Project DIY: Painting my way to a carport refresh

We love a good DIY project! Not only is it fun to give new life to old things, it is a great way to keep items out of the landfill. Part of a sustainability mindset is finding ways to use what we already have and therefore purchase less.

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The DIY Project: My tired carport!

Why I Love It

I live in an older house that my husband and I (with much help from friends and family!) have renovated as over the past 8 years or so. The big things are done but there are a few smaller, though impactful, projects remaining and the carport is one of the items on the list. The house has a bit of an odd layout, and one of the quirks is that our main entry is through a covered, enclosed carport.

It could really be a useful space: it’s a decent place for the kids to play on cold or rainy days being enclosed, and it might even be a reasonable place to sit and have a coffee or tea. However, it just hasn’t been a space that we enjoy being in.

Over the years it has become shabbier and I’m always conscious that it’s not the greatest first impression of our home. Looking to finally wrap up this piece of the house renovation I obtained a painting quote…and was shocked by how much the quote was. Not willing to go with a contractor I decided to plug away at it myself. And then, very kindly, family and friends offered to give up part of their weekend to join me for a painting party, and so planning for a busy day of painting began!

Love a good before and after? Check out our other DIY projects here!

The Plan

My plan was simple, a well-chosen colour palette and a good coat of paint! Though the materials are old they are still functional and so we didn’t consider removal and disposition of the existing finishes. I’m a big believer in the power of paint to renew a space and so the plan was to paint the ceiling and walls, and add chalkboards (via chalkboard paint) to the walls.

Supplies List

• Paint rollers
• Paint brushes
• Painters tape
• Paint trays
• Paint in your chosen colour
• Rags
• Cardboard working surface – if you’re like me, you’ll spill!

The Process

There are a few steps to ensuring that a new coat of paint will go on easily and (relatively) quickly:

• My first step was to wash the walls as removing dirt and any accumulated grime is a must to ensure that the paint will go on over the old surface.
• Next prime any surfaces that may benefit from the extra coat of paint: changing from a dark colour to a light one, raw wood, stained surfaces, for example. In my case the ceiling was raw wood with some surface staining, so I primed it to ensure that the colour paint coat would be simple to apply.
• The next step was to tape around any spots where there was a transition to another surface or colour. In my case, we had windows to paint around and so rather than get paint on the windows that would have to be scraped later, I used painters tape to mask off the transition and it worked great!

The everyone got going, even the kiddos! They loved helping and it made it a fun, family event.

The Finished Product

It was a long day of work but we’re so happy with the end result! The flooring and lighting still have to be done, but it already looks so much better.

Help me finish the project!

As we were working through the refresh of this space, I realized it would be great to have planters or some way to introduce greenery. However there only indirect light in much of the space. How would you introduce greenery? And what colour should the planters be?

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