Ideas 4 landscaping, color scheme, anything to liven up the place?!
01dmagno
6 years ago
We live in Norfolk, VA. Have lived here in this house about a year, but just don't know enough about gardening to know where to begin as far as landscaping. The classic traditional color scheme is fine, but quite ordinary. I'd like to think that we are a little more funky than that! So suggestions for colors are welcome. We want to change the white picket fence to a dark color, just to shake up the "proverbial-ness" of it. If we could paint the aluminum siding, we would do that right now! But to start with, painting the doors is a very easy and effective and we were thinking something bright and bold. Thanks for your time!
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jck910
6 years ago
PROJudyG Designs
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoWithout painting the siding, it is hard to get really bright and bold…I would do Somerville Red shutters and Nightshade for front door and fence.
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Part 4 - Finishing Up
Comments (24)Janice - start saving your pennies! Phil, this hill can really be a challange. On the other side we had to do a pretty sturdy retaining wall (it was fairly important to hold up the house). We'd built the pool and deck by then and had to do this with three levels each only about 2 feet deep. We ended up using a combination of allan blocks and railroad ties. I like the look which you can see in one of the pictures on "my page". Pam and Debbie - I would love a convention to come to this area. I will have my garden on the local tour at some point. madeofshade, what's next is something perculating in my brain that will have to wait a week or so. I'm off to my sisters this weekend - coming back with hostas of course. unport - stand up for your paths! I went from having none at first, thinking every speck of space needed to be plants to realizing how important they are. I now have paths leading everwhere. They define the gardens like drawing a line in a picture. I'm also chipping away at my lawn which is only 10 x 10 to begin with. Next year it's loosing a foot all the way around. As long as a table and chairs fit that's enough. Anitamo, The paths are just mixed topping cement put right on dirt. You could border them by anything. I used the old stepping stones and other rocks but you could do the same thing with wood or brick edges if you wanted. When I painted them, I thined the paint. My theory is that it would soak into the cement rather than coat the top. This proved out when we painted the house. Dripped paint would easily peal off but watered down paint soaked in and is probably still there. I just used a water based latex -not special cement paint. I didn't prepare the surface other than to have it clean. I didn't wait for it to "cure". I pretty much ignore advice of men in hardware stores. What do they know? I remember trying to figure out what I was going to use as a toping for the border we did when we put in the paving stone patio. We'd built the patio up against those cement bricks with the two holes in them. We'd left ourselves options for wood or cement or whatever. They stayed unfinished for a couple years. Meanwhile I got a bit use to using cement by making these steping stones and the birdbath on top of the tree stump (made in a horse trough). When I asked at the hardware store how to do a curb type thing, showing pictures of the actual patio and bricks, I was told I'd have to make forms. Why? It's not like cement is runny, or at least mine wasn't. I mixed it to the consistancy of soft clay and did it the way I wanted. The only problem I had this year with texturing the wall was forgetting to listen to my own instincts. Men who've worked with concrete will tell you to wet down the concrete so the toping stuff will stick. Wrong! I didn't do that with the first part of the wall so why did I do it with this part? I had the worlds worst time getting anything to stick while I was doing the pole at the corner and that section. Finally I quit puting the water on first and had no problem after that. Again, thank you all for you wonderful thoughts and compliments. I'm glad you liked our work. Myrle...See MoreA Template, ideas, software anything ??????
Comments (3)Terri, I was going to ask the same question as Jill asked. Do you want front and back, or front, back and insides too. I have a program, Corel Print House Magic, that will let you do any of these. You add what it going to all sides and inside and it will print out just right. You can choose whatever size you need. If you don't have that feature in your program(s), you can create a template for it. It would be like a quarter fold card template, but only to the size you need. It would be easy to make. It's just a rectangle made to your size and the dividing lines need to be even. Then you place your graphics and/or text in the appropriare places so that when printed and folded, all is right side up. Which means some of the graphics and/or text will be upside down on the layout. ~Summer °ü°...See MoreNew white w/ soapstone (PICS) - Looking 4 ideas to warm it up!
