Curb Appeal - Advice Needed Dress up Colonial Home
KJMR 320
3 years ago
Planning a major face lift to our home. It's a very builder-grade home without trim or anything. We are replacing all our front windows and front door as well as redoing our front stoop
and walkway. We are keeping the white siding and will continue with a "white house with black accents" look.
Need some advice:
1. Where should we buy our front door? What brand?
2. Should we replace the upstairs bedroom windows with rectangular windows and full height black shutters to match the rest?
3. Would a field stone facade along the foundation look nice or look like too much?
4. Should exterior trim around the front door be wood or vinyl?
Any other ideas welcome! Thinking of ways to dress things up a bit!
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White Brick Colonial needs some curb appeal!
Comments (47)A few more ideas: I think if you continue the banding along the top it would do loads to help unify the addition with the brick house. Don't use the same fancy molding, just a plain band to go with the simpler style of the addition. Yes to a pediment/eave over the window. It would "cap" it and give it presence. Use beefier trim on the sides of the window so it looks like the trim is supporting the pediment and to make the window/trim/pediment look like a whole. More substantial trim around the garage and on the corner of the addition. Splurge for a pretty garage door and pretty lamps. I didn't care for the window box. It didn't look like a graceful length to my eye, and the black was distracting. If you still want a window box, paint it white to make it part of the window/trim/pediment element. I also found something odd about the way the siding goes all the way to the concrete (or maybe it just looks that way in the picture). If you had a little foundation showing like over in the brick section, that would also make the addition look connected to the main house. I've drawn in a "foundation." Others had wonderful landscaping ideas, especially about balancing the plants and putting a planter or trellis under the octagonal window....See MoreNeed Advice on Curb Appeal for Mountain Home
Comments (12)No answers - jst some questions, what side faces the road, is it visible by people passing by on the road. I think the exact definition of "curb appeal" has to do with the public face a house presents to the world. Around these parts plenty of rural houses both old and new have the functional utility door (usually to kitchen or rear entry) that everyone uses and the more formal front door facing the road that rarely is used.] Does that little road or path on the left side of pic go to your front door? Where does the little path to the right go? I assume your guests would park in driveway in front of the doors - where do they go from there? if its that little road on the left or that little path on the right - then how can that be made more appealing/welcoming? A common recommendation is to never do anything major to a house the first year If you live there a while eventually you will know what you can live with, what really bugs you, and by looking at pics, talking to people eventually things start to make sense. You may discover some reasoning for why house was built as it was. Or not! By living with it you start to know how you use the house and what things if any you need to do to modify it to make it work better for you....See MoreNeed advice to update curb appeal of old house!
Comments (9)What's dark? Too much shade? Or the paint? If it's the paint, I'd advice picking a shade of cream that works with your siding and painting the brown stuff. You might get more light on the porch with just painting the ceiling white, light blue or cream. If it's the shade, you could, over a few years, remove some of the lower branches of the tree. A bigger, brighter welcome mat would help. One that is the width of the door. Flanking the door with pots with some kind of dry grass might help, too. And, of course, if it's dim at dusk, put in porch lights....See MoreNew brown brick colonial home needs curb appeal boost!
Comments (11)Beautiful home. Budget and building codes permitting, consider first changing what you can for actual wood with wood finish: first your front door; then shutters; and then your garage door. Wood with natural finish (rather than paint) can go a long way toward transforming the look of a home. IF you are going to repaint what is painted ... and this is a matter of personal opinion, of course -- putting off whites with white can make the off whites seem dingy by comparison. If you don't want true white (trim and fascia and shutters porches, etc.), you could choose a truly dark brown or, at the very least, if you choose an "off white" by any name, use the same off white color for all those painted parts of your home. Exception: Black shutters could also work with a brick home with a brown roof and white elsewhere. Just a note: If you're considering changing the landscaping, that usually has the potential to make a lot of difference toward curb appeal. One issue to consider is how much maintenance are you willing to do (or have done) and how much maintenance would any changes contemplated require....See More
PROBeverlyFLADeziner
3 years agoHere is your house with the revised windows and removed shutters.
Those bushes covering the windows need to be pruned by half or removed and your yard requires a new landscaping plan that you can implement as required.
Bushes in front of windows should never extend above the sill.
Black door for your home to complement the shutters.
KJMR 320 thanked BeverlyFLADeziner
houssaon
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoI agree the arched windows should go.
Rhododendron respond well to heavy pruning. My neighbor pruned hers that the previous owner had let grow to the second story. Years later they are still thriving. So you can bring them down to window sill level.
I think you should add a portico. Maybe do the roof in standing seam copper or metal.
KJMR 320 thanked houssaonKJMR 320
3 years ago
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