First impressions are important in personal relationships, and the same is true when it comes to homes. When someone sees the outside of your home, they’ll immediately draw conclusions about it. If you want those conclusions to be closer to the truth, you should make sure that your curb appeal matches the interior of your home. Here are some tips
1. Take Care Of Your Lawn
The odds are that most of your yard is taken up by grass. That’s why it’s important to make sure that you’re properly maintaining your lawn to up your curb appeal. Regularly mow your lawn, use fertilizer for a lush look, and make sure to add grass seed to any bare spots in your yard. A lush, green lawn makes a great impression when someone first arrives at your home, so make sure you’re taking care of your grass to boost your curb appeal.
2. Add a Vegetable Garden
If you want a garden that is both useful and aesthetically pleasing, consider planting a vegetable garden. Under normal circumstances, food crops have a lot of competition — between 30,000 species of weeds, 3,000 species of nematodes (also known as worms), and 10,000 species of plant-eating insects. This means there are more treatments that have to be applied to food crops to keep them from falling prey to these things. However, in your own vegetable garden, you have more control and know exactly what is applied to your crops, which can have health benefits as well as add curb appeal to your home.
3. Plant Seasonal Flowers
In the spring, summer, and fall, there are different flowers that will be in bloom for the season. If you love gardening, like the 42% of people who said that gardening at their homes made them feel healthy and happy, then you can look into what flowers will bloom when to keep your garden in bloom as much as possible. If gardening is not your forte and the idea of doing an entire garden bed of flowers intimidates you, you can use pots to hold the seasonal flowers. This also makes it easier to switch them out when the flowers stop blooming.
4. Think Symmetrically
Symmetrical yards are more visually pleasing to our eyes, meaning that symmetry has a huge impact on our perception of a yard. Make sure that if you have equal-looking garden beds on either side of your home. If your house isn’t symmetrical, try to find ways to balance it out using outdoor furniture or differently sized plants. For example, if your front door is not centered, you can use a larger shrub or tree the same distance from the center of your home. While it won’t be as perfectly symmetrical as if your door were in the middle of your house, it will balance out the symmetry enough to be pleasing to the eye.
5. Power Wash Your Home
If you can’t remember the last time that the exterior of your home was cleaned, power washing is a good way to go. Make sure that whatever your siding is made out of can withstand power washing before you start doing it so you don’t end up with chipped or peeled off paint because of the power of the water spray. If you have a front porch or any sidewalk, power washing can take off layers of grime that you may not even realize are there.
You can either rent a power washer from a home improvement store or you can purchase one. If you know that you’ll need to spend a lot of time power washing things or if you know you’ll want to power wash in the future, it is probably a better investment to purchase a power washer as long as you have the storage space for it.
6. Add Lights
If the exterior of your home is dark, it may be a good idea to add some outdoor lighting to spruce up your curb appeal. You can add smaller lights along pathways or in your garden to highlight your favorite plants. Sconces on either side of your front door can add symmetry as well as light. Make sure any lighting you buy is made for the outdoors to avoid any electrical problems. For lights that are placed in your garden, look for solar-powered devices to avoid issues finding a way to get power to the lights.
7. Get New House Numbers
Whether or not your house numbers have seen better days, it’s a good idea to switch out your old ones to new ones to update the look of your exterior. Whatever the aesthetic is that you’re trying to achieve in your front yard, you should try to find numbers that work with everything else. Make sure to choose ones that can clearly be seen from the street so that anyone who is passing by can find your house easily.
8. Update Your Front Door’s Paint
An easy way to completely update the look of your home is by painting your front door a new color or shade. Since your front door is usually a smaller part of your curb appeal, you can go for a bolder look without it being too overwhelming. Choosing something like a burnt orange color can add a lot of character and interest to a tan house, for example. Make sure to test out the colors that you’re thinking of to make sure that the paint will match the rest of your yard.
9. Replace Gutters
Your gutters are going to be visible as soon as someone arrives at your home, so it’s important to make sure that they haven’t fallen into disrepair. Choosing seamless gutters can help them to not become clogged as easily as traditional gutters. Seamless gutters need to be custom measured and installed, so make sure to find a contractor you trust for the installation. Reputable metal fabricators will make sure that they include safety training in their quality control program, so if you see someone who isn’t used proper PPE or other red flags, it may be time to go with another contractor.
No matter why you want to update your curb appeal, these updates will help give your home a great first impression of your home.