Front Porch Pretty

With the sun shining outside the past few days, its got me thinking about our front porch (I use the term loosely, since our porch is tiny) but it was one of my 'must have' on our buying list. I can't complain even though our front porch is small its come along way since we first bought our house in December 2008. Back in 2008 and over half of 2009 our front porch and house looked like this.

I know its hard to tell { from the picture above }, but we just placed our patio set on the front porch and called it good. After we painted our house gray and added shutters, a new light fixture, new house numbers and redid our flower bed things started looking up.

To me our front porch still looks boring and not that inviting. I think one major change we need to do our front porch is add some pops color that will look nice against the grey. I've been thinking about painting our front door for quite sometime. Mr CLH and I butted heads over our front door color - he wanted black and I wanted a cranberry red. I love red front doors, I know they are the norm in some areas, but I only counted one on our street so I thinking we are going to go red.

I also want to add some either cushions to our bistro set or add pillows to create warmth. I was also thinking spay painting our plastic plant containers on of porch to add more color. Right now the containers 'natrual Terra Cotta color' just blend in with our brick exterior.

Here are some pretty front porches that are giving me serious inspiration for small porches!

Isn't this the perfect sunny spot for morning coffee, I like the cushions and bright potted plants that surround the front porch.

{ via Ladies Home Journal }

This front porch is so charming, I like the bright floors

{ via Ladies Home Journal }

I love the swing on this porch so welcoming

{ via Country Living }

These two pillows are the perfect touch on this porch.

{ via Country Living }

Now that its getting warm outside, I'm really looking forward to added extra oomph to the front of the house. Our project list keeps getting longer and longer, looking forward to the time change when our days get longer too. Have you done a porch re-do? I'd love to see and hear all about it.