5 Tips For Adding Curb Appeal
This week on Ask the Designer, we will be discussing 5 Tips For Adding Curb Appeal to your home.
Let just dive right in and take a look at 5 Tips For Adding Curb Appeal to your home. Your home is the one of the biggest invest you will ever make which is why it one of the main questions I get asked all the time as a designer, how to up the curb appeal. There are so many simple way you can add curb appeal to you home just with some simple weekend upgrades.
1. Attractive Exterior Color Story
Having an attractive color story for your home is very important, and can actually add curb appeal to your home. I know it is tempting to add statement pieces to your home like a pop of color with a fun door or shutters but keep in mind those can also also quickly date your home as well when those trends pass and you will find your self repainting regularly. I like to think of a house as the canvas pick colors and styles that are classic and can float from trends to trends and not lock you into a specific style or genre. Neutral colors stories have always been classics like white, gray, black, taupe and browns.
2. Landscaping & Proper Exterior Landscape Lighting
Think of landscaping like adding great accessories to an outfit. They can seasonally punch up the look of your home with pops of color throughout the year. Whether it is via annals in containers or trees and shrubs that have seasonal color changes, and blooms. Make sure that your landscape is not over grown and compliments your home not covers it. That is one of the biggest mistakes, allowing things to get too big and not sizing the plants properly for spaces. Also remember to use different textures to create visual interest, even a green garden can be pretty with a lot of different textures.
Exterior Landscape Lighting- This is such an overlooked concept, but lighting up your home adds to the appeal. That does not just mean the front exterior, but around the perimeter and patios as well. Lighting the exterior is a tricky thing and you need to know what you doing, a lot of people use flood lights which just hit the surface of their home to light them up which is not technically correct, and just shoots a lot of light through your windows and doors, into your home, which you will probably find annoying after awhile. You really want to use wall washers, that graze your brick and stone for a proper lighting effect. So please keep this in mind if you choose to DIY your own lights. Just because it is bright, does not mean it is pretty, plus some cities and HOAs have light bleed codes and ordinances that prohibit this kind of lighting, so make sure you are not in violation. 
When doing a patio or path lighting the idea is wash the sidewalk or pathway with light so you will want a down light which will throw the light onto a surface, not up into your face. You can actually get some really pretty effects with this type of lighting and they are also available in warm solar lights now, so no more weird blue hues at night, or digging wire that might accidentally get cut. Plus they are super easy and replace and very affordable at around $5-$7 each.
As a side note have a well lit back yard tends to deter the critters you do not want like the coyotes, but not necessarily the deer. I say this since I live in a very wooded area, with a high density of both. My game cameras show the deer still frequent the area, but no coyotes in my yard, they stick to the shadows. So no need for weird strobing lightings that will only aggravate your neighbors just get a nice wind chime, it will do the same thing and regular exterior lights and look much better. 
3. Hiding the Ugly
You would be surprised at how much of a difference just hiding things like your trash cans and HVAC units will make to the appearance of the exterior of your home. Thus improving your curb appeal. Most neighborhood HOAs have bylaws in place to help neighborhood keep things like this in check for the entire neighborhood. Now while most people do not want to to keep smelly garbage cans inside their garages with their expensive vehicles, there are steps that can be taken to hide the ugliness of a your garbage cans, upon moving into all of our homes the first thing we always do is install a screen or receptacle bin cover. In our current home we actually had a seperate concrete pad poured by our builder and installed a vinyl screen house the receptacle prior to ever moving into our home. 
4. Decorative Hardware
This is a great way to curb appeal from house numbers to carriage hardware. We added both to our home to add some southern style charm, you can see the full carriage hardware tutorial here. We also love to fly a flag year round it just adds to the main street Americana vibe of our neighborhood streetscape. Also consider adding decorative lamps to the front of your home. I we upgraded ours to these historical style lanterns and they really add the right amount of rustic charm to the front porch.
