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All summer long, I’ve been giving my front porch the stinkeye. I had painted it a couple of years ago to freshen it up a bit. It was just a plain old concrete porch with some paint splatters from the last time the ceiling was painted. At the time, I wasn’t sure if it was possible to paint a concrete porch and have it hold up. I was happily surprised that it did, even on the steps which get the most traffic.
Until the salt incident. Last winter was particularly icy in the Midwest. We didn’t get a lot of snow but we did get freezing rain, which I hate. My front steps and sidewalk were really icy a few times. I didn’t want the anyone busting their butt trying to deliver my mail so I grabbed some salt and put it down. This spring I realized the paint had started to flake in the places where the salt had been. Hence the stinkeye.
Paint a concrete porch
The porch still looked great in the places that hadn’t been touched by salt so I knew it wasn’t the paint. After procrastinating all summer, I finally went to Lowe’s and grabbed another gallon of the concrete paint I had used before. It’s the Valspar brand and it’s specifically for porches, floors, and patios. I used the dark gray but they also have a tintable version you can customize. It’s a latex paint which means clean up is easy. Always a plus since I’m a messy painter.
I also grabbed a new roller cover for lightly textured surfaces. But when I got home, I realized I actually got this:
Well hell.
My guess is that someone threw it in the wrong box and I grabbed it without checking.
It was decision time. Did I truck back over to Lowe’s and get the one I wanted or did I make do with what I had? If you guessed “make do” then you’re a winner! It’s a porch so little imperfections aren’t that big of a deal. But good news. If you have an acoustical ceiling to paint, there’s a roller cover for that!
The day before I painted, I cleared everything off, swept, and hosed down the area I was going to paint so it would have time to dry. Once it was empty, those flaking spots were really noticeable.
There’s nothing too fancy needed in a project like this. I used my favorite short angled paintbrush to get next to the house and around the porch columns. I love that brush for cutting in around doors, windows, and trim. For the rest of it, I used the roller.
It took a couple of hours to paint the entire floor and the steps. All in all, painting a porch isn’t a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon! It was a great opportunity to catch up on podcasts and the weather was perfect that day.
I was a little concerned as the paint was drying because it had a metallic look. I wasn’t sure if it was the concrete paint or if I’d made a mistake not getting another roller cover. It didn’t look bad necessarily, I just wasn’t expecting it to be so….sparkly.
So I crossed my fingers and hoped that the sparkle-factor would calm down once it was dry.
And it did! I gave it a full 24 hours to dry and by the next day, it looked great. Not a sparkle in sight. So much better.
Yes, you can paint a concrete porch!
If you’re wondering if you can paint a concrete porch, then the answer is yes! This is one of those easy, affordable upgrades you can do in a weekend. A gallon of the concrete porch paint is around $30. My porch is pretty small so I have plenty left over for touch-ups or another coat in a year or two.
The best part of this whole project is that my porch is all ready for fall and Halloween decorating. If you follow us on Instagram, you might have seen in stories that I snagged those two bushel baskets at a flea market for only 4 bucks each. Now I just need pumpkins and mums to fill those up! I’ve been waiting for it to not be 90 degrees but the cooler weather just isn’t ready to get here yet.
Ever since I created my house project list, I’ve been so motivated to get to work! It’s amazing how having everything organized and in one place can inspire me to get busy. I’ve already knocked out two of the projects on my list. Check out the post on my DIY wooden tray I made for my dining room table if you missed it. I’m already planning for what to tackle next.
And I’ll be doing some research into what I should use for ice this winter. If you have any suggestions on products that work, let us know in the comments!
