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Landscape Design Design Dilemma Exterior

Side Entry Front Door - Curb Appeal Advice (+ Landscaping)

6 years ago

My husband and I recently purchase our new home in Raleigh, North Carolina. We love the interior of the home but have struggled with how to give the exterior curb appeal, particularly because the door to the house does not face the street.

So far we have removed all of the shrubs that are directly in front of the house (not the two azaleas that are under the side windows, but certainly we could remove or move those). We have not replaced them with anything.

I have thought maybe window boxes on those front two windows? But I'd also like to make the front door more inviting!

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Comments (4)

decoenthusiaste
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
All of that shrubbery, including the azaleas, has seen its best days and is aged and overgrown. I would pull it all out, making curved beds, and have a local landscape architect draw you up a plan that you can install over time. The drive looks to need resurfacing. I think you can draw people to the side entry with a walkway from the street and a pergola that wraps that entire "L" and leads people to the door. Good lighting on either the pergola posts or on the house itself should help guide your evening visitors.

Lighted walk under pergola
Beach Frame · More Info

Here's the kind of "L" the pergola would make
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Pergolas work well for blooming vines and roses
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Dig Doug's Designs
6 years ago
some ideas
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There is a smothering feel that comes from having the first floor wall portion of the house mostly covered with foliage. Raise the canopy of any trees and keep shrubs from coming above windows, or too high up on the house. The bed should be deep enough that plants can be positioned to grow in all directions. (Usually, the bed is too shallow, plants are placed next to house and can only grow forward, in the direction of the street.) Use a shrub below the windows for permanent foliage, a perennial for some seasonal interest and some annuals for ongoing color. In addition to the walk, the shape of the bed can indicate, and reinforce where the entrance might be ... even if it cannot be seen immediately. The condition of the grass is even more important in a small lawn where it is seen from relatively nearby. If it is blemished, it diminishes the look of everything else. So work to get it into good condition. My picture shows a scheme. The plants you choose and their colors would provide the actual personality. If you use a fairly large shrub in order to create a small tree, and it has a limited height, you don't need to worry about it getting too tall, You only need to trim off the lower limbs and branches as it grows, which is easy to do and infrequent. Thus, it's lower maintenance.
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Missing still are large chunks of the view that are important to the yard. You are not capturing the problem with steps in the photos. (They look like some kind of stained, textured concrete.) I would not have necessarily added them like that. But they are there so I wouldn't necessarily remove them. If your drive is too steep to walk on comfortably, the steps are probably actually useful. If they need a handrail is better judged on site, as photos can be very misleading about grade. It looks like the grass could stand being fertilized, watered and mowed regularly.
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emmarene9
6 years ago
A few thoughts came to mind.

First I would add a small landing, concrete or pavers, in front of the stoop in the area that is currently a planting bed. It will make the area look more open.

The shrubs are too large and I am not qualified to speak to pruning Azaleas. Reduce them if that is possible. Otherwise plant woody perennials that will never reach girth to hide the door/entrance.

I would like window boxes under the two side windows. Maybe one long box.

Paint the front door a color that will show up better. If you are very conservative with color then at least paint it white.
Sigrid
6 years ago
A pergola is lovely in a place with lots and lots of sun. Elsewhere, it can get dark and dank in the winter. I'd make a path to your door. Much of it can be part of your driveway. Just replace with brick or pavers or something visual that you can still drive on. Then, I'd clear out the shrubs along the side of the house with the door. I'd turn the bed by the right front of the house into a semi-circle no larger than the width of the house and have a variety of plants and heights instead of that yew hedge. (Not sure it's yew, but it looks like it).

Window boxes are hard to keep looking nice. They don't have a huge amount of space for roots, keeping them watered enough but not soggy can be a challenge. This is why you see a lot more window boxes in carefully staged Houzz photos than in real life.

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