If you want your neighbors and passerby to see your home as a beacon of light instead of a harbinger of doom, it’s important to maintain the exterior of your home. Maintenance means cleaning it—clearing the gutters, sweeping the porch, raking leaves in autumn—but it also means making it look nice in other ways.
By sprucing up the exterior with a few simple renovations and plenty of décor, you can make your home the talk of the neighborhood (in a positive way). Here are some simple ways to improve your home’s curb appeal that will make your home stand out amongst the crowd.
Plant a Garden
There’s no better way to boost curb appeal than with abundant greenery. If the exterior of your home is looking a little brown and bare, consider heading to your local home and garden store and picking up a few plants. A lush garden full of shrubbery and perennials can transform your home from drab to fab in a snap.
Not much of a green thumb? Worried about your plants falling into disrepair? Don’t worry. There are tons of low-maintenance and sturdy plants on the market. Give barberry, bergenia, cyprus, dianthus, hawthorn, hosta, and other beautiful plants a try. These sprightly sprouts practically take care of themselves.
Paint Your Front Door
Do you live in a cookie-cutter neighborhood and want to make your home stand out? Incorporating a pop of color into the front door is a simple and fruitful way to do it. Painting your front door is easy—even an inexperienced DIYer can successfully pull it off—and inexpensive.
Make sure to choose a color that complements and accentuates the other colors of the exterior but that doesn’t blend in. For a whitewashed exterior, go with a nautical blue front door. A red or green door will complement an exterior with earthy tones, such as brown or beige.
Decorate Your Porch
A few pieces of furniture and décor can make all the difference. The final simple way to improve your home’s curb appeal is to decorate your porch with functional outdoor furniture and fun and festive trinkets.
If you have a large enough porch, you can create a relaxing sitting area complete with a bench, chaise lounges, and a coffee table. Is a holiday fast approaching? Hang a celebratory wreath on your front door and put up some other holiday-centric decorations.
Don’t forget to decorate outside of the holiday season, too! Statues, flamingos, lawn gnomes, solar lights, planters—when it comes to infusing your exterior with charm and personality, your options are limitless.