Our front porch makeover with recycled bricks

They say first impressions count….

Well, when we first purchased the farm back in 2011, my first thought as I walked onto the front porch was – argghh we need to update this. Unfortunately after all the other parts of the house that needed work plus the addition of two small children (and no budget), we didn’t get around to this reno until winter this year (8 years after purchase).

First here is a before shot

Before

We initially removed the fencing to open the porch and bring in more light. Then we started growing an ornamental grape vine along the porch roof.

But we knew we would need to tackle the concrete porch and after numerous heated discussions on tiles versus decking I was scrolling Pinterest one night and saw brick – perfect! There is a local recycled brick store down the road with some great bricks recycled from other building projects.

We decided on a border with the bricks in a herringbone pattern inside. We were lucky, our friends had a brick cutter which we borrowed for the job. We ended up mortaring in the bricks and using a thin grout across the top to give it white wash.

After