Image of Light Grey Shingled Arts and Crafts Home With Front Porch

We've all been taught that it's what'due south on the inside that counts; just when it comes to your home, the outside is certainly just as important. A drab exterior can make yous cringe every fourth dimension yous approach the front door, while a handsome, thoughtfully designed one tin plow the feel into a true pleasure.

The good news is that yous don't take to spend a packet to enjoy a happy trip upward your walkway. Upkeep-friendly shortcuts, such equally reusing old hardware or choosing high-quality replicas of expensive materials—plus some skillful one-time sweat equity—can lead to major transformations. They tin even put big projects, like adding on a new porch, within attain.

Hither are some neat examples on how to make an quondam house look modern on the outside.

Adjourn Appeal Ideas

A Charmer Revealed: Earlier

An overgrown one thousand detracted from the sweetness compages of this 1938 cottage in Carlton, Oregon. Past clearing the infinite, homeowners Darci and Matt Haney brought the focus back to the front door—and all the other improvements they made.

Money-Saver: "Cleaning up your yard—mowing the lawn, trimming bushes, sweeping the steps—hugely boost curb appeal and doesn't cost a thing." —Jill Simmons, Zillow

A Charmer Revealed: Afterward

Photo past Susan Seubert

Landscaping: Darci and Matt saved all their mature copse but swapped everything else in favor of tidy boxwoods mixed with rose and hydrangea bushes for a lush look that doesn't overwhelm the walkway. Landscape lighting and a new gravel path make it easy to get around, fifty-fifty at night.

Entry: Bulky posts, accented with molding and clad in PVC for durability, give the porch more presence than the house's flimsy, rotting originals. Their crisp white columns stand out against the mocha-hued siding, while a solid-fir door lets in light without compromising privacy.

Windows: Free energy-efficient models have the place of almost all the originals, except for the two front windows, which the homeowners kept for their handsome divided-light blueprint. New glass and frames freshen upwardly the countenance dormers and help protect confronting drafts.

Shown: Bright red patio chairs add together an piece of cake-to-alter pop of color for as picayune equally $twenty each.

Redefined Queen Anne: Before

This 1904 Queen Anne in Prattville, Alabama, had been in Andrew Sanders's family unit for about xxx years, and by the time he moved in, it was showing its historic period. Luckily, the house needed minimal structural work, so he focused on the corrective, including updating the paint and landscaping.

Coin-Saver: "Can't afford fancy landscaping? A few container plants placed by the front door or hung from your porch's ceiling will requite your abode a friendly, finished look." —Rick Tourgee, real estate agent, Provincetown, Mass.

Redefined Queen Anne: After

Paint: Warm gray trimmed in soft white lends the facade timeless appeal. Forest light-green subtly draws attending to some of the home's architectural details, including the front gable and lattice porch skirt. The porch ceiling is painted stake bluish in traditional Southern way.

Entry: To tie the front steps in with the balance of the business firm, Andrew coated the original brick with gray concrete. Nether the porch, he knocked out quondam brick and put in new lattice to provide ventilation.

Door: Andrew loved the sometime oak door even though it was falling off its hinges. To copy it would have cost $four,000, so he restored the original on his ain, stripping the wood, then rebuilding it piece past slice.

Windows: Previously painted close, the unmarried-pane windows sport repaired sash weights and new storms.

Landscaping: A fresh layer of sod and a narrower walkway mean more than green grass and less crumbling concrete.

Shown: Instead of paying for custom lattice, cut panels to fit from off-the-shelf sheets.

Lakeside Inspiration: Earlier

When Jim and Sandy Barrett moved into their 1930s cottage, in Keego Harbor, Michigan, "information technology was the street's ugly duckling," Sandy says. The sparse facade and dingy siding looked forbidding but offered the perfect blank slate for making a cheerful statement that suits their lakeside locale.

Lakeside Inspiration: After

Entry: By bringing the gable roofline forrad about x anxiety (flush with the existing facade) and adding a porch, they softened the division betwixt the house and the street. Unproblematic porch posts and railings that angle toward the walkway assistance give the space dimension.

Pigment: A beachy combination of vibrant turquoise, aqua, and white invigorates the front end and evokes the surface area's history as a resort town.

Landscaping: In one case a flat expanse of dying grass, the yard at present features perennial beds and small shrubs, and is anchored by a walkway constructed from pavers that they got for gratis from a friend.

Siding: Jim and Sandy splurged on fiber cement to supercede the bent aluminum. They added graphic symbol by installing fish-scale shingles above the porch and wood painted to resemble lattice at the roof's tiptop.

Windows: Previously located on the side of the house, these windows let in more dominicus than the pocket-sized, improperly aligned originals. The DIY shutters are hung on hooks so that they tin exist removed for painting.

Shown: Nailed-together board-and-crossbar shutters cost just a few bucks each to make.

Highlighted Craftsman Details: Before

Eleven years ago, when Aaron Stern bought this early on-1900s abode in Colorado Springs, Colorado, it boasted tons of traditional Craftsman features—not that you lot'd ever notice, thank you to the monotone pigment scheme. His task: Enliven the exterior with period-appropriate colors.

Shown: This house'south sometime aluminum siding earned the owner $250 at a recycling middle.

Highlighted Craftsman Details: Afterwards

Paint: Later on checking out other Craftsman houses in the area, Aaron settled on a muted mustard hue—"it was unlike from my neighbors, but not as well different"—accented past white trim and a barn-red door.

