It’s been a minute since I shared the front of the duplex—winter slowed things down—but today the porch reveal is finally happening. Big changes have taken place, and the whole facade feels like it’s turned a major corner.
There’s still no landscaping, the grass is patchy, and our contractor’s large sign is still out front, but when you compare this to where we started, the difference is night and day.
We removed all the non-original, 1970s-era details—the strange wagon-wheel decorations, abacus trim, undersized plastic shutters, broken vinyl railing, a tangle of satellite dishes, and even the duct tape along the roofline. At the same time we restored or reintroduced original-feel elements: the metal porch roof, operable shutters sized correctly, square porch columns, roofline corbels, wide brick steps, and those charming diamond windows that make my heart melt.
We’ve already detailed some of the bigger exterior decisions—siding, roofing, and the shutter color—so today I want to focus on the front porch updates specifically.
First: the doormats. The tiny postage-stamp mats that were there looked ridiculous in person—like something made for ants—so we’re swapping them for properly sized mats. Set that aside and look at the things that make the porch sing: matching mailboxes, clear house numbers, oversized lanterns to illuminate them, composite decking that won’t rot, potted plants, and teak benches. All of that elevates the whole entry.
We don’t have many close-up before photos of the front door area, but you can still get a feel for how battered the old porch became. The storm doors were mismatched and immediately came off when we took over.
Beneath the cosmetic issues the porch structure itself was failing—the support beams and framing were so rotten we had to remove the entire porch and rebuild it from scratch. We took special care to preserve the original transom windows above the doors while rebuilding the structure more stably.
That reconstruction feels like a huge leap forward in the last year and a half—plenty of hard work, but worth it for the curb appeal payoff.
After removing the mismatched storm doors we chose to embrace the original front doors themselves. Because the house is in a historic district, the town’s review board requires approval for major door changes, so we were relieved to like the originals from the start. We briefly considered painting them the same mint as the shutters, but with so many front windows showing that mint, we wanted the doors to introduce a complementary tone.
Our first thought was to reveal an original wood finish—clear-sealed or lightly stained. We had the doors professionally stripped and sanded in a shop to remove old paint safely, especially given lead paint concerns. The crew did as much as possible without compromising the thinner, older door construction, but even after professional work and additional sanding, stubborn paint settled into cracks and repairs remained visible up close.
A dark gel stain with strong coverage could have masked some flaws the way we’d done at our other house, but once we installed the porch lights, mailboxes, house numbers, and hardware, a deep charcoal paint started to feel right. It referenced the metal porch roof, grounded the cheerful green shutters, and provided a crisp contrast to the lighter siding.
We chose a rich warm-dark tone that sits between true black and brown, which worked beautifully with the other dark porch accents—the operable shutters, oversized lights, wall-mounted mailboxes, and the new house numbers. In person we’re thrilled with how the paint hides imperfections and ties the whole entry together.
Installing the house numbers was simple: standard off-the-shelf numbers that mount flush. We used the manufacturer’s template, adjusted spacing to suit the composition, and triple-checked for level and alignment. It’s also worth noting that local code requires numbers to be at least 4″ tall and visible from the street for emergency responders—something we learned just in time before our final inspection.
Since we decided against natural wood doors, we introduced warm wood tones elsewhere: basket-style ceramic planters, the big teak benches at either end of the porch, and soon a larger doormat or runner to bridge both doors and pull that warmth through visually.
We also added reliable faux outdoor trees for maintenance-free greenery. They bring life to the porch without upkeep, and once I fluff them and swap in the new mats and landscaping, the entry will feel even more polished.
If you follow our newsletter, you might have seen a sneak peek with the doors open. We painted the stair risers inside each side to match the interior door color on that unit—one side in a warm neutral and the other in a beachy green—so opening the dark exterior door reveals a cheerful surprise inside.
This wraps up the porch updates for now. We’re hoping for an early spring so we can finish landscaping, add a path, plant grass, and photograph the property for rentals. Rentals should begin this summer, with an Airbnb listing coming in the spring. There’s still interior and backyard work to complete, but the front of the duplex is finally feeling like the inviting, restored entry we envisioned.
P.S. If you want to follow the whole renovation journey, we’ve documented progress over the past 1.5 years in a dedicated duplex category.
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