RH Showroom Exterior Before & After

I hope you don’t think my husband is a slave.

I do have many, MANY ideas for him but not all of them make the cut. I get turned down a lot… I just don’t blog about it. Haha!

When I originally drew up an idea for the outside of my shop, I just knew he would shoot it down. It would be too complicated, too time consuming, too expensive or all of the above.

But to my surprise, HE SAID YES! I was PUMPED!

I was worried the project would be complicated but Dan pulled it off without a hitch!

BEFORE:

I just want to say thank you to all of my loyal customers who didn’t let this exterior scare them away forever! Never judge a book by it’s cover.

But I literally do judge books by their cover all the time! Don’t you?!

So it was time to do something about it! So like many of my projects, it began with a sketch.

The Sketch:

Then we bought some lumber, broke out the tools and went to work!

We would create a pergola awning by first securing a board along the wall for support. I thought an awning would not only frame in my little shopfront but also hide the old garage door inset (where the green paint is).

A 2×6 was used along the back and 2×4’s vertically down the sides where the braces would be secured.

Every good project has good helpers. My sister helping with Mr. Ren (both dying to quit and go swimming! Which we in fact did and work was postponed until the next morning!)

Maybe the most time-consuming part was cutting all of the pergola pieces that will run along the top.

Dan laid them out and measured carefully. I think we ended up spacing them a foot apart.

He built the sides out with temporary brace supports and we attached the front board. This created the rectangle that would hold the pergola pieces.
Tada! He made sure the pieces worked just right and then added the braces back to the wall to hold the weight of the structure.  Then he started to screw everything into place. 
And I made him a breakfast sandwich… it’s the least I could do!

And there you have it! A “simple” pergola awning! 

Now with a little paint, a window box, flowers, and some letters the showroom exterior has made a complete transformation!

Before:

After:

Dan can rest easy until my next brilliant plan! 😉

Thanks for stopping by!

-Lauren