Siding: In add-on to finding wood clapboards and shingles under the vanquish-up aluminum, Aaron discovered remnants of Craftsman-style trim work to a higher place the windows and porch. He designed replacements, so filled in any missing siding with redwood.

Porch: Chunky, tapered columns and painted railings fit much better stylistically than the onetime fe.

Embraced Open Infinite: Before

"It was like a woman in need of a makeover," says Chrissy Doremus of the Denville, New Jersey, home that had been in her married man's family unit since the 1940s. An bad-mannered enclosed porch and out-of-control juniper bushes boxed off the house from the grand; now the transition is more than fluid.

Embraced Open Space: After

Entry: New composite railings define the airy porch, which the owners opened upward and rebuilt on the original footings. The columns are 66s wrapped and trimmed in PVC, and the floors are meranti, a wallet-friendly mahogany look-alike. A Craftsman-style fir door adds more warmth than the boring builder-grade white one.

Landscaping: A curving walk fabricated from tumbled concrete pavers meanders past beds of succulents and other drought-tolerant plants. Their silverish hues complement the house's now sage-dark-green siding.

Shown: Use stones and concrete blocks left over from other projects to frame foundation plantings.

The By, Revisited: Before

Numerous renovations throughout the 1960s and 1970s had left Taryn and Luke Serna's 1940s abode, in La Mesa, California, stuck in an unstylish by. "Information technology was originally a Craftsman, but it really but looked like a hodgepodge," says Taryn. By making a few clever Craftsman-inspired upgrades, the owners brought the house into the 21st century.

Money-Saver: "If you're tired of spending loads of money on your lawn, replace the grass with ground covers. They demand trivial attention but withal add greenery and color." —Jill Simmons, Zillow

The Past, Revisited: Subsequently

Entry: The homeowners' beginning goal was to detect a way to distract from the asymmetrical roofline. "It was lopsided and odd—and the first matter your eye went to," says Taryn. To avoid a major renovation, they added a gable-roofed porch, which masks the principal roof's harsh bending. White rails and trim, plus new house numbers, a mail-mounted mailbox, and a crimson door, ensure that the porch stays center stage.

Paint: A green-gray hue provides a neutral, just-dark-enough backdrop for the house's vibrant door and textural native plantings.

Siding: Taryn and Luke replaced the dingy board-and-batten out front with new fiber-cement clapboards. To relieve money, they left the rest of the house faced in stucco, which they refreshed.

Landscaping: Off the main walk, a side path fabricated with flagstone pulled from the original house takes visitors on a scenic stroll past flower beds. Nigh all the plants are drought resistant to keep water usage low.

Added Dimension: Earlier

Years of neglect had left this 1940s Cape Cod in Rockport, Massachusetts, looking dilapidated and bare. Information technology took a sizable addition—plus fresh landscaping—for owners John Frisone and Mark Jurewicz to requite it new life.

Coin-Saver: "Update your business firm quickly and cheaply past irresolute the light fixtures. Home centers ever accept outdoor sconces on sale for every bit little equally $xx or $thirty each." —Rita Wolff, real estate agent, Newberg, Oreg.

Added Dimension: After

Entry: A huge porch, which is attached to a 2-story add-on that bumps out from the front of the house, added 300 foursquare anxiety of outdoor living space. It as well lends the home a cozy, farmhouse vibe, thanks to dark mahogany floors, vintage-style lights, slender rails and columns, and a fire-engine-red door.

Roof: Textured architectural shingles have the place of the disintegrating composite roofing material.

Siding: "Half the shingles were i shade of ruby and half were another," says John, and so he and Marker replaced them with new ones, painted taupe.

Windows: Generously sized energy-efficient windows share the aforementioned six-over-six design of the originals but are airtight. The old window on the house's left side was enlarged to accommodate two French doors.

Landscaping: To burnish upwards the lackluster lawn, the owners grouped leafy clusters of hydrangea, holly, and rhododendron around the porch and brick walk, which John edged with granite left over from the porch footings. Window boxes hung from the second story and planted with annuals connect the addition with the lush yard beneath.

Shown: An antiqued-brass mailbox adds instant amuse for around $40.

A Friendly Facade: Before

Sharon and Louis Wenzlaff share a lot of history with their Colonial Revival, in Kingston, Michigan. Louis's family congenital the house in 1936, and the couple has been living there for about thirty years. But the home's stark black-and-white color scheme and relatively apartment facade eventually inspired them to design something friendlier.

A Friendly Facade: After

Porch: To make the entry more welcoming, the owners expanded the porch to encompass nearly the whole forepart of the house. Intent on keeping it as maintenance-free as possible, they used composite decking for the floors and PVC wainscot on the ceilings. The railings, which sit on handsome stone-veneer skirting, are as well made of PVC.

Siding: The erstwhile, weathered wood clapboards, which required almanac paint touch-ups, were replaced with easy-to-care-for vinyl in an earthy sandstone color.

Roof: An extended roofline makes the porch feel like a natural improver to the dwelling. New, impact-resistant cobblestone shingles tiptop off the construction.

Windows: For a more eye-catching look, the homeowners had all the existing windows, which are vinyl-clad wood, cased in white PVC trim.

Shown: By offer shade, deciduous copse can reduce cooling costs by up to 35 per centum.

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Source: https://www.thisoldhouse.com/curb-appeal/21018367/curb-appeal-makeovers

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