Forget Interior Design! Think About The Exterior Design Of Your Home

It’s all too easy to consider the interior design of our homes, to the detriment of the exterior. When thinking about renovations, we consider knocking through the kitchen and the dining room to create an open-plan living space, we choose to replace the avocado bathroom suite, or we consider redecorating the living room. Very rarely do our minds go to our driveway, our garden, the importance of flagpole lighting, or the superior care of the frontage of our dwellings. However, we should be giving our humble abodes the curb appeal that they deserve.

There’s nothing worse than having the most creative, incredible, and imaginative interior and having a crummy driveway up to the front door. This doesn’t match up. You need to coif the outside of your home in the same way as you do the inside of your pad. Take a look at these simple ways that you can bring the exterior of your home up to scratch.

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Frontage

The frontage of our homes should look clean at the very least. It doesn’t matter whether you live in a condo by the beach, a townhouse, or a bungalow, your home should look smart. Any flaky masonry paint, dodgy flashing or cracked window fascias can look undesirable and messy. It’s time to consider how you want your home to look.

Depending on your budget you may choose to replace your windows. Think about whether you’d like wood or uPVC fascias depending on the sort of look you want for your property. Wood looks fantastic if you have an oak front door or if you live on an older property. uPVC fascias are perfect for the more modern home. Either is energy efficient so long as you ensure you are installing double glazing to keep the heat in.

If you have pebble dash on your exterior walls and the beige hues are getting to you, just paint them white. Masonry paint is weatherproof and can actually protect the exterior of your home. The brightness you can achieve from white paint over your pebble dash will lift your home and revolutionise its look, bringing it into the twenty-first century. People crave light, bright and aspirational homes. Make yours one of them.

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Gardens

If you are blessed with a large rear garden, it’s time to tackle the jungle that has somehow emerged. Cut back shrubbery, and don’t be scared to deadhead and strip right back. Starting from scratch is vital. Foliage and flowers are very resilient and will appreciate the cutting back to enable new growth.

If you have a grass area, make sure you mow the lawn. By cutting this back once a week during the warmer months, you are creating the perfect environment for healthy growth. Sprinkle some lawn-meal if needed and water your grass if you have any brown patches. Grass is resilient and will come back from the most severe of droughts, so don’t worry. You will never have to rip up a lawn and start again.

Having an area outside that can be utilized for al fresco dining is wonderful. If your ground is a tad wonky, needs leveling out, and could do with a revamp, why not consider employing patio builders to custom design a deck or patio. With a personalised approach, you can have the patio or decking of your dreams. Hardwood, composite designs or brickwork patterns can add another level of creativity to your backyard. Explore your options and enjoy using your imagination just as you would with the interior of your home.

No matter how small or large your back garden is, try and create two or three zones. This way, you have a clear purpose for your garden and can use it as another room of your home. Have an area for dining and barbecues, an area for growing pot plants, a veggie patch, a rockery, a water feature, or some lawn. You don’t have to create tens of zones, just a couple will do. Think of renovating your garden in the same way as redecorating your bedroom. By adding visual interest to your outside areas, you are bringing new life to your entire pad.

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Driveway

Some people live directly on the road with very little drive to speak of. However, most people have a small section of land to the front of their property that often gets overlooked. Weeds can grow between the crevices of brickwork, the lawn can become overgrown and the hanging baskets we carefully adorn our frontages with, soon die and simply get left to hang for all eternity.

Instead of leaving everything to wallow, take some time once a month to take care of the upkeep of your driveway. Spray some weed killer, mow the lawn and hide the bins behind your wall so that the whole world can’t see your garbage. Your driveway is the route that your visitors, friends, and family take to your home, so make sure it generates a super first impression. Cleanliness and tidiness are essential. If this is spot on, then your home will harness curb appeal.

If you want to enhance the driveway to your home even further, consider installing some lighting to highlight the accompanying gardens or simply to light up the driveway in the dark. You don’t need to be spending a fortune on electronics with solar-powered lights offering up an excellent energy-saving alternative. Under brick lighting, pole lighting, and traditional lamp lighting can lift your exterior and give that much-needed curb appeal.

Hub Of The Home

It’s only right that you want the interior of your home to be where you place most of your creative energy. The kitchen is the hub of your home, you spend most of your time in the evenings watching the TV in the living room with your brood, and you adore making your bedroom a haven of relaxation. However, don’t neglect the exterior of your property, as this also helps your home stand out from the crowd. Give it some much-needed curb appeal and bask in your newfound and revolutionized pad.

Tia, and TipsfromTia.com  is trying to keep you looking good and
feeling good, from the inside out. If you’ve got a problem or a tip email me! Be sure to Like and share on Facebook or Follow on Twitter or Instagram.