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Tagged with: exterior

A picture of our front porch decorated for fall.

Our Fall Front Porch

October 9, 2020

Our front porch might be small, but it sure does look good dressed up for fall! See how to recreate the look below! It's time to share our fall front porch! We've been working so hard on our yard these past two years. Last year, we focused all of our energy on the front yard, and this year we spent our time on the back yard. And let me just tell you, it's miraculous having grass and a yard. It's basically night and day difference and it's literally given us a breathe of fresh air. This year, we had a large garden area which allowed us to grow our own pumpkins. There's nothing I love more than a porch filled with beautiful pumpkins... problem is, I don't want to pay for them since they ...

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Tagged with: exterior, front porch2 Comments

A picture showing our new back patio.

Our New Back Patio

June 19, 2020

Late last summer we had our back concrete patio replaced. It was such an exciting and house transforming project! We did all the demo ourselves and even though it was hard work, it was so fun to see that beat up, cracked and crumbling patio removed and replaced with a much better and larger concrete patio!  Before we had the patio replaced, I shared our inspiration and plans for the new patio, and then some of our progress with demo, but I realized I never shared the new, finished patio!  Let's take a walk down memory lane and look back at where we started... Our Old Back Patio Not only was the patio small for the house, but it was pieced together, crumbling apart ...

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Tagged with: exterior, willow house6 Comments

A picture of the new garage doors.

New Garage Doors

April 28, 2020

Our New Garage Doors are installed and our exterior is looking better than ever! If you remember back when I shared our 2020 project goal list, adding new garage doors was at the top of our list. We worked on the exterior of our home so much last summer, and we made really great progress with new paint, windows, the addition of our front pergola, and all the landscaping we completed. The last really big item to finish things off, was having new garage doors installed. I've mentioned it time and time again, but the previous owners of this home really beat things up. They didn't take very good care of the house or property and the garage doors were just as much evidence of that as ...

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Tagged with: exterior, willow house7 Comments

A picture of a front porch decorated for Halloween.

Our Halloween Front Porch

October 28, 2019

Eeeek! I'm so excited to share our Halloween front porch with you! This is the first time I've ever really decorated for Halloween. I'm not into the gore, the blood or the scary, but bring on all the cute Halloween things! Now that we live in a subdivision, our neighbors have been warning us that we have a tremendous amount of trick or treaters. Other than my nephews in the past, I've never really had many trick or treaters, so this year, I thought it would be fun to add a little Halloween to our home to welcome all the cute kiddos.  Enter in: Bats. Lots of them. I bought some 3D bats several weeks ago, just waiting for the right time to hang them up. I knew I wanted them on the ...

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Tagged with: exterior, front porch2 Comments

A picture of wicker pumpkins and flowering kale in a white window box.

Our Fall Front Window Box

October 24, 2019

Better late than never, right? Today I'm sharing our fall front window box, and honestly I was hoping to have this up on the blog a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, we got a below average cold spell right after I bought some plants and I just couldn't plant them only to have them die a night later.  Then, because I waited, some the mums I bought started looking a little tired, and not the prettiest, so I switched gears and used some wicker, light up pumpkins as my focal point instead. I'm not sad about it, because they look amazing! When I was pulling out all of my summer plants, I decided to leave in the ivy. It's mainly dried at this point, but it still looks really pretty ...

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Tagged with: exterior, willow house5 Comments

Our Fall Front Porch by The Wood Gain Cottage

Our Fall Front Porch

September 27, 2019

What a happy day it is, when I get to share our fall front porch. I love decorating our porch. It's one of my favorite ways to give our home an instant boost in curb appeal and it always gets my creativity rolling. Since I've never decorated the front porch of our Willow House, I was even that much more excited.  This is easily the smallest front porch I've ever decorated. There's not a ton of room to do extravagant things, so I leaned heavily on my simplistic side to welcome guests into our home. But as always, I included corn stalks. I always get them from our family farm, and this year my brother let me take some from one of his fields.  I must say, I love the way the ...