5. Proper Maintenance
This really goes without saying but proper maintenance of your home goes a long way. Things to keep in mind if you home faces north you may notice more mold and mildew on the face of your home since it grows on the north side, you may require annual pressure washings to maintenance your home properly. We always stain and reseal our front door every spring to keep it fresh, and touch the cedar columns and railing at at the same time. Keep your driveway clean, and sidewalks sweep. Also maintenance your mailbox with nice fresh coat of paint.
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Very cool take on this! I love how you approached the topic.
I’m from Lancaster PA so small world and grew up with ton of kids that we all knew each other and the neighborhood was our stomping grounds. I get the streetscape that you speak about I can still see it today.
Jen this is such a great post, Authentic through and through. You always have they best advice and no nonsense approach to getting it done.
Thank you Cara, this is not the type of interior design article you see everyday. I always love to push the envelope and think outside of the box when it comes to design.
Thank you so much I really appreciate all your support, this comment really made my day!!! Your comment right here is the main reason why I am still a blogger, and why I love doing this so much. Yes I have fun creating pretty posts, and I love to share my DIY’s, but when it really comes down to it, I am really only doing this for the readers. I love my group of followers you all are the best!!!
I love the attention to detail of iron pieces you featured. Can you imagine how hard it is to perfect these?
These are great options. I love how even the small details bring the entire theme together.
Oh I just love the feel of this decor. And the ideas on sustainably and durability fit well with mylifestyle. I want my things to last and I want a minimalist house style. I love this post, thanks! ❤️
I love this post. All of the topics that you chose to talk about are wonderful. You have opened my mind in a new direction for our home decor. Love it!
Love the pieces you choose to feature. Getting ideas to spruce up my rental right now and leaning towards the farmhouse look. It’s so inviting.
Erica I love it, I can tell you that it is a very easy to maintain look, that keeps things cozy and inviting.
What a great post. That porch is gorgeous! My mom just got an outdoor table and chairs I wish we could afford one because it is beautiful.
Toni they are a bit more expensive, due to fact that everything is hand made, but the quality is amazing and the pieces will last for generations.
Loved this post and the pieces you picked out. Yes I agree the farm house style decorating is very popular in decorating.
Great tips indeed. It pushes me to start decorating my house with these types of themes. I will definitely follow your tips!
I love your furniture. I wish I could afford more of it!
Wow..there is so much charatcer in this decor. Love it!
Totally agree with “quality over quantity”. Love your post! Each details of each design compliments each other as one. Great tips!
I really appreciate that you enjoy looking at different type of landscape design this is very useful.
You really taught me a lot about curb appeal in this post-Jen, I enjoyed reading every bit of this. And I didn’t even know until I read this but I love to incorporate some of these simple decorating ideas when I style my home.
This is a very interesting read, I like that you gave so many great ways to achieve curb appeal. We are getting ready to sell this helps a lot.
Jen, I really enjoyed this post, you have given me many ideas and featured some pretty products in your beautiful home. Thank you for sharing.
I learned so much I never knew that about the landscpae lighting I learned so much, like I think ours in not installed correctly.
Some many great tips Jen I need to spruce up our outdoors and get it ready for spring!
Wow I guess I never thought about the similarities before but you are right, they are one and the same.
This was a very nice read and I enjoyed it very much. I to love hand made furniture. Honestly I had never thought about how it really fits the farmhouse trend either.
I really like the carriage hardward and those numbers and never really thought about how it fits into the farmhouse theme before.
Outdoor Amish furniture has long since been a family favorite, and I wish we had purchased more of it over the years
I love to visit the south we alway have the best time there.
I just love all these pretty pieces and your landscape light is to dye for my friend!
I honestly wish I could live in one of those houses. The decor is so nice, easy on the eye and calming, that it really wants you to be there. Lovely post. Keep up the hard work!
Just moved into a new house and needed this! Thanks for the tips!
Wow such nice ideas! Definitely agree maintainance is very important
I’ve saved almost EVERY picture in this post. We are currently working on our yard (front and back.), but mainly the back. We have a sloped yard like the one pictured and this was great inspiration. All it was missing for me was a waterfall. Thanks so much for this.
So much inspiration right here, Jen! Makes me want to head on outside and get started …like right now! The first thing on my list is to check out those solar lights!