DIY Shutters!

We finally got shutters! I had seen a neat diy on Pinterest showing how to make your own board and batten shutters. (Head on over to the Cozy.Cottage.Cute. blog to catch her excellent DIY Shutters!) Our house was in need of some new shutters. It had shutters at one point because there were outlines on the house where the previous shutters had been spray-painted black while still attached to the house. From a distance the black paint looked like dirt but there was no washing it off!

My dad made the shutters for me! We picked out the lumber together and he did the difficult parts -  thanks Dad! It took a while to decide on a color for the shutters but Ben and I finally settled on a nice cool gray color. I painted the shutters in our basement since the weather was too cold to paint outdoors. After two coats of paint and time to cure I pre-drilled the holes for the screws to make it easier to screw them onto the house. We used four screws per shutter. {TIP: Buy more than the exact number of screws in case you drop one!} Ben and I got the shutters put up ourselves, which included caulking the holes from the old and missing shutters. It felt really great to do all of that together! We also got the old satellite dish taken off the corner of the house too - it was freeing to get that eye-sore down! We are really happy with the way the house looks now. It looks more like a home!

The shutters were just large enough to cover up the spray paint on the house, giving it a much cleaner appearance. I really like the style that the board and batten shutters bring to the house. It has a hand-made, cottage-style look that I really want to bring out in our little home!

The shutters also help to emphasize the windows. They especially highlight the large picture window, making it look even bigger. I love, too, how the wood is a pretty compliment to the brick, both being natural materials. And we got them up before the weather started to get really cold! Hooray!