Covered Porch Paint Ideas

The Spring weather is upon us which means it is the perfect time to start thinking of outdoor projects around the house. Several years ago we refinished the decking of our covered porch and we painted the deck surface and then re-painted it a year later! Let me explain why it was repainted and give you some covered porch paint ideas. As you will notice I chose neutral colors for the porch paint, if you want a pop of color I would save the color for the decorations on the porch if you have an area that is high traffic as any type of color will show scuffs.

After we finished the re-laying our deck surface I found this porch paint that was specifically for floor & patio that I thought would be great! It was a light grey and I love all shades of grey. However I found out quickly when living on a farm and having dogs that there was no way to keep this deck looking clean. Every little scuff mark was shown and since we live in Oregon the rain and mud was a constant.

As you can see in the picture below this is what the wood deck porch paint looked like after a fresh coat of paint. So pretty! (As long as no one walks on the porch or places anything else on the porch!)

After all the wear and tear of all the foot traffic it was time to re-paint the porch floor in a different color that will give a fresh look but also one that will hide the dirt, mud and marks that come with living in the country, in the rain and with lots of animals.

As you can see from all these before pictures, the porch color showed the dog nail scratches, general dirt and scuff marks everywhere.

So when Summer came along it was time to research porch paint colors and come up with a porch color that would blend with our wood porch and hide all the wear and tear that we bring to it.

The original grey paint color came from our local Ace Hardware and I because of convenience I went back to Ace and bought a different color of the same paint. This new color is a brown with a little bit of red undertones and has a matte sheen and after I tested an area I really liked the way the color added visual interest but still flowed well with our house. When choosing a color I also wanted one that would mesh well with the white porch trim.

In order to prep the old porch paint I took the power washer to the entire deck surface after removing all the furniture and other things on the porch. After the porch was dry and clean I opened the new paint and got to work painting.

Because this area is not super large I decided to paint the entire deck with just a simple paint brush instead of getting out the roller brush. This way I could paint between the cracks in the porch boards. I applied two coats, letting it dry well between each coat.

This brown ended up being the best paint color for our covered porch deck boards. Although I am not usually one to gravitate towards dark colors, I have since started going outside my comfort zone with the deck and the color of our home. This paint job unfortunately had to be done twice since the first lighter color was not a wise choice for our home but I remind myself that not all DIY projects turn out great the first time around.

If you live in a home that doesn’t get as much foot traffic or the weather doesn’t cause a bunch of mud you may be able to try light colors on your porch paint, however if your home is anything like ours and gets heavy foot traffic from humans and animals then I would definitely recommend any type of darker shades. In addition I would recommend the paint we used or any type of paint that is specifically for exterior wood deck surfaces.

Now this deck surface is beautiful and does not show all the scuffs and dirt like the previous surface did and definitely helps with our home’s curb appeal. As you can see from the above photo the stairs are showing a little wear and scuffs but I have other touch up painting do do so these will get a fresh paint job this summer.

As you can see from this above photo there are lots of scuff marks on the deck (this picture was taken in the winter) but overall hides the dirt and scuffs a lot better than the grey did. The white spot on the left side of the photo is from primer when painting our house this last Summer, it will need to be touched up as well.

Next up for this covered porch is to get us a proper front door (instead of the slider).