No matter what year your house is, you can do a lot by changing the look of your curb appeal. First impressions are the most important. When someone comes over to your home for the first time that is what they will see. If you are trying to sell your home, buyers will want to look in your home if the outside is nice and inviting. Keeping the outside well maintained will also improve your neighborhood appearance too. All it takes is one neighbor and then you will start to notice more catching on.
Here are some easy, inexpensive tips to improve your curb appeal.
PAINT: Painting your house can do a lot. Yes it can take some time but it can make a huge difference. The real trick is picking the right colors. Stay with neutral colors, beige or greys are your best choice. Then you will need a trim color, usually white or a darker beige or grey. Then the accent color, try not to go to wild. You might like maroon but maybe you are one of the few. Stick again with your color pallet. If you are painting your home a grey color maybe doing a trim bright with a dark grey for accet color. Look online and look up homes to see what is the newest home colors out there to get more ideas. Also for a tip is to use a satin or eggshell paint. Very easy to clean. If you are on a budget then just start with front of your house and do the rest as you can. Garage and entry doors can also be painted (recommend priming first).
TREES & SHRUBS: Trim down those over grown bushes and trees. Get rid of any that have just taken over your yard and the ones that you are not sure what it is. Small bushes and trees are more attractive, they allow you to see the house better from the street. Over grown trees and shrubs only ages the house.
MAILBOX: Is it time for a new mailbox? Changing out that dirty old mailbox is an easy inexpensive fix as long as you can still reuse the stud.
CURTAINS: Yes, curtains are in the inside of the home but you can see them from the outside. They are then part of the curb appeal. So make sure that they go with the color of the home. Try to stick with neutral colors or try to get ones with white backing. Don’t be one of those homes with purple curtains in one window, bright pink in another, etc…
GRASS: Fertilizing and watering your grass will hardly cost you anything and nothing beats a nice healthy green grass. Depending on where you live you might need to get different fertilizers like, de-moss, de-weed, etc… Just look at your grass and you will know what you need by looking at it. Does it have a lot of weeds? Moss? You can always ask the sales people at a home improvement store to help you out. As well as fertalizing and watering you must keep up with the mowing and if you have an edger use that when you can. It sure can make a difference. You can pick up an expensive ones (plug-in) to start you off.
BARK/ROCK: You need to keep up on your accents around your grass. If you choose bark then plan on barking once a year for that new, updated look each year. Otherwise, if you can afford it get rock or lava rock. Make sure you put some kind of weed preventer liner before laying down the bark/rock. If you are on a budget you can use newspaper instead. Just lay down sheets of newspaper and place the bark or rocks on top of it (make sure to cover so yo don’t see the paper). The paper wont last as long but it will last you a season. Early spring is a good time to sprinkle Preen down so the weeds don’t come back up.
DE-CLUTTER: The less you have in your front yard the better. Keep your garbage cans hidden. Extra cars gone. Hoses nicely put away. Don’t over due it with planter boxes, keep it simple. Keep kids toys hidden or in back yard,
FLOWERS: Keep flowers in containers. Flowers are wonderful to have but if they are in the ground they go through a dying stage. Better to stay with plants that flower and keep the pretty pansies for your containers or hanging baskets.
LIGHTING: Even in the evening your place can still look beautiful. If you don’t like the color of your lights on your house, an easy fix is to take them off, tape the glass and spray paint them. Use solar lights around your yard and walking paths. You can find inexpensive solar lights at Target, Walmart and even the Dollar Tree.
Remember this is your home. You should be proud of it and show it off. No matter what year it is you can still make it look beautiful. With just a little TLC you can have an amazing curb appeal at little cost.
