Ideas to Improve Exterior of Home
6 years ago
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- 6 years ago
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Ideas for improving the exterior of my old, ugly house?
Comments (15)Congratulations on your new home!! What fun this can be, taking a nice solid house and making it express your personality! Yes, how much maintenance you want to do outdoors is a key question. But there is a lot you can do that really, once established, won't require a lot of time. I have large garden beds and with good mulching and good plant selection spend very little time in maintenance. Mowing is far more time consuming. I would start with an attractive storm door/front door in a color that complements both the brick and the gray roof(I personally hate orange brick, and I might be picking out a color to paint it, but a whole lot of people must have liked it back then! But with good trim color selection, though, it can look good even to me!) Use that color around the window, too if you can. The idea for a porch or portico is a good one. I think that I would build a nice large patio or deck with a shade structure (can't think what they are called) between the front door and the driveway. I would also create raised beds along the foundation to hide it, balance the patio, and tie the brick to the ground. Fill it with low maintenance plants and shrubs; talk to your local nurseryman for ideas. Avoid yew or other shrubs that tend to quickly become overgrown. You don't want it to become cluttered, but you want to soften and add some interest with groups of varying textures and heights. I think the tree is fine, it just needs some other tree(s) on the other side of the lot to balance it. Might consider window boxes, or some other decorative structure, to give the high short windows an illusion of more depth but with a raised bed foundation planting the plants might serve to balance the windows in the overall structure....See MoreExterior help! Looking to improve the exterior of home (porch, etc)
Comments (7)Bright green trim needs to GO!!! I am thinking dark Grey trim and a rust red or blue for the door? Adding shutters would look nice too (painted grey or the door color?) The trim on the garage unit should also match the house. Spend the rest on some landscaping or making the fence between the garage and the house look better (paint?)....See MoreImprove exterior and curb appeal of midcentury modern home
Comments (19)Congratulations on your new home! What a wonderful house and garden situation you have to work with. Make a path, with irregular/natural stone steps along the left side of the photo, behind the tree, so that that slope serves a purpose for you. Add some evergreens along the wall, some that have interesting bones, like a shaped pine, or an intriguing shape, like espaliered camellia. [Note! As it is unknown which direction the house is facing, and in what part of the country, it's not possible to suggest plants— plant selection really depends very much on that, as well as how much sun/wind/shade/water a specific area of your garden receives] You could replace all or much of the lawn with an ornamental perennial with good texture, for example Carex pensylvanica, which looks a lot like grass but is much less maintenance and has a great texture. Other soft ornamental grasses and perennials would frame the stone walk to the front door, interspersed with evergreens for structure. On the right side, in planters on the balcony, you could add one type of ornamental grass, or a soft perennial (lavender with artemisia 'Silver Mound' and stachys or a dwarf white-flowering echinacea. If it is sunny and you like the idea of growing fruits, veggies and herbs, then you could dress the base of the porch/balcony with espalier fruit trees. An area of walkable lawn could be framed by native grasses and perennials for a natural, informal, relaxing feel, and you could tuck raised beds in the planting beds for growing basil, rosemary, tomatoes, squash, eggplant, sage, peppers--that kind of thing. Adding well-placed and planted boulders to this garden would make sense with the terrain and the house....See MoreBrick rancher exterior improvement ideas requested!
Comments (3)What a cute home! Your initial instincts are correct. Start with the “easy” stuff! I like your ideas of removing the rose Bush, painting the front door, changing the location of the house numbers...perhaps to the right of the front door where there is more room. A larger, more visible light and mailbox, too. Then...reassess!...See MoreRelated Professionals
Annapolis Siding & Exteriors · Inwood Siding & Exteriors · Madison Heights Architects & Building Designers · Grover Beach Home Builders · Reedley Home Builders · Allen Park Painters · Vermilion Painters · Clarksville General Contractors · Erlanger General Contractors · Oxon Hill General Contractors · Westminster General Contractors · Eagle River Window Contractors · Hammond Window Contractors · Matteson Window Contractors · Vincennes General Contractors- 6 years ago
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