DIY Porch Columns + Working On The Curb Appeal of Our DIY House

This post may contain affiliate links · This blog generates income via ads

This was the summer of “let’s work on curb appeal“. In my head I’d skip outside, dig up the perfect little flower beds in a day (maybe two days?), my hubby would slap up the simple porch columns in an afternoon, and I’d have everything painted and ready for the following weekend. HA HA HA. Like all things home building / renovating related – everything takes 10 times longer than you dream. In this case, it was totally worth all of the literal blood, sweat and tears we shed to make Our DIY House look more complete from the outside this summer. Here’s a quick gallery of what we did to our home this summer to up it’s curb appeal, and how we build our DIY porch columns.

DIY Craftsman Foursquare Home with Grey Siding, Porch with DIY Columns and a Dark Teal Door

DIY Craftsman Foursquare Home with Grey Siding, Porch with DIY Columns and a Dark Teal Door

 

Doesn’t she look much more homey now? In case you missed the post about the front flower beds, you can read all about them here.

Hardy Rose Garden

They’ve already filled in magnificently this summer. I’ll chalk that up to a very hot June & July along with lots of hand-watering!

Morden Belle roses

I’d highly recommend planting hardy roses in the Morden varieties if you live in Zone 3 like we do. They are simply gorgeous and bloom, bloom, bloom!

Craftsman Porch with DIY Porch Columns & DIY Curtains

All of our other plants have been doing quite well too. I’m curious to see how they all survive our extremely cold winters!

DIY Craftsman Foursquare Home with Grey Siding, Porch with DIY Columns and a Dark Teal Door

Look at the difference a year – and some VERY hard work – can make! These photos were taken exactly one year apart. I simply can’t believe how much different our home looks with the porch columns my hubby built and all of the painting I did.

DIY Craftsman Foursquare Home with Grey Siding, Porch with DIY Columns and a Dark Teal Door

Here’s how we (er, my husband) made the porch columns:

How to build DIY craftsman porch columns

Hubby framed out the existing structural columns with pieces of 2×4’s. He designed the frame to use as little wood as possible so that we could save some money, and he used a nail gun to hold everything in place. We made the columns measure about 1 foot square.

How to build DIY craftsman porch columns

After framing out the columns, my husband cut some 2 x 6’s (for the tops) and 2 x 10’s (for the bottoms) to use as simple, chunky trim. He mitered all of the corners nicely.

DIY Craftsman Foursquare Home with Grey Siding, Porch with DIY Columns and a Dark Teal Door

Finally, he cut some plywood to cover the framed columns between the top and bottom trim.

Craftsman Porch with DIY Porch Columns & DIY Curtains

My job was to prime and paint all of the columns and trim. I’m SO close to done, but frankly it’s a horrible job. My goal is to be finished before the snow flies!

Dark teal front door

We also filled in an unsightly gap between the bottom of our siding and our porch with a piece of trim that we painted white. What a difference!

Craftsman Porch with DIY Porch Columns & DIY Curtains

Finally, I painted our plywood porch flooring and stairs with some extra grey paint I had on hand. I sealed it with some polyurethane so that it will last until we can afford to tile the porch floor with slate.

I’m so proud of all of the hard work we did on our home’s exterior this summer, and I can say with confidence that it was 100% worth every bit of time we spent! We’re going to enjoy every last summer evening we can sitting on our porch and enjoying the gorgeous sunsets.

Craftsman Porch with DIY Porch Columns & DIY Curtains

DIY Porch Columns

Instructions

    1. Frame the existing structural columns with pieces of 2×4’s. We designed the frame to use as little wood as possible so that we could save some money, and then used a nail gun to hold everything in place. We made the columns measure about 1 foot square.
    2. After framing out the columns, we cut some 2 x 6’s (for the tops) and 2 x 10’s (for the bottoms) to use as simple, chunky trim. We mitered all of the corners nicely.
    3. Cut and install some plywood to cover the framed columns between the top and bottom trim.
    4. Prime and Paint!

Pin Me:

18 Comments

  1. I’ve heard that slate outdoors is a bad option for us Canadians. Slate is composed of layers, and porous to boot, so all of our freezing and thawing cycles just destroy it in a few years. So sad, because it’s so beautiful! Probably my favourite stone.

  2. I have been admiring your house and though this is a totally unrelated comment, I am interested to know if this is a custom design, or a stock plan? My sister is looking to build on farm land in Canada and this house would be perfect! May I be so bold as to ask for the design? Thank you and great job! I love it!

  3. This is so beautiful!11. One thing you might want to consider is wider steps up to the house. Can’t wait to see what you do next. Love how economical you are with your projects!

  4. Amazing change to those columns! We’re thinking of doing something similar with our cheesy, stock colonial columns. How has the plywood held up in the weather? And how did you join the edges? did you miter them? Glue them? T

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.