My wife and I love to drive around different neighborhoods and look at houses. We love to get ideas (well, I should say that SHE loves to get ideas and have ME work on them). Along the way, we kind of figured out what it was about certain homes that made them stand out and make us take a second look. Here are the top 5 curb appeal updates that seem to make a huge difference in the look and feel of a house.
1). Update the Exterior of your home.
Living in North Carolina, we wanted a home that had the true “Southern” look! You know the one with the wrap-around front porch perfect for sipping your sweet tea. To accomplish that, we made the outside of our home “fit the mold” You can do a complete transformation, like updating the siding of the home or you can do something as simple as changing the color of the shutters. Becky has always loved white homes with black shutters. So after we moved in, we simply did that. It looked like a totally different house.
2). Spruce up your landscaping!
This one is huge. Your house can be beautiful, but even with the best siding and your favorite front porch, it isn’t going to be “just right” until you have payed attention to the details. Add a few trees in the fall, hang ferns in the spring, edge your yard (this makes a huge difference) and try to keep the yard cut as nicely as you can. If you are going to do a large landscape project one make sure you are choosing the right plants for what you want. Here is our latest project, We chose plants that will help give us privacy and will stay green all year long.
3). Make your porch stand out.
This spring, we did a total overhaul of the front porch. We went for new black rocking chairs (a gift from my mother-in-law), we added plants and a splash of red all around the porch. Here was our finished porch:
4). Update the entrance.
One way to do this is to update your front door. You can paint it a new color (red is always a color of choice) or get a new wooden door. Even if you just clean it and polish the hardware – it is going to make a big impact. We also changed the old outdated house numbers on the front of the house. All the homes in our neighborhood had the same style, so they all looked the same. This was one change we made and it made a huge difference.
5). Clean your sidewalks.
Power washing your sidewalks and the porch will make such a difference. You will want to rent, borrow or buy a powerful one (I’ve gone with the cheaper ones and they aren’t worth it) and just power-wash the ground at least once a year. Doing this will make your steps, sidewalks, and drive way look new again.
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That’s a good idea to up[date the siding. I would think that would go a long way to make your house look newer. I’ll have to consider doing that so that I could increase the curb appeal of my house.
A neighbor of mine did it and it looks great. It also stands out from the other homes in out neighborhood.