Want to make your home pop? Create an eye-catching vision of an elegant and welcoming home with a new paint job and landscaping that wows.
You have been inspired by the warmer days and pending summer months to create great curb appeal and enhance your home. Part 1 suggests designing new exterior doors and updating the lighting. So what are your next steps?
New paint
New paint is always a true lift to any home’s overall look — as long as it is done correctly, and with taste. You can change the total vision and impact of a home through simple colour alone. Colour is one of our most powerful tools for putting forth a certain image or style without having to state it.
When choosing your colours, be sure to keep them within the colour palette of your home — much like putting together your wardrobe for the day, you want to have colours that complement (and not overpower) each other.
If you have other exterior materials in your architecture, like brick or wood shingles, keep these in mind to guide the colour spectrum you choose from; for example, rust red in the brick wall will lead you to a warmer palette. Most paint stores provide colour palette books and paint tabs to help you avoid picking potentially clashing colours.
Keep in mind that you can also use exterior doors, roofing, trim, shutter and other external elements as opportunities to paint a separate but complementary colour to the main building. Done right, the paint scheme you choose will be so picture perfect and natural, you will have trouble remembering what the original paint colours were before you started.
Related: Make your entry way more grand
Landscaping that wows
Nothing is more rewarding that planning a beautiful landscape and then see it come to life before your eyes. Whether you turn to an expert or design it yourself, there are endless possibilities to create fabulous curb appeal from landscaping that wows.
As always, your exterior doors have a huge impact on your visitors, and complementing this is the walk from the car to your entryway. The path can be done in several different styles — brick, natural stone, pebbles, paving stones, even wood. Everyone wants to follow the yellow brick road, and curves are attractive and inviting. Depending on how much distance you have to walk, the journey can be made delightful with the addition of a manicured path that has flowered edging or is bordered with rustic wood, curved bricks or embedded lights.
In addition to beautiful flowering shrubs, strategically placed hanging plants and edging flowers provide a rush of vivid colour. Consider surrounding your front yard with elegant wrought iron fencing, including an ornate gate or rose-covered Pergola at the entrance. Other landscaping features could be statues, sculptures, birdbaths, and even a fountain.
Before you even work on the decorative path, you can also manicure the driveway — trimming it with the same care and meticulousness you give to the path. Coordination is key.
Related: Three ways to make your home stand out in the neighbourhood
Remember, your curb appeal is an instant impression and that vision is created by the whole view of your home at once. As long as you keep your overall design in mind for each element you refresh or implement, you will be able to create a one-of-a-kind welcome that is uniquely you.
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