If you’re looking to improve the value of your home, you should be considering how to improve your curb appeal. Outdoor renovations have one of the highest return on investment rates of any home improvement project, and even small changes can have a huge impact on your home’s value and appearance. To make your curb the talk of the neighborhood, take into account the tips outlined below.
Walk Around Your Home
Before you start any of your efforts to improve your curb appeal, make sure that you look around your home and yard to see what may be an eyesore. If there is peeling paint, dead trees, or other not so appealing elements of curb appeal, you should make sure that you prioritize those parts of your home improvements. Although you may really want to redo your front walk, if you notice that there are shingles missing from your roof, you should prioritize that repair over an improvement that is purely for aesthetics.
If you’re unsure of any improvements you need to make, you could have friends or family come over and tell you any things that they notice could use some improvement. Make sure to ask someone that you know has a good sense of what a home needs and will be completely honest with you about what they think.
Consider a Fresh Coat of Paint
One extremely cost-effective way to improve your curb appeal is to repaint your home. You can even repaint your home the same color as it previously was if you really like it. Over time, the paint will fade and chip when it is exposed to the elements, so adding a new coat will just help make it look fresh and new.
If you decide to go with a new paint color, make sure that you do a few test swatches. You may really like a color in the can, but once it’s up on your home you don’t know how it will look with the different lighting and with the surrounding elements. A test swatch will save you a lot of time if you end up disliking a color that you were going to use on the entire home.
If you decide to DIY your paint job, enlist the help of friends and family so that the job doesn’t take multiple days to complete.
Fix Up Your Roof
If your roof is falling apart, it will both hurt your curb appeal and the overall appeal of your home. Make sure that if you have a leaky roof you seek out leaky roof repairs so that you can avoid problems inside your home while you also improve your curb appeal.
Even if your roof is in perfectly fine working order, you can look into getting new roofing. Getting a new roof immediately improves your home’s value since many buyers do not want to have to worry about roof replacements a few years down the line.
If you don’t want to replace your roof and it’s in working order, you can always look into getting it pressure washed or otherwise cleaned. It can give your roof a “like new” look that will improve your curb appeal with minimum effort. This can be a dangerous job, so make sure to hire a professional for any roof cleanings.
New Landscaping
When people think about improving their curb appeal, they usually think of gardens and landscaping. If your current garden is hopeless or non-existent, you should consider a complete overhaul. You can create new garden beds, move in new plants and trees, and completely change your landscaping on your own. If you choose the DIY path, rent dump trailers to transport the dirt that you wish to discard and to transport any plants, like shrubbery or trees, from the nursery or greenhouse back to your home. If you don’t know what you’re doing and don’t have the proper tools to move greenery or heavy dirt piles, make sure to leave things to the professionals.There are a few things that you should definitely leave to the professionals, like stump grinding.
Before you make any major changes, make sure that you look into exactly what the work will entail. In addition, make sure to contact your power, water, and cable companies to come and draw out where all of the underground lines are in your yard. Hitting a cable or pipe is not only potentially dangerous — it can also cost some serious cash to fix. It’s always better to check and know that you’re all set to dig out the room to put in your tree or bush.
You can look to websites like Pinterest for inspiration for your new garden design. If you are nervous to dig into the ground, you can utilize planters and window boxes to use plants in your yard without having to actually break ground. Make sure to research what plants do best in your climate and what plants will look best year-round to really improve your curb appeal.
Make Sure Your Walkways Look Fresh
If your walkways are looking outdated or dilapidated, it can really bring down the curb appeal of your home. Look into installing pavers or stamped concrete for a look that is elevated above the typical sidewalk. If you want to DIY this, make sure to look into a concrete supplier in Delaware or whatever state your home is located in. If you haven’t done any work with sidewalks in the past, it may be a good idea to leave this project to the professionals so tat you don’t end up with a mess that costs more to fix than it would have if you just hired a contractor to do it in the first place.
Clear Out Clutter
If your driveway and yard are cluttered up, it can really bring down the curb appeal of your home. For example, if you have an RV that sits in your driveway most of the year and is rarely, if ever, used, look into RVs for sale near you to figure out a good price for it and put it up for sale. Any other items that may clutter up your lawn and driveway, like kid’s toys, should get a designated space to be so that they can be put away and not take away from the curb appeal of your home.
