Surprise Holiday Front Porch Makeover

12/28/2017

It's the most wonderful time of year and it truly is better to give than to receive. We were so fortunate to work with PCSgrades on this project. We couldn't have done it without them and all the volunteers who cam to help.

So, what did we do you may ask? We surprised an active duty military family with a Holiday Front Porch Makeover. Oh yeah we did. It was amazing! (I am so glad my husband has returned from his deployment and was able to work on this project with me.)

In November, we hosted a Giveaway with PCSgrades open to any active duty military family in the Lackland/San Antonio, Texas area. We received hundreds of entries and on November 27, 2017 we drew a random winner. Wow! That was crazy. We asked the winner for a photo of the front of the home so I could get started with creating the design. I then made a mock up in Photoshop. This way I would know what we needed to make it all possible. I had to keep in mind the rules of the military installation and work within their guidelines, but I love a challenge.

Before

Idea/Concept

After

Once the winner was drawn we had less than 7 days to put everything together, from coming up with the design concept, to shopping, shopping, and more shopping to making all the decor DIY projects. We then packed up the truck and drove to San Antonio where we had 6 hours to overhaul the exterior of their home with holiday magic. Landscaping, Christmas trees, wreaths, lights, decorations, you name it, we made it happen. What a wonderful surprise it was. Check out the video below and see for yourself.

Check out this easy DIY projects.
DIY Project 1 Pizza Box. Wrap a pizza box. We headed over to a local pizza shop and asked if we could have a few empty pizza boxes for a holiday project and they were more than happy to give us a few for free. Thanks for that! Wrap the boxes with wrapping paper and ribbon an use velcro Command strips on the back to attach to the wall and use as decoration.

DIY Project 2 Lantern and Christmas Bulbs
We picked up these lanterns at Kirland's during their Black Friday sale. Great discount. Kirland's also offers a 10% military discount and if you get their app you can even get ore discount. And yes, you can combine all the offers. Fill the lantern with Christmas bulbs and decorate the tops of the lantern with fresh or artificial greenery, pine cones and ribbons.

DIY Project 3 Chalk Painted Bench
I was on the hunt for a white bench. I really wanted to put an antique white bench in the porch, but all I kept finding was black. Well, alright then. I will just chalk paint it. So I did. Chalk painting is so easy. No prep or sanding required. I simply grabbed a pint of white chalk paint and paint on 2 coats. I let the paint dry a few hours in between coats. I then sanded off some of the white painted in certain areas to give it a more rustic look and then used brown antique wax for the final finish. Really easy and just a couple of bucks.

DIY Project 4 Hot Chocolate Bar
Found this 3 tier white stand at Hobby Lobby. During the holidays all their Christmas items were 40% off, so I snatched it up and created a hot chocolate bar with all the fixings, candy canes, marshmallows, caramel and hot covered giant marshmallows, ginger candies and of course marshmallows. Added a few pine cones, greenery and some holiday bulbs.

DIY Project 5 Joy Door Decor
Since we were going for a more whimsical look, I didn't want to do a traditional wreath. I decided to make a piece that could go down the length of door instead. We attached a silver ribbon to the front of the door and then hot glued light weight wooden letters that we painted with red chalk paint and covered with red glitter spelling out the word JOY.