Painting Our Exterior Vinyl Shutters

We’ve been reinvesting our tax refund back into our home for several years. Last summer, we used all the money to hire a contractor to build a patio in our backyard to make the outside usable (which by the way, has been the best investment ever given this quarantine). This year we decided to use the funds towards several small DIY projects in lieu of one big budget project since the stay-at-home orders are in place, making a big project and/or hiring a contractor more complicated at this time. Both my husband and I came up with our own separate lists of 5 potential projects and surprisingly, there was a lot of overlap between the two. One items we both included in our lists was replacing the shutters on our house. It’s one of those project that has been on our minds forever, but it was never really high priority because they are solely decorative and serve no actual function, but boy were they an eyesore!

The shutters were faded and made the siding look old and discolored too. We calculated the cost of replacing them to be approximately $600 (not including labor), which is not bad in the grand scheme of things and felt like a justifiable cost given the impact they would have on the curb appeal of the house. But there was nothing actually wrong with the shutters themselves and my husband was looking for an easy DIY project to tackle during this period of quarantine. He’s one of those people that feels best when he’s productive, so he opted to paint our existing shutters for a fraction of the cost of replacing them.

After some online research, we opted for the Sherwin Williams Duration Exterior paint in Tricorn Black. I won’t get into a step by step tutorial because honestly, I had very little to do with this project with the exception of picking out the paint color. (You can check out the step-by-step tutorial he found online here.) But while my husband was busy removing, cleaning, painting and installing the shutters, I did my part by helping with Jonas and preparing family meals so that he could work without interruptions. The entire project took him 4 days (approx. 20 hours)and the end results was a high impact / low cost project that made a big difference! Next on the list: replacing the front door!

Have you tackled any home improvement projects during the quarantine? What’s the next project on your “To Do” List? Let me know in the comments below!