Creating Some Curb Appeal With Shutters

The fun part!

On Saturday I wrote a post explaining how to make board-and-batten shutters. I purposefully left out the best part (the after photos) so that you'd come back for more.... muhahaha! Well, sort of. We also hadn't completely finished them yet.

Shutters before primer and paint.

On Saturday we built the shutters, sanded them, and primed them. (For more details about those steps, see the above link.)

Primed shutters.

Yesterday we did the fun parts. We painted them, added some decorative hardware, and installed them.

I used two coats of paint using a colour called Nature Lover from Benjamin Moore. I chose a low-lustre finish made for exterior use. Once the paint was drying I drove around town looking for some hardware to add the finishing touch. I found some gate hinges at Lowe's that fit perfectly on the battens. They were quite pricey, but hey, these stinkin' shutters were my birthday present after all. The hinges were $9.99 for a package of two and we needed six packages. :S Oh well, they're cute and that's all that counts.

The hinges are just for decoration. I sure love decorations.

To install the shutters, Alex had a brilliant idea and used 4" deck screws underneath the hinges so you wouldn't see them. Genius, I tell ya, genius. Oh wait, did I say that was Alex's idea? It was totally mine.

He used big, long 4" deck screws because we were installing them on siding. They had to be long enough to go through the shutter, the siding, some foam, and a little bit of stucco. He pre-drilled some holes on a slight upward angle (to prevent water running in). Then he added a bit of caulking to the hole before screwing the shutters on. 

{Note: If we were installing them onto brick, we would have used concrete screws drilled into the brick (not the mortar) on a slight upward angle as well.}

Here's how one set looks installed. The next picture will show you how all three sets look.

And now for the before and after photo. Woohoo! We have shutters!! Finallyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

Click to enlarge!

Here are a few more photos just because I must have taken a million. Don't forget that the house looks bare at this time of year because I haven't planted any annuals yet and all of the other plants are still waking up!

We clamped the boards really tight together because we knew that they
would shrink over time and leave larger spaces in between each board.

How about for fun we reminisce about how plain and ugly the house was when we first bought it? Okay. Here is the real before photo:

If you have any questions about anything I might have missed, let me know in an email or comment and I'll get back to you a.s.a.p. :)

Linking To:

Show Off Your Cottage Monday @ The House in the Roses, Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch, Just Something I Whipped Up @ The Girl Creative, Transformation Thursday @ The Shabby Chic Cottage, Show Off Your Stuff Party @ Fireflies and Jellybeans, Show and Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home, Feature Yourself Friday @ Fingerprints on the Fridge, Flaunt it Friday @ Chic on a Shoestring Decorating