Improve Your Home’s Curb Appeal in Five Easy Steps
Your home’s front door deserves to be beautiful. Not only will sprucing up your curb appeal help boost your home’s value, but it can also actually inspire your neighbors as well. Sometimes, people just need to see what can be done to find the energy to do something. If your street is looking drab, don’t let that be an excuse. Be the breaker. Be the one who shatters that preconception by doing up your own front yard and making it look spectacular. If you do it yourself, you’ll inspire others to do the same, since they can see just how obtainable it is.
If you have the willpower but aren’t sure where to start, then look no further. These five steps are all you’ll need to clean up your home’s curb appeal and set you on the right track:
1. Start By Giving It a Deep Clean
First things first, your space needs a deep clean. Keeping your driveway clean, especially if it’s made of stone or brick, can be a challenge. Not only do you need to deep clean it upfront, but you then need to keep it clean to retain that great look. However, giving it a power wash once a year (or even every other year) can really bring out the colors and get your drive looking fresh again. If you have gravel or pebbles, then make sure there’s enough coverage and that you take care of those weeds. You’ll also want to clean up the garden edges, your outdoor wall, your windows, and so on. You can gain control over your garden edges by using a strimmer or putting in edging – there are plenty of ‘invisible’ types if that fit in with your design better.
2. Spruce It Up
Once everything is cleaned, it’s time to spruce things up. At a minimum, this means redoing any minor damage. If the paint around your windows is peeling off, then strip that paint by sanding it down, priming it, and then repainting it with outdoor paint. This has to be done less regularly than cleaning up your driveway, but it can make a house look neglected if it’s left for too long; plus, the paint protects the wood beneath, so it makes your frames last longer. The same goes for your door and fence. This alone will make your whole space look and feel so much better, but we aren’t done yet.
3. Fixing Up Your Lawn
If your lawn has seen better days, it’s time to give it some much-needed TLC. If it’s worn down and mostly dead and doesn’t seem to be coming back, you’ll want to rip it up, prep the dirt, and then re-turf it with some new grass. If there’s still a lot of life in your grass, but it needs some help, you can aerate it, reseed it, and cordon it off so that people can’t walk on it while it’s recovering. If your lawn became neglected because you didn’t have time to care for it, then consider other options too. A lawn is great for kids to play on, but perhaps a wildflower meadow or moss lawn might suit your style better now.
4. Add Plants and Flowers
Add beauty. If you only have concrete in your front yard, do this with potted plants. Otherwise, add new bushes, flowers, and more. Don’t just look at the floor, either. Install planters under your windows, potted plants next to your door, and even consider training flowers like roses along your fence line or over an archway to your main pathway. Remember to plant evergreen options as well. For instance, you might want an evergreen shrub that flowers and produces berries; this would give you interest all year round, and you can supplement the look and color with your potted flowers and bulbs.
5. Add Ornaments
From there, have fun with the decoration. You can leave it ornament free, or add sculptures and figures around your yard to make it feel more you. Use mirrors, sculptures, soundscapes, and more to transform the space into something fun and special. If you’re worried about things getting stolen, secure them to your outer wall or to a solid, heavy base that you can then bury underground. Ornaments can change throughout the year as well. Obviously, there are Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas themes. However, you could also look at the colors in your yard throughout the year and enhance them with ornaments. For instance, if you have a bush with red leaves in fall, then why not bring out red pots too? You could move your bunny rabbit ornaments around at Easter time to make passing people smile. You might find the perfect position for everything and never want to move it again, but shifting items around can make a garden feel more fun and a bit more lively – have a go and see what works best for you.