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Tagged with: exterior, front porch8 Comments

Fall Front Porch Decorating Ideas

Fall Front Porch Decorating Ideas

September 5, 2019

It's that time of year again where we all start looking for new ways to decorate our home for fall. With that in mind, I thought I'd share some fall front porch decorating ideas! If you've followed me over the years, you know I love to switch out my porch decor and really embrace the fall season. There's something so welcoming and charming about a porch that's decorated for fall. It's the first way you really get to set the stage welcoming family and friends into your home. Over the years, I've done several different styles on my front porch, and as I've developed my own personal style, I've found I like to keep my porch on the simpler side, but that certainly doesn't mean simple is ...

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Tagged with: exterior, front porchLeave a Comment

Building Our Front Pergola

September 3, 2019

Adding character to our tri-level home was one of the first projects I wanted to tackle. In order to make the outside match our inside, I knew we'd need to get creative and break the mold with transforming our traditional 1970's home. The idea of building our front pergola over the tri-level portion of the house didn't really come to me until a few months of owning the house. After months of driving up to the house and feeling bored with the exterior, I knew we'd need to add an extra layer of character that would transform the house from the labeled 1970's tri-level into something we'd love today.  One day, as we were backing out of the driveway, I told Todd to stop the truck. After ...

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Tagged with: exterior, willow house21 Comments

Adding A Front Window Box by The Wood Grain Cottage

Adding A Front Window Box

August 2, 2019

See how we added character to our home by adding a front window box! My love for this house update ranks high up on the list. Adding a front window box to our big living room window completely transformed the house. I couldn't stop dreaming about adding a window box... I say that with all seriousness. Before we finally pulled the trigger and bought it, Todd heard all about every possible combination of items that could find a home in this window box. I went on about it for days. Since getting the window box installed, that list has only grown as my love has gotten deeper. Now, there's no way we could have just one window box... no way! We'll be adding several more to the ...

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Tagged with: exterior, willow house16 Comments

Our New Windows by The Wood Grain Cottage

Our New Windows

August 1, 2019

When we bought our fixer upper house, we knew one of the first things we'd be replacing was the windows. They were old and in really rough shape... much like the condition of the rest of the house. Several of the metal window frames were bent, the screens were tore up or missing, and there was moisture in between the glass. They were also beyond filthy and had been severely neglected when it came to any form of cleaning.  I told myself when we bought the house I wasn't going to spend a bunch of time cleaning them, but a few weeks after we moved in, I couldn't take the grime any longer. It wasn't until I was cleaning one of the four window panes in an upstairs bedroom that I finally ...

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Tagged with: exterior, willow house23 Comments

Painting Our Exterior by The Wood Grain Cottage

How We Painted Our Exterior

July 17, 2019

Admittedly, I'm late in sharing all the details on how we painted our exterior. When we bought the house almost a year ago, there were several areas with peeling paint, and for the purpose of our loan, we had to repaint those areas in order to close on the house. We both thought it would be pointless to just slap some paint up without just painting the entire exterior... especially since it was so ugly to start.  Let's flash back to last summer. This is how the house looked the day we closed... Let's just say, we couldn't wait to give the house a complete paint job. A new roof, soffit and facia were all things we knew we'd be replacing quickly as well, but ...

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Tagged with: exterior, willow house21 Comments

Pumpkin Fall Front Porch

October 23, 2017

I think one of my favorite things about fall, is decorating the front porch. Not only does it make a lovely welcoming reception for guests, but it also gets to stay in place for a while! Plus, who doesn't love pumpkins? My fall front porch this year was entirely inspired by my pumpkin patch. Early this spring I decided to set aside room in my garden to grow my own pumpkins. I wanted to have plenty to decorate with for fall, but I also didn't want to spend hundreds of dollars purchasing them either. Those little seeds turned into something special and I loved seeing the pumpkins grow, and grow, and grow some more! Before I knew it, I had pumpkins everywhere! I'm not complaining ...

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Tagged with: exterior, front porch7 Comments

Christmas Front Porch by The Wood Grain Cottage

Christmas Front Porch

December 16, 2016

I'm finally getting around to sharing our Christmas front porch today! This year Anthony and I actually made time to hang up exterior lights, which seems to enhance all the Christmas spirit around our home. It's been several years, like maybe 6 or so, since we've hung exterior Christmas lights and I forgot how much fun and magic it creates! So much fun! Anyways, here's our front porch all decorated for Christmas this year! This year, I decided to add a big, beautiful real Christmas tree to our porch... I wasn't exactly sure how I wanted to decorate it when we put it on the front porch, but inspiration hit a few moments later and I realized I wanted to include ...

