Painted Red Steps

by Heather Giles
(Ann Arbor, MI)

Please describe and tell us about your front porch decorating.
I love your site and wanted to share what we did with our front porch though it isn't really much of a front porch. We are in Michigan and most porches are enclosed because it is so cold in winter it is more efficient this way. Anyway, we painted the steps red. At first I thought I wanted to paint the door red after browsing pictures on your site but my husband suggested doing the steps with patio paint.

Did you make anything or is it all purchased?
Nothing made, but we painted it ourselves.

Tell us more about your process! How did you plan it and do everything?
We first had to clean the steps really well and we rented a power washer from the HomeDepot for this. Next we painted on three coats of patio paint and let it dry for 24 hours. We had to use our back door which was fine.

Did you run into any problems? How long did it take you? Are you done with your porch?
It was hard because we made the mistake of doing this project in fall when the leaves were falling down and would blow onto our steps. We wanted to do it before winter obviously but doing it with the leaves was probably the worst time. The paint job isn't perfectly smooth but I think it looks great unless you get real up close.

I think this is about all we can do with the front of our house so we are done.

Does anything change with the seasons?
No although right now it is completely covered in snow!