkins
Line the tote with the garbage bag and then fill the whole container with hose water
Spray paint in alternating colors to create rings (dark green, light green, black over and over)
Dip your faux pumpkin carefully into the water one at a time. Your pumpkin will pick up the paint as it's dunked
Repeat until the pumpkins resemble the look you are going for
Lay out to dry
The trial and error came in during the dipping process. At first, I swirled the pumpkins around in the water and quickly realized that made them look more marbleized. I was going for a malachite look which is essentially rings inside of rings. So after awhile, we just started dipping the pumpkins straight into the water and straight out-- carefully.
For the malachite look, it's important to spray a lot of paint into the water, and then with each subsequent color, spray the paint inside the color of the one before. You will get rings this way. The hard part is dipping the pumpkin and keeping the rings intact once on the pumpkin.
It wasn't perfect and they aren't exactly like malachite but I think you get the idea. I like them and would be happy to put them out next year.
I ended up adding mini faux oranges to the wreath in an effort to bring in a little more interest. Orange is undoubtedly a fall color but I thought, in the form of oranges, it feels more fresh/fun and on par with my Florida style.
I made the stripes on the glass by using electrical tape. This aspect stumped me for awhile. I wanted to add something fun to the door by putting up removable wallpaper or decals or just *something* other than the backside of a blind! But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that wouldn't work. Anything opaque wouldn't let light in when the bamboo blind (on the interior side) was up. I spent a long time looking up "window film" and all the patterns were too granny for me.
I ended up purchasing black masking tape off Amazon but once I unrolled it, saw that it's only black on one side and would require me to put it on the outside of the window! I wanted the stripes to be black on both sides so they looked good from the inside or outside of the house. And, preferably, I wanted the tape to go on the inside of the window/door to make it last longer.
Minutes before we put this space together, Jared suggested electrical tape and it worked perfectly! It went on easily (I just used a ruler and eye-balled it) and it should last for awhile-- albeit, not forever, but that's OK for our situation.
This was a fun and easy project and makes me happy to walk through the front door now :) See below for sources:
Moodboard elements
Tropical wreath Magnolia wreath alternative Boxwood wreath alternative Faux orange sprigs Real Fiddle-Leaf Fig Faux Fiddle-Leaf Fig alternative (I have heard awesome things about these QVC faux plants) Blush Mad Cap Cottage rug Leopard door mat Chippendale planter Wide faux pumpkin Tall faux pumpkin Black faux pumpkin Bright green spray paint Dark green spray paint Black spray paint Electrical tape