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Tagged with: exterior, front porch3 Comments

Fall Front Porch by The Wood Grain Cottage

3 Fall Front Porch’s: Three Ways- Day 3

October 14, 2016

Welcome to Day 3 of our Three Fall Front Porch’s: Three Ways! I hope you’re enjoying the series! So far, you've seen my front porch decorated for fall, and our Day 2 front porch, which is the home of my BFF Chelsea! Today, I'm bringing you our third and final front porch, which is my parents house, and my childhood home! I've had so much fun bringing you this series, and partly because I've enjoyed decorating three entirely different porch's three very different ways. They've all been completely different, and the thought process behind decorating them has been very different, as well as my approach to bring out their best qualities. For this front porch, I wanted to ...

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Tagged with: exterior, front porch3 Comments

Fall Front Porch by The Wood Grain Cottage

3 Fall Front Porch’s: Three Ways- Day 2

October 12, 2016

Welcome to Day 2 of our Three Fall Front Porch's: Three Ways! I hope you're enjoying the series! You can see my front porch here, which kicked off the series earlier this week! Today, it's all about Day 2, which is the largest front porch of the three... it also happens to be Chelsea's home. You remember her house, right? If not, you can see her dining room here, her kitchen here, and her living room here. When planning for the series, I knew I wanted to bring you a variety of sizes and shapes for the three different front porch's. We all have different floorplans, and I hope Chelsea's porch inspires you to start decorating! Since this is the first fall Chelsea and her ...

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Tagged with: exterior, front porch7 Comments

Fall Front Porch by The Wood Grain Cottage

3 Fall Front Porch’s: 3 Ways- Day 1

October 10, 2016

Happy Monday friends! This week I have a fun series in store for you, and it's all about front porch decorating! Welcome to Three Fall Front Porch's: Three Ways! Since the fall season is such a perfect time to easily and beautifully decorate your home and front porch, I thought I'd give you an extra boost of inspiration by sharing 3 different front porches all decorated 3 different ways! Each porch is very different in size, shape, color, etc., so hopefully you'll find some new inspiration for your porch! Here's a little video I made introducing the series! The first porch I'm sharing, is my own! Simplicity is my BFF when decorating our front porch. I've done ...

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Tagged with: exterior, front porch5 Comments

Summer Front Porch by The Wood Grain Cottage

Summer Front Porch

June 3, 2016

It's always so amazing to me how fast the seasons change. It seems like yesterday I was just hanging Christmas garland on our front porch, and today I'm sharing how I gave it a refresh for summer. Since decorating for Christmas, I hadn't really done much to our porch... it felt a little bit depressed, and slightly sad. It needed some of my TLC.  And I guess our porch was in luck, because I've gathered with some of my blogging friends to bring you a fun summer decorating post... I will say, our front porch is in a transition phase. I know I've mentioned it before, but we get horrible amounts of wind. So much so, that it's actually hard to keep anything nice on the front ...

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Tagged with: exterior, front porch15 Comments

Front Porch Decorating by The Wood Grain Cottage

How To Make A Garland Frame Your Front Door

December 7, 2015

I absolutely love to decorate our front porch for the different seasons. It's a great way to greet guests, but it also brings in the perfect amount of seasonal cheer! This year, I wanted to try my hand at a pretty garland framing our front door. It's as lovely as ever.... I just love it! It creates the warmest welcoming, and it focused your attention on the door. So, here's how to make a garland frame your front door! Here's what I started with... (Affiliate links used below. Thank you for helping support this blog!)  To hang the fresh Juniper tree clippings around the door, I used these Command Brand Outdoor Light Clips... I spaced them evenly ...

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Tagged with: exterior, front porch5 Comments

Simple Fall Front Porch Decorating by The Wood Grain Cottage

Fall Front Porch

October 9, 2015

This year my decorating seems to be on the simpler side of things. Each time I've started working on a new room/ area, my thoughts always go to "what will be simple?". And ironically, this years decorating has been my very favorite to date. So today, I bring you a simple fall front porch, all decked out for the season, but on the easy side of decorating. But it's definitely very pretty... Lately, I've really noticed myself going through a purging phase. It's like I'm cleansing the soul of my house. Our fall home tour (part one, and part two) brought on the feeling, and the piles I began making of items to keep, items to sell, and items to donate really started to take form. I started ...

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Tagged with: exterior, front porch5 Comments

Fall Porch Decorating Ideas

August 25, 2015

If you're looking to spruce up your front porch for Fall, here are some decorating ideas to get your creativity going. There's no better way to make your home feel welcome, than by decorating your front porch. Big or small porch, these simple ideas will work in any size space. They are all very easy to make too! I know, I know. We're not even to the end of August yet and I'm already sharing fall porch decorating ideas. I just can't help it. The mornings here are cool, and the days are still warm, but that familiar feeling of fall is in the air. This year, I wanted to give you more time to plan on, or make your own fall project, so I thought I would start a little earlier. And even ...

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Tagged with: exterior, front porch9 Comments

Fixer Upper Update: Exterior

March 24, 2015

I know... I know... The last time I shared an update on the fixer upper was October. My bad. Life happened and before we knew it the weather changed and we couldn't really finish the last few things we needed to do, which was the exterior. And combine that with prepping for The Vintage Whites Market in Colorado, and our little house had to take a back seat for awhile. Last time I shared an update, we had finished installing all the cabinet hardware. And wow, what a difference that made! It's the jewelry that makes it all shine. Lately though, the weather has been lovely and we have been full steam ahead in getting the last few things finished with the house. And that, my friends is the ...

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Tagged with: exterior9 Comments

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I’m Shayna… The small town Colorado girl who’s obsessed with home and everything that entails! I’m a creative, a decorator, a day dreamer, a huge fan of scones and I’m passionate about loving where I live and making a home.

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This past weekend we hit our 2021 house project go This past weekend we hit our 2021 house project goals HARD! With all the bedroom trim done (hallelujah!), we’ll be painting and installing closet doors next! 👏🏻  I always look forward to crossing projects off the list... and finishing our trim has been on there waaaay too long! 😵  #thewoodgraincottage #thewgc #houseremodel #kitchenshelves
Oh those beautiful, twinkling lights... they’re Oh those beautiful, twinkling lights... they’re my favorite! On the blog I’m joining several bloggers and we’re all sharing our night home tours!  If you love the warm twinkle of Christmas lights, you’ll love these beautiful tours! 🎄🌟  #thewoodgraincottage #thewgc #christmastree #christmasdecor #christmasstockings #christmasnightstour #christmasatnight
Our red, white and gold Christmas home tour is on Our red, white and gold Christmas home tour is on the blog! 🎄🌟  This year has been such a fun and special time with the addition of our sweet Ania. She makes us even more excited for Christmas than normal and adding her stocking with ours made my momma heart burst. ❤️  See more of our home on the blog, and be sure to visit all the other beautiful homes on the tour as well!  #thewoodgraincottage #thewgc #christmasdecor #christmashometour #christmastree #christmasdecorations #christmas #christmashome
Next week I’m sharing our Christmas home tour, b Next week I’m sharing our Christmas home tour, but in the meantime, I’ve been spreading Christmas cheer throughout the house! On the blog, I’m sharing my favorite, simple decorating ideas you can incorporate into your home... with the items you already own!  They’re guaranteed to help you add a festive touch to your home! 🎄🌟  #thewoodgraincottage #thewgc #christmasdecor #christmasdecorating #christmasdecorations #easychristmasdecor #christmas
Current mood: Sitting by the Christmas tree lookin Current mood: Sitting by the Christmas tree looking at those pretty twinkling lights! It’s my favorite thing about having the tree up!  #thewoodgraincottage #thewgc #christmasdecor #christmastree #christmastreelights #redchristmasdecor
Happy Thanksgiving! Wishing you a wonderful day ce Happy Thanksgiving! Wishing you a wonderful day celebrating everything we have to be grateful for! My list is long and may I never forget how blessed I am!  #thewoodgraincottage #thewgc #thanksgivingdecor #thanksgivingtable #thanksgivingtablescape
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