exterior facelift for our little cottage!

recently {as in this spring} i purchased a small cottage in the neighborhood around our metairie road shop.  to say it needed a little tlc is putting it mildly...if you don't believe me here is the photographic proof:

the inside was just as rough as the outside.  the kitchen consisted of 3 cabinets and a stove.  there was a lot of {stained} industrial grade carpet, terrible lighting, acoustic ceilings, and awful paneling.  i saw past all the negatives and thankfully my very trusting husband believed in my vision!
i could barely wait to start demo...in fact we began about 2 hours after closing...the scope of work included:

• removing wall between living room and bedroom to create a large, open living room/kitchen
• turn old kitchen into 3rd bedroom/study
• expand master bathroom
• hvac 
• new windows, doors, and insulation
• create "laundry room" in main house {it was previously in the garage}
• paint {interior and exterior}, tile, refinish hardwoods 
  
• new roof  
  

in this post, i'm going to focus on some of the design decisions i made for the exterior.  there was lots of work going on inside...taking out walls, rebuilding walls, re-wiring and re-plumbing the entire house, but none of that stuff is very interesting or photogenic!

as i do when making major design decisions {such as exterior paint choices}  i went to pinterest to search cottage exteriors for inspiration.  i found that i was drawn to houses in bold colors...think mints, pinks, and soft turquoises.  i looked around the street and noticed that everyone's 1950 cottage was painted white or grey.  i wanted this cottage to stand out from the crowd...going bold with an exterior color is an easier feat with a small facade.  here were my initial color options:

i was drawn to the coral, but felt like it wouldn't be the best choice for resale.  the bluish-grey was beautiful, but in some light it just looked grey and blended in to the rest of the grey cottages on the block.  I went back to the drawing board and chose some mints from the sherwin williams deck.  in the end i ended up choosing "mint condition"  here is the "after"   

a few other things we did:

• wrapped the existing iron columns with wide exterior grade lumber, added a little inexpensive trim to the top and bottom, and painted them a crisp white!
• installed two larger, energy efficient windows that i scored from the habitat restore
• installed simple, shutters and painted them a deep, almost black navy.
• added a new craftsmen style door {another habitat re-store score!} 

the roof was in terrible shape so we also took this opportunity to replace the reddish-brown roof with a 30 year architectural, grey shingle roof.  we also trimmed the overbearing oak tree in the front to allow a bit of light in the house...stay tuned for landscaping, pavers, and all the finishing touches!!