How I Up-cycled Metal Roofing to a Accent Wall

Wow! 

Have we been busy over here!

School is out, the Lake is open, and we have a house full of kids. The “Basketball Court/Future Kitchen is almost all the way painted and the baby chicks have been moved to the big coop. I am having great success with weaning Princess, but with that comes a lot of distractions and I have realized how much “naptime nursing” allowed me to write. So, before we get to this AWESOME MAKEOVER, let me apologize for the wait. As soon as I figure out how to get Princess to nap without me or I get a laptop (ha!), we will have TONS to share! THANK YOU for your continuous support and letters.

Now, on to the newest “Weekend” project!

We have this great porch on our house. It’s a long, 3-season sitting porch. I LOVE porches, like, LOVE THEM.

This porch though, well, let’s just say it was over due for an update. I won’t bore you will all the details.

Trust me, the pictures can tell the whole story.

I will note that we did open up the porch last summer by cutting out an 11 foot opening that will allow most of the kitchen to look out through the porch. We also added a 5 foot doorway, giving the porch 2 points of entry. The doorway creates that circular flow that I prefer, connecting the porch directly into the kitchen/dinning area at one end and connecting the porch and living room (the original design) at the opposite end. You can check out that renovation here if you missed it.

Another quick note about the porch: You might recall that great Beautiful Plank Wall in the Living Room we built; all of the wood came off the porch wall. I knew we were going to be cutting out those sections, so I pulled the wood and repurposed it in the Living Room. A Brilliant idea, except this left a wall of plywood which is super ugly.

You should also know that I painted this entire porch, minus the ceiling, over the winter. I just could not take the golden “campy” look any longer. It was too much for me. I also ripped out the carpet at the same time (damn dogs!). If you have all of your materials ready, this can all be done in one day, but I wanted to be fair in sharing that I did not 100% transform this porch in a day. Also, when I say “painted”, I used Primer; Zinsser Bull’s Eye 1-2-3. This product is my “go-to” when I paint anything from dressers, vanities, doors, tables, sealed wood walls and beams. Check it out; if you have this stuff, you can paint anything. Priming the walls lightened the entire space. I chose to do only 1 coat, keeping the rustic feel. And I loved it until we started painting the Basketball Court; looking out onto the porch from a freshly painted room, brought back that “campy” feeling I was tired of.

My solution was easy!

I used the same Primer, Zinsser Bull’s Eye 1-2-3 and painted the ceiling. I then took the trim color I have been using throughout the house, “Classic Gray” by Benjamin Moore, and painted the walls of the porch along with the window trim. What this did was clean up the look. That’s it.

Benjamin Moore’s “Classic Gray” is hands down my go to “white”. This is a soft gray that only really looks gray next to a true white. Next to everything else, you’d think it was plain old white paint.

Once the walls were painted, they looked smooth and clean, but I still wasn’t satisfied. 

I didn’t paint the wall with the “cut out.” This wall was still an eyesore of finish nails in plywood and it needed to be dealt with before we laid down the flooring.

I wasn’t sure what to do. I only knew there was no way I was wasting paint on plywood. I did not want to sheetrock it because that meant, taping, mudding, sanding, and painting.

I was thinking of all sorts of ideas when I remembered a close friend was using old metal roofing for something similar. By similar, I mean outdoor siding on a mud room and as an interior ceiling.

I went on a “hunt” behind the barn. I was pretty certain that there was a pile of old metal “something” when we bought the house…. Score! There was, buried in leaves, mud and pricker bushes.

I called the Hubz to gage his thoughts on this. This is important to me because it’s his house too. I want him to LOVE every room we do, after all he’s the one busting butt all day and when he comes home, I want him to be proud of what we have done. I will admit, he does compromise a lot on some of my ideas and for that I Love Him More and More!

So, I pitched him the idea:

Me: “I want to use the old metal roofing that’s been rotting behind the barn for an accent wall on the porch. What do you think?”

The Hubz: [Silence]….. “What?! You want to do… [Laughs] what?”

Me: “I know it sounds bad, like I am picking up trash and nailing it to the walls, but…”

I’m laughing now because this is a really bad pitch.

The Hubz: “Yeah. It does. That’s exactly what it sounds like.”

Me: “I know. It sounds terrible, but I think it could work. You’re busy. I’m going to put it up as a “Demo” so you can see it. If you hate it, we will just take it down; no big deal.”

The Hubz said “OK,” but I think he really wanted to shout, “NO! No way!”

Lucky for him, I had Roo and Baby Girl here and they were a huge help! We worked hard to clean the metal and get it hung before he came home.The goal was the porch had to be fully staged with art, pictures and plants. Everyone knew that if the Hubz came home to a porch with chunks of metal hanging on the wall, it would be coming down.

I had to buy a cutting tool, which was less than $20. The Hubz had one, but it was in his work truck. I didn’t want to wait for him to come home to help or witness this madness, certain he would not be on board. If I was a bit hesitant when the first piece went on, I could only imagine what his thoughts would be!

I used wood screws to hang the metal because that’s what I had on hand. I didn’t want to waste money on buying roofing rivets if we were tearing the wall down. If the Hubz liked it, I’d replace the hardware later.

The Kids worked hard entertaining Princess and making lunches. They helped mark cut lines and hold sheets of metal while I got the screws anchored. It was hot. The lake was calling. I’m pretty certain I promised the kids we’d go, but I was determined to finish this.

We barely got the room staged in time. The Hubz was pulling in the driveway while we were hustling to get the scrap metal cleaned up and plants in place. We did it, though.

And I LOVE IT!

The Kids LOVE IT!

The Hubz HATES IT!

“Babe, you have to envision the trim. The sharp edges would be covered. It won’t look this rough once there’s trim.”

The Hubz said he didn’t like it. It was nice, but not what he wanted in his house. It felt more like a coffee shop.

I am 100% okay with taking this down, but now it’s been up for a week and I think it might be growing on him. The other day, he saw roofing rivets in my car; I had bought for a different project. He commented on how much better the porch would look if I had used those; that type of detail goes a long way. [Insert face palm]

Maybe we will leave it up a few more days…..

What do you think? Love or Hate? Let us know in the comments!