Comments (58)@Ralph95 - sorry, I am reading my emails backwards and am responding here that way too! Our backsplash is a standard "in house" subway from KG Tile in Timonium, MD. I was sort of against spending tons of $$ on a subway as I wanted a traditional look and knew I didn't have to break the bank to do it. I went with KG's version vs. Home Depot's / Lowes' as for me it was a slight bit brighter white that seemed to match my cabinets better and it was a bit glossier...which I thought would help bring some life to the white. They also carried end pieces (bullnosed on both sides and regular subway bull noses) vs the bull nose ones at HD/Lowes which reminded me of my bathroom upstairs (where we also did subways). (Hd & Lowes have thinner pieces vs the full sized subway tile with rounded edges that KG had and we needed a double bullnosed corner piece) The sink is an Artisan. It's what the soapstone fabricator sold and we just went with that. It's their largest double bowl - AR3521. We had a 20 gage sink before and although I never noticed a tinny sound to it, I can definitely tell the difference with this. The one negtive with this sink is that the "catcher" for food in the large bowl (we have a disposal in the small bowl) sits low so it's hard to get your fingers into the well to pick out food that may have slipped by the strainer. I don't know if this can be adjusted. You can order online, amazon, etc. www.artisanstyles.com The faucet is a Moen and it was purchased very quickly when my husband and I stopped at home depot one evening. A faucet was not that important to us and we knew we didn't want to drop tons of $$ on it which you can do on some...I will try to find the name of it....but we both like it alot, the soap dispenser works well with it and it doesn't get dirty or fingerprinty!! (a big bonus) The cabinet hardware is from Restoration Hardware. I went to the Columbia, MD store to see it all in person, and then ordered what they didn't have in stock on line in the store so that there was no shipping. We chose the Hanson knobs and the Gilmore pulls...both in the polished nickel. Our recessed lights are just cfl bulbs...they take a while to ligth up but we like them once they are on!! I'd love to see pics of your progress! Exciting times!!...See MoreLiven up this home with a huge forehead!
Comments (22)No shutters. For sure you have to paint those bricks w/that peacock color! the brick pink/mauve next to that bold teal looks horrible! (I like the peacock, just not the brick color with it!) see below regarding liming the brick) if you want to keep the brick, pick a diff siding color) what you could do for that peak area is run the upper portion of siding in a diff direction. or do board and batten like they've done here. Above the windows, do the board and batten (shown here on the lower portion) (actually, this darker navy might look better w/your brick color) see? better than that peacock color. (if you want to keep the brick, you'll have to choose a siding that works with it, not against it) or even this very dark charcoal siding color/garage door in black, looks good w/this brick tone. see how they did batten pieces here? or, you could even do these shake/shingles on the upper part. another idea I don't know about the white door/brick w/this color. trim is ok, but I think going darker on the garage and on the brick would look better. I also gave you some cedar posts (what you currently have isn't doing anything good) and a wood door. the wood and this color blue are natural compliments to each other. of course your landscaping will play a huge role in bringing it together. I just want to show you how nice these darker graphite colors look w/the turquoise blue shade. and the wood accents too. similar house done in darker colors, including the brick painting your brick. use a good masonry paint like Romabio. you could limewash, or go for the heavier coverage w/the masonry This was used (you can tint this any color) (this has virtually no upkeep and lets the brick breathe) on this brick (which used to be standard red brick) you can read this link to see others https://www.paintedbykaylapayne.com/painted-brick-exterior/...See More01dmagno
6 years agoUser
6 years ago- PRO
JudyG Designs
6 years ago 
Kathi Steele
6 years agopartim
6 years ago
NHBabs z4b-5a NH
6 years ago
Sigrid
6 years agoA traditional landscape for a house like yours would be something like this:
If you want something less "proverbial", choose less common plants.
For example, put in Harry Lauder's Walking sticks for your trees
Use a lot of grasses
But traditional can be gorgeous, too:
PROYardvaark
6 years ago
- PRO
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