Consider getting a vehicle customization truck bed if you have tools or equipment that often end up in the yard or the driveway. You can get custom storage built into your truck so that you don’t have to constantly haul it from your truck to a secondary location. This will also make your truck more convenient to use as well as helping to improve your curb appeal in a small way.
Light Up the Night
Using effective lighting is a great way to improve your curb appeal and bring the outside of your home to the next level. You can install lights anywhere in your yard to make your yard feel even more well thought out and beautiful. Install landscaping lights in your garden to add a new dimension to the garden and landscaping that you worked so hard on.
Make sure that you also pay attention to any porch, patio, or deck lights when you are improving your curb appeal. Make sure that all of the bulbs and fixtures are fully functional, and if any are not working replace them immediately. You can also update and change your light features to match any new additions you added to improve your curb appeal.
Don’t Forget About Your Garage
If you’re repainting your house and redoing your roof, make sure that you’re also paying attention to your garage door. Getting a new garage door in an updated style or painting it to match the new house color is a great way to update the garage door to match your new exterior.
Garage doors can be complicated and difficult to install, so make sure to look into eco-friendly garage door services to replace your garage door. Although it isn’t necessary to use an eco-friendly service, it can be cheaper and it’s better for the environment.
Fix Up Your Mailbox
Your mailbox is small, but if you add in a new mailbox you can really improve your curb appeal. If you update the color of your home, you can coordinate your mailbox to match the new color or in a finish that otherwise compliments the new color.
If you’re adding in a lot of new landscaping, consider adding a small garden patch around your mailbox. It will give your yard more depth since your mailbox will be all the way down by the road, and it’s a great way to ensure that your mailbox feels like an extension of your home and not just a necessity that has become an afterthought.
Create an Inviting Entry
The entryway to your home is an important area to think about if you want to improve your curb appeal. Here are a few ways to make your outdoor entryway as welcoming as possible:
- Repaint or Replace Your Front Door. If you choose not to repaint your home, you can make a big difference in your outside decor by repainting your door. Since your door is a small part of the exterior of your home, you can go for a brighter color than you would for the entire house. Choose a punchy shade of orange or a happy shade of yellow to bring a completely new feel to the exterior of your home.
- Add Cheerful Decor. The best way to add emotional significance to a space is to include accessories that inspire that emotion. If you want your entryway to feel cozy and inviting, adding sweet and homey touches can help. Choose to include a cute doormat that has a welcoming phrase like “come on in!” or your family’s last name. You can also hang a seasonally appropriate wreath on your front door to make your home feel lived in and loved. In the autumn, you can choose a wreath that has autumnal colors, like mums and sunflowers, in the winter you can choose a traditional wreath, in the spring you can choose one with pastel colors, and in the summer you can choose something with bright and happy colors. You can match the wreath to the general aesthetic of your exterior as well and switch it as often as you see fit.
- Replace the Hardware. If you add a new doorknob or knocker to your door, it can give an entirely new feel to your entryway. Make sure that any hardware you get is equipped for outdoor use so you don’t have to replace it in a few months.
Prioritize Inner Workings
Although looking to improve your curb appeal is important in increasing the value of your home, you have to make sure that the inside of your home is in working order before you focus on the outdoors. If you have a problem involving your high pressure electrical feedthrough, you should make sure that you fix that before you move onto repainting your door or updating your mailbox.
If you have issues with something like your home heating oil, potential buyers will not care very much about the beautiful window boxes you have installed. Although it’s important to improve your curb appeal, it is a purely aesthetic exercise that does not do much to make your home function better or more smoothly.
Making improvements to your home is important if you’re looking to improve its resale value or just to have a more updated home. The exterior of your house is the first thing that people see when they arrive on your property, so make sure that it sets the scene for what they will find inside your home. With a few changes, like repainting your front door or even your entire home, you can see a huge return on the investment you made in the exterior of your home. Although there are many ways that you can improve the exterior of your home, we hope that the tips lined out in this article will give you ideas on where you should start.
What do you look for when it comes to curb appeal? What is one feature you really want to improve on the exterior of your home? What is something that you love about the exterior of your home that you think more people should include in their homes? Let us know in the comments below!
