RenovationsOur Bungalow Exterior Before & After October 6, 2016 When we first bought the Bungalow, it was a tiny 750 sq. ft. house. From the road, it looked like the tiniest little house and it was! You can check out some of the before’s and the first round of exterior progress shots here. But, here is the transformation we made! Y’all know we did a big 1,050 square foot addition on this house. We added on a wing to the right as you can see by the change in these photos (and an addition across the back). Then, we removed the screened porch portion of the existing porch and extended the porch with a shed roof to create a more substantial entry. Here’s another angle of the before: In-progress: After: There’s still some landscaping and tiny things to do, but we’re pretty much done..finally! While the bulk of it got done a little while ago, painting some trim and spindles, etc. has lingered on. As I’ve said with other spaces, painting little porch spindles and such cosmetic things weren’t the priority when other rooms weren’t working at all. But we made it! We started with asbestos shingles on this house. We had them removed (you have to be careful with that stuff). Then, we had Hardy plank board and batten installed. The cheapest way to achieve this look is to first install large 4 x 8′ sheets of blank Hardy board. Then, we used 1 x 2’s to create the board and batten look. We left 16″ in between each one. We purchased all of the hardy board materials at our local builder’s supply store. For the exterior color palette, I first knew that I wanted to go dark. I’d already chosen Benjamin Moore Hidden Falls for the fireplace and kitchen cabinets and knew I loved the color. I knew I wanted to go dark green out here and tried a few other shades, but ended up loving this tried and true shade. Here’s the before of the old porch: Here’s the in-progress of the porch: And here’s the after: Since I took these, I’ve been updating the porch for fall, which I’ll share tomorrow! Mums and pumpkins sure do liven up any space. For the front door color, I went with the same color as all of our interior doors: Benjamin Moore Iced Marble. It’s the perfect pale blue/gray. I love that it’s neutral to go with anything for different holidays and I love how it looks against the green siding. I love copper as you can see as it’s spread throughout our house especially our new kitchen. But I knew I’d love it with the dark green exterior. There are some great copper barn lights out there, but all of the ones I found were too pricey for our budget. So, we bought my favorite inexpensive barn light from Lowe’s. At $40/each, this was something we could swing. I used my favorite copper spray paint to give these the finish I wanted. It’s the same copper spray paint I used for our kitchen sconces. It feels just like the home sweet home I pictured. Please ask any questions in the comments! It’s so easy to forget little details with renovations like this. *** That’s been The White Buffalo motto for the last three years and is still what I’m striving to do each day in our home and with our family. Yes, that often means tablescapes, inspiring interiors, and fun before and after renos. But it also means family. Faith. Joy. Struggles. Laughter. Health. You’ll find a little bit of all of that here as I share how we’re choosing to live with both style and purpose. A huge part of that is our journey toward a more natural life that’s focused on enjoying each and every moment together. A huge thanks to my main blog sponsor that makes this dream of mine possible:
Kristen says October 6, 2016 at 10:24 am The before and afters are remarkable! It’s really impressive to me that you could see the potential in your bungalow, that’s not something that’s easy for me. Looking forward to your Fall updates! Reply
Anne says October 6, 2016 at 10:44 am I love your home, it is truly beautiful! Hope I will be able to design one for me one day, just like you did. Thank you for sharing the process! Reply
Gail Mahoney says October 6, 2016 at 10:47 am I so enjoy reading your blog and watching your little house morph into what it is now. It is still a very charming cottage, filled with warmth and love. I like smaller homes not the McMansions that are now the rage. Congratulations on your home makeover and your new expectation. Reply
Lindsay says October 6, 2016 at 2:55 pm Thanks so much, Gail! Really appreciate it. I love small cottages and bungalows too! Reply
The Wicker House says October 6, 2016 at 11:05 am Wow! What a difference. Looks Amazing and I love that color! Reply
Marge Sakelik says October 6, 2016 at 11:16 am Looking at the front view, looks like soil was added to the left side to level and raise the front yard. Did you do a brick retaining wall to match the house? How far back did it go..level the back side of house and yard? Any chance to see that side view too? Reply
Lindsay says October 6, 2016 at 2:55 pm Hi Marge! We did have our grader level out the yard quite a bit and had a brick retaining wall built just up to the fence on the side. You can see the top of it in a lot of these pictures. We had a cement cap put on top of it to match the sides of the stairs. The backyard, we had graded to just be a slighter slope than it was, but it’s still sloped more than we’d like. But much better than before! Reply
Tara says October 6, 2016 at 11:45 am You did an amazing job! Love the before and after!! Makes me want to put them together for our remodel! ?? Reply
Courtney says October 6, 2016 at 12:00 pm It looks incredible! We also have asbestos siding and I can Znot Wait to remove it! Was this an expensive job? We are also wanting to extend our porch… these pictures are perfect to show my husband so he can picture it better 😉 Love everything you chose, great job! Reply
Lindsay says October 6, 2016 at 2:52 pm Thanks so much, Courtney! My husband actually did some of it. As long as you don’t cut into it and you do it carefully, they say it’s not bad. He did wet it all down first. We did hire a few parts out that were more complicated and if you hired the removal of the whole thing out, it would be pretty expensive. Reply
Courtney says October 6, 2016 at 2:54 pm Thank you! That is reassuring to know it’s possible to remove ourselves. Reply
Amy Lynn says October 6, 2016 at 12:53 pm Wow! What a huge difference! I love how it turned out 🙂 great job! Reply
Lisa says October 6, 2016 at 1:48 pm I really love how the porch looks! Did you DIY it or hire if out? If you DIY, we need a tutorial! The house looks great! Reply
Lindsay says October 6, 2016 at 2:50 pm Hi Lisa! My husband did some of it and we hired some of it out to our framers because he was swamped with other parts of the reno. Definitely too complicated for a tutorial though 🙂 Thanks so much! Reply
Susan L. says October 6, 2016 at 2:52 pm It looks like the brick foundation was original. What kind of work (if any) did you have to do on it? It’s a really cute house, and you have made it even more so. I love to see places like this brought back to life. Reply
Whitney says October 6, 2016 at 4:00 pm Gorgeous! We are painting our Victorian farmhouse next week and I have been going crazy about selecting the colors. Which white did you use for your trim? Thanks!! Reply
Lindsay says October 7, 2016 at 4:09 pm Hi Whitney! We used BM Chantilly Lace, which we used throughout the house. It’s a good true white without being too cream or too cold. We love it! Reply
AmandaKB says October 6, 2016 at 6:24 pm Lindsay, I love this! It looks so, so good. You guys are doing an incredible job with this house! I agree with Gail above. McMansions don’t inspire me. I love watching people make a smaller home work for their family, whether it be through better organization, a better floor plan, adding an addition, downsizing the amount of possessions, etc. Also, congrats on adding to your family. So exciting! Reply
Tracy Leiker says October 6, 2016 at 7:45 pm It’s so well done. You have great vision. Love to see the before and after. Thank you! Reply
Whitney Shortt says October 7, 2016 at 10:20 pm Beautiful transformation! You guys have done and awesome job Reply
ashley@biggerthanthethreeofus says October 8, 2016 at 8:29 am It’s so amazing!! I want to change up my exterior and I think I need to hire you to come up with a plan for me. Seriously! Reply
Sue Taylor says October 9, 2016 at 11:37 pm What a wonderful job you are doing! We just bought a little Cape Cod style bungalow and are updating and renovating too. i love the front door! where did you find it? Thanks! Sue Reply
Lindsay says October 11, 2016 at 11:01 am Thanks Sue! It’s from Home Depot 🙂 We went to the door counter and ordered it. Just ask for a 12-pane door! Reply
Kemley says October 12, 2016 at 4:57 am The dark green looks amazing with that door color! I also love the style of the front door, can’t believe it’s from Home Depot. Very cute house! Reply
aimee says October 12, 2016 at 7:40 am Did your husband put up the siding himself or did you hire that out? We are looking at residing our house and would love to do board/batten like yours but goodness it’s so expensive. Reply
Lindsay says October 12, 2016 at 10:57 pm Hi Aimee! No, we hired it all out. He definitely would’ve needed help to manage the huge boards. They’re really heavy! Plus, he was so busy doing other reno projects then. It is expensive for sure! We love the look, but it isn’t the most cost effective option for sure. I wish there was a good happy medium between vinyl and hardie. Reply
Heather says June 18, 2017 at 12:19 am Hi, we are building a home and was going to do a board and batton exterior. I love how you did yours! Do you have to use any special paint on it to get it to last? I heard it fades after 10yrs. Also is that the hardiplank cement siding panels? Reply
Lindsay says June 24, 2017 at 9:42 am HI Heather! Yes, it’s Hardie plank! We love it! We did big 4×8′ sheets then installed the trim pieces on top of that. Oh I assume you’d DEFINITELY have to repaint every ten years or so. I know there are all different types and grades of paint, so an exterior paint will last the longest, but it’s still a painted finish, so it won’t be maintenance-free for sure. Reply
eleanor says February 14, 2018 at 10:19 pm Might I ask what color your door is? This is a shade I am looking for, a grey-blue! Beautiful home! Reply
Katie says May 5, 2018 at 6:05 pm This cute little house just made my afternoon. We are building and restricted to a green exterior due to the colors of surrounding homes. This is the first green house I have come across that I actually love! Would you mind sharing the name of the color? Reply
Lindsay says July 1, 2018 at 6:24 pm Oh yay! This made my day! So glad. It’s Benjmain Moore Hidden Falls and we loved it! Reply
Farrah says July 29, 2018 at 5:45 pm Beautiful! What color is you house color? Love that you didn’t leave the front door white! Reply
Elizabeth Porsha Mills says November 12, 2019 at 5:08 pm You have fed my soul on seeing your rennovations and your color solutions. Thank You a Million !